Companies need to pay less lip service to social responsibility and show stronger practical support, the World Business Council for Social Development has said.
The WBCSD’s new corporate social responsibility report argues that too many businesses give vocal support to the idea of social responsibility, but fail to spend enough time looking at what they can do themselves.
It also says they must get to know and understand their stakeholders’ expectations by establishing a good rapport with their stakeholders before problems arise. ‘Doing this only in a crisis and not before will lead to failure,’ it warns.
The WBCSD argues that companies should spend more heavily on research into the expectations of stakeholders, must respect their cultural and developmental differences and ‘should be sensitive to imposing their values, ideas and beliefs on others’.
The report, which draws on the conclusions of a major WBCSD meeting in the Netherlands last September, also recommends :
corporate social responsibility ‘should emphasise positive action rather than minimal defensive action’
companies should be ‘frank, open and honest’ about the problems they face
lower level employees should be given more power to act on social issues.
The WBCSD says the report summarises ‘the first three years of learning’ of its corporate social responsibility working group, but that it will be updated into a final version next year. ‘This report is not our definitive and final position,’ it says.