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Manfred Pohl, Judith Hennigfeld, Nick Tolhurst (eds). Wiley. 456 pages. Hardback. £45
The immediate appeal of this book is that it includes some high profile contributors. Most people working in corporate social responsibility will be curious about the opinions of individuals like Stephen Young, global executive director of the Caux Round Table, Margaret Hodge, CSR minister for the UK government, and Dirk Matten, professor of business ethics at London University.
A further attraction is its claim to be ‘an application-oriented handbook and a practical guide to implementing CSR’. However, the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs has produced neither a management-oriented manual nor a systematic guide to operationalizing CSR, but instead an eclectic collection of stories of what a few companies have done and what a few opinion leaders think about how the agenda is shaping up.
Its 23 chapters include contributions from CSR leaders like The Body Shop and BT, and other companies, among them Credit Suisse, Henkel, National Bank of Greece, Toyota and Volkswagen, have equally interesting stories to tell. Other chapters focus on business ethics, empowering women, human rights, microfinance and sustainability reporting.
There are interesting perspectives offered, such as that of Fujio Mutarai, chief executive of Canon, on how his company adopts the kyosei philosophy of ‘living and working together for the common good’, which have the potential to broaden the debate. There are also serious challenges to the whole notion of CSR – notably from Sir Geoffrey Chandler, founder-chair of Amnesty International’s UK Business Group.
This volume, then, caters for a wide variety of interests and perspectives – with the notable and disappointing absence of developing country contributors – and makes for stimulating reading.
Wayne Visser
The immediate appeal of this book is that it includes some high profile contributors. Most people working in corporate social responsibility will be curious about the opinions of individuals like Stephen Young, global executive director of the Caux Round Table, Margaret Hodge, CSR minister for the UK government, and Dirk Matten, professor of business ethics at London University.
A further attraction is its claim to be ‘an application-oriented handbook and a practical guide to implementing CSR’. However, the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs has produced neither a management-oriented manual nor a systematic guide to operationalizing CSR, but instead an eclectic collection of stories of what a few companies have done and what a few opinion leaders think about how the agenda is shaping up.
Its 23 chapters include contributions from CSR leaders like The Body Shop and BT, and other companies, among them Credit Suisse, Henkel, National Bank of Greece, Toyota and Volkswagen, have equally interesting stories to tell. Other chapters focus on business ethics, empowering women, human rights, microfinance and sustainability reporting.
There are interesting perspectives offered, such as that of Fujio Mutarai, chief executive of Canon, on how his company adopts the kyosei philosophy of ‘living and working together for the common good’, which have the potential to broaden the debate. There are also serious challenges to the whole notion of CSR – notably from Sir Geoffrey Chandler, founder-chair of Amnesty International’s UK Business Group.
This volume, then, caters for a wide variety of interests and perspectives – with the notable and disappointing absence of developing country contributors – and makes for stimulating reading.
Wayne Visser
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