Communication Tools

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a business term in search of an ironclad definition. It means different things to different people inside and outside of corporations. 

 

To some people, corporate social responsibility is the humane duty of companies to improve or regulate labor practices – shutting down sweatshops in developing countries and the industrial centers of Group 8 nations, feeding the hungry, volunteering in schools, building homes for the homeless, fending for migrant farmers, creating goodwill in the community. 

 

To others, Corporate Social Responsibility must be closely linked to sustainable development and business decisions driven by ethical considerations and environmental consequences. The World Business Counsel for Sustainable Development says, “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.”

 

In either case, CSR is the idea that corporations should assume responsibilities that go beyond profits and beyond charity. Now, with the enforcement of tougher business mandates like Sarbanes-Oxley, Corporate Social Responsibility no longer occupies the fringe areas of business life but is, perforce, a subject for discussion in the boardroom.

 

Corporations often set themselves up for failure when they take a “bag of money” approach to CSR, throwing cash at public problems and hoping to enjoy public goodwill as a result. Today’s consumers are not easily convinced that philanthropy equals responsibility. In fact, companies that spend billions advertising drug donations or cures for smoking (as overseas production quadruples) can accomplish the very opposite of what they set out to do.

 

They are perceived as trying to buy their way out of CSR, not fulfill it.

 

They fail in part because they only advertise what they do. There is no strategic communications. With advertising, companies purchase media time to talk about themselves. With strategic communications, among other approaches, respected and disinterested outsiders speak on their behalf. 

 

Too often the missing component in CSR campaigns is the right messenger. In fact, that messenger is often more important than the message itself.