A Balanced Set of Business Objective to Achieve Corporate Social Responsibility

Mea, W.J., Sims, R.R. & Van Biljon, P. (in press 2017). A balanced set of business objectives to achieve corporate social responsibility and structures for educating business leaders. Agata Stachowicz-Stanusch and Wolfgang Amann (Editors). Management Education for Corporate Social Performance.

Posted: 4 Feb 2019

See all articles by William Mea

William Mea

Georgetown University; National Defense University

Date Written: January 01, 2018

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine the challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR), consider a different approach to this issue, propose a framework for balancing CSR efforts, and recommend its inclusion in business management education.

Recent ethical failures at major companies demonstrate that corporate claims of acting in the interest of the customer or society in general can be mere window dressing (Mea & Sims, 2017). Furthermore, the relentless pursuit of short-term profits divorced from a long-term value perspective can undermine the best interests of a business concern as well as society. While CSR programs have become the standard way for businesses to express their concern for communities, in many cases these are little more than a disparate collection of well-intended ideas that add little to the real value of the company, the community it claims to serve, or to investors. And so it is time to question the assumptions underlying conventional CSR and look at how it can be made more effective.

We are overdue for a reexamination of conventional business wisdom, particularly as it relates to profit-focused decision-making. Such profit-maximizing efforts as reengineering and outsourcing have not all been conducive to long-term profitability. They have, however, been socially jarring. We are seeing societies react adversely to the dehumanizing elements of such common business practices. Several national movements have emerged to recapture control over border-agnostic relocations, such as offshoring, that ignore the benefits of the culture and community in which the business began. According to Fukuyama (2011), “the (banking) crisis .. shed light on the fact that corporate America was doing very well for its officers and shareholders (many who were not American citizens), but much less well for those Americans waiting... as jobs were outsourced or automated.”

We will reconsider CSR in three parts. First, it is important to clarify the nature of the problem with CSR as currently practiced. In our view, CSR is too often a separate bolt-on to core corporate activities. This comes across as feeble and inauthentic. Effective CSR must be strategic, beginning with a clear corporate purpose beyond short-term profits. Purpose begins with a board that shares a strategic vision about what the core purpose of the business is: how both to benefit society and profit as a result.

Second, we introduce the term authentic stakeholder engagement. This is a process to explicitly identify the stakeholders with whom one shares corporate objectives, and align these to the outcomes those stakeholders would like to see. This approach takes a different view of people: a human dignity angle which implies a different approach to the ethics of a business.

Third, we argue that this human-dignity centered CSR must be integrated in corporate processes and managerial targets. We recommend a process for tying everything together in a human dignity balanced scorecard, an adaption of the standard Kaplan-Norton balanced score card that captures corporate purpose, the stakeholder engagements, and CSR outcome metrics for the full set of stakeholders.

A basic premise of this chapter is that the framework we propose can help guide future leaders to implement CSR in an effective and more holistic manner. Business schools along with corporate leaders already play a major role in educating current and future leaders on how to embed CSR into their strategy. As argued later in the chapter, it is our contention that those responsible for business teaching or education can use active- or experiential learning to incorporate our views of CSR, the balanced scorecard, and a human economy focused CSR model, for example, into their curricula, case studies, mentoring and leadership development efforts with the goal of developing CSR, character, and good judgment.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, ethics, decision making, profit

Suggested Citation

Mea, William, A Balanced Set of Business Objective to Achieve Corporate Social Responsibility (January 01, 2018). Mea, W.J., Sims, R.R. & Van Biljon, P. (in press 2017). A balanced set of business objectives to achieve corporate social responsibility and structures for educating business leaders. Agata Stachowicz-Stanusch and Wolfgang Amann (Editors). Management Education for Corporate Social Performance. , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3319554

William Mea (Contact Author)

Georgetown University ( email )

Old North, Suite 100
37th & O Streets NW
Washington, DC 20057
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014SKc3AAG/william-mea

National Defense University ( email )

Marshall Hall
300 5th Avenue
Washington, DC 20319-5066
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://es.ndu.edu/AcademicFaculty/

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
229
PlumX Metrics