By Leon Olsen
Ashridge Centre for Business and Society in association with the British Quality Foundation. 36 pages £40. www.ashridge.com/acbas
Business libraries are awash with books about corporate social responsibility in theory, and case studies exist of individual company initiatives. But neither option offers CSR practitioners hands-on management advice based on analysis of their peers’ pooled experience.
Drawing on the experiences of 10 UK companies in different sectors and using research supplemented by interviews with 26 practitioners, this publication provides, in a convenient form, a broader basis for generalization, teasing out some of the management tools and techniques that work in this field, and some that do not. The sheer diversity of approaches is a lesson in itself. But the study, of Adnams, AWG, Carillion, Go-Ahead Group, Lloyds TSB, mmo2, Ricoh Products, Vauxhall Motors, Woolworths Group and Yell, finds common ground.
The first relates to terminology: avoid ‘corporate social responsibility’ and ‘sustainable development’ like the plague because they confuse staff. Working practices, health and safety, and community initiatives play better than abstract concepts.
Someone, however – or better, a central team – needs oversight of the company’s CSR activity: this needs managing like any other issue, even if not branded internally as such. Communication, training and ‘values-based leadership’ are the most effective tools for engaging middle managers, who are the most sceptical internal audience, the author suggests.
Third, the business case, like CSR itself, is company-specific. For Vauxhall Motors, it relates to how potential customers feel about the brand. For AWG, Carillion and Go-Ahead, the trust of regulators is a key factor.
Fourth, the various frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative and AA1000, while they may provide ‘useful inspiration’, should not be treated as ‘authoritative guidance’. Anything that comes ready-made probably won’t work. Corporate responsibility, says Olsen, is a ‘journey for explorers, not package holidaymakers’.
Alistair Townley