In my email newsletter today I invite readers to come here to comment on the following:
Can social responsibility really be achieved through corporate policy? I firmly believe social responsibility only flourishes from a base of personal responsibility. That means we must scale responsible behavior starting with ourselves, rather than scaling process or policy.
Here’s a tough question to ask yourself: Are you lending your skills to, and taking a paycheck from, a leader, organization, or clients with whom you are not totally aligned in terms of the true net value (i.e., taking into account the costs to people and planet) they are adding to society? Why?
What if we each just stopped working for such employers?
What do you think? Leave a comment.
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Christopher,
I used to think so – that CSR can only be reached through personal commitment. Basicaly I agree – but the means and the road are many. When scouting for my book in English I come across corporations that started the “sticker way”. They are not at all commited at their starting point, the “sticker” on all corp material is just a showoff, however… Some of the are being infiltrated by good thoughts. Even staff who were very low on motivation whwn it comes to CSR are finding belief in the activities…
Johan,
That’s an interesting concept — to espouse something, through capitulation to social pressure or political correctness, that policy makers don’t truly value and then for that value to take hold and grow. A number of other dynamics can also happen: Anyone within the corporation can use an espoused value to advance their agenda, so CSR could take hold as a grass roots thing. Alternatively, if the espoused value is not used by policy makers to steer strategy and resources, then they will appear hypocritical. This is why values-based or principles-based leadership and management is so potent.