Good Business - the rise of CSR

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY - DONT WE ALL JUST LOVE THAT CONCEPT!!!

Adam Garfunkel gave an exceptional presentation on CSR entitled ‘a practitioners perspective’ you could tell that the man has been in this business for quite a while – talk about someone who know’s his job inside out. It’s quite refreshing when one comes across people like Adam – who actually demonstrate enthusiasm about what they do as Public Relations practitioners.

I guess like public relations – the discipline has several definitions attached to it. You could argue that it is defined by its relevance to an organization. These are some of the issues that academics could explore – should CSR have a precise definition?

Just extracting from his presentation – its amazing how often most company’s take the concept of CSR for granted. CSR is not just about giving 1% of the total profits to a community – it is about reflecting an initiative that goes far beyond financial compensation. CSR is about financial, social and environmental commitment – what will usually be referred to as a triple bottom line. This triple bottom line is very important in CSR because it embodies and taps upon all the critical aspects of human and environmental needs.

Going back to Adam – he made quite an impactable statement that CSR is a voluntary action of business. Now one is left to wonder what actually prompted this voluntarism – could it be the government regulations that is forcing company’s to adhere to environmental and social needs. Could it be pressure from NGO’s and “Green Organisations” such as Friends of the Earth who constantly campaign for company’s to be more green and environmentally friendly or could it be the forever probing journalist?.
One can not shy away that these could be some of the reasons why companies have gone green. There is pressure from all sides – so how does a PR practitioner fit-in in all of this. In an effort to meet these challenges, with the help of public relations practitioners, companies seem to have adopted the idea that they must be – and must be seen to be doing good in society through corporate social responsibility.

Corporate social responsibility is defined by Kotler and Lee (2005, p3), as a commitment to improve community well being through discretionary business practice, contributions of corporate resources and commitment to contribute to sustainable economic development.
The authors highlight discretionary as the key word because they state that ‘this business activity is not mandated by law or that are moral or ethical in nature and perhaps therefore expected. Rather, they are referring to a voluntary commitment a business makes in choosing and implementing these practices and making these contributions.

The concept of CSR seem to sparke a lot of debate and pressure groups seem to be cynical about CSR. Friends of the Earth Director Tony Juniper said that companies which have something to hide use Corporate Social Responsibility to deflect attention and discourage regulation. He continues to say that ‘such CSR should clearly be treated with a pinch of salt. Companies like BAT will not act in the best interests of society or the environment unless legislation forces them to do so.’ http://www.foe.co.uk.

Adam also informed us that he also writes CSR reports his clients. However, highly critical to the CSR report stance is Andrew Griffin: Managing Director of Regester Larkin and author of New Strategies for Reputation Management. He argues that manifestation of the CSR report by companies is ubiquitous, and pointless. He states: ‘these reports are produced in their thousands but read by almost nobody except sceptical NGOs, the occasional critical journalist and the growing CSR industry itself. They are not read by the company's real stakeholder: the customer. CSR reports reinforce the role that companies seem to have accepted for themselves: the bad guys, obliged to prove to the responsibility police that they are addressing their own inadequate behaviour.’ http://www.prweek.com/uk/home/article/777750/.

But it could be argued that organizations have to demonstrate that they are doing something about environmental, social and economic issues. A publication / report might be the best tool to communicate with various constituencies through these publications.
The area of CSR is another discipline that PR practitioners could tap into and explore it in a broader context.
As Adam had mention a number of company’s have engaged the concept of CSR but it is how they go about in implementing it that is actually mostly crucial. This is where we as PR practitioners come in – as expects and giving just the right knowledge and advice.