Good Corporate Citizenship Research Articles

Corporations and Citizenship

Corporations are currently attracting more than the usual amount of attention from the Anglo-American left. At first glance, this might appear simply to be a product of "downsizing," stagnating wages and growing job insecurity coupled with spiraling profits, remuneration of top executives, and share prices. Markets cheer as jobs disappear. But on closer examination it is clear that there is more to it than this, for corporations are being presented by some on the left as potential vehicles for progressive social and economic reform. The principal manifestation of this phenomenon has been the emergence of the "stakeholding" conception of the company, an idea which originated in the United States but which has since risen to prominence in Britain. More recently, it has also taken the form of growing support for the notion of "good corporate citizenship." The arguments are simple. Companies, it is said, need not and should not be operated solely in the interests of their shareholders.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Leaders who make a difference

This article addresses the question of contributing factors that make for vanguard companies. Effective leadership is considered a determining factor in creating high performance organizations. In making this happen, leaders take on two roles: a charismatic and an architectural one. Envisioning, empowering and energizing are characteristics of the charismatic role. In the architectural role the leader plays the role of organizational designer putting into place appropriate structures and systems. To illustrate the various factors that make for vanguard companies, three CEOs are presented who have received considerable notoriety because of the successful way they have been running their respective organizations. Richard Branson's Virgin gives the opportunity to look at a fast growing entrepreneurial company. Jack Welch of General Electric has been hailed by the press as being one of the few leaders who has been able to transform a corporation suffering from organizational arteriosclerosis. Finally, Percy Barnevik of ABB has taken up the challenge to create a truly global organization integrating numerous companies and national cultures. In spite of having very different histories, these three companies, however, have many characteristics in common. The way these companies are run can be viewed as a paradigm of what companies are going to look like in the twenty-first century. In this article, a number of the characteristics of the high performance organization are listed. For example, the design of high performing organizations tends to be of a more horizontal, not hierarchical nature. As creativity and innovation necessitates transitional space, these kinds of companies don't have command/control structures. The focus is on self-managed teams. The leitmotif in these companies is that ‘small is beautiful’ as such a design helps develop a sense of ownership and creates accountability. These organizations are also customer centered, maximizing supplier and customer contact with everybody in the organization. They recognize the importance of speed. Furthermore, these companies have a learning culture, are very adaptive to change, and value good corporate citizenship behavior.

Whistleblowing: An Issue of Social Policy

The topic of whistleblowing is achieving prominence as a question of social policy. Some influential voices are suggesting that far from whistleblowing — informing on organisations —, being socially undesirable, it may in certain circumstances be an activity deserving high praise. Inevitably it entails huge risks to the activist, and these risks need to be personally and carefully considered. John Banham, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, wrote in support of the Social Audit report on the subject (Winfield 1990), and a committee established by the Speaker of the House of Commons has suggested the possibility of honouring whistleblowers in the British Honours system for their good corporate citizenship. There have also been landmark reports in America, Australia and Canada (Leahy 1978, Electoral and Administrative Review Commission 1990, Ontario Law Reform Commission 1986).

Framework for analysis of conflicting loyalties

Just as the social trends of the past quarter of a century have created an increasing need for strategic communication between organizations and their publics, so too have these trends resulted in increasing focus on ethics in practice. Emphasis on social responsibility of organizations has resulted in communications programs designed to adjust to the demands of the marketplace often placing the public relations practitioner at the interface between the organization and its responsibility as a good corporate citizen. All of these factors have conspired to generate conflicts between the loyalties now faced by practitioners. Ethical decision-making involves not only values clarification and application of appropriate principles, but the choosing of priorities between conflicting duties to specific parties. This article identifies and discusses four loyalties of the modern public relations practitioner—self, organization, profession and society— in the context of the increasing emphasis on the “common good” in North American society. Further, it presents a framework which may be used in discussions of ethical decision-making among public relations students and applied in practical situations by the practicing public relations professional. Patricia Houlihan Parsons is assistant professor in the Department of Public Relations at Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Whistleblowing auditors—The ultimate betrayal?

The topic of whistleblowing is achieving prominence. Some influential voices are suggesting that far from whistleblowing—informing on organizations, it may in certain circumstances be an activity deserving high praise. Inevitably it entails huge risks to the activist, and these risks need to be personally and carefully considered. John Banham, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, wrote in support of the Social Audit report on the subject (Winfield, 1990), and a government-established committee has suggested the possibility of honouring whistleblowers in the British Honours system for their good corporate citizenship.

A note on corporate social disclosure in Hong Kong

Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD) goes beyond the numbers. CSD assumes that the corporation is not merely a maximizer of shareholder wealth but an active member of society. A ‘good corporate citizen’ embodies social goals in its strategic plan and makes public disclosure about progress in fulfilling these goals. European and American companies provide CSD regularly in their annual reports. Though most CSD studies focus on industrialised countries, Malaysia and Singapore have been examined recently (Andrew et al., 1989) and Malaysia separately (Teoh & Thong, 1989). In those jurisdictions, CSD disclosures were made by 26% of companies (mostly larger and foreign ones) in 1983. In Hong Kong, the disclosure rate is much lower. The purpose of this study is to expand our knowledge about CSD reporting and about Hong Kong's response to emerging international issues. The study is based on all (264) of the available 1989 annual reports of Hong Kong's public companies. Results show that Hong Kong has the lowest reported (only about 6%) rate of CSD of any jurisdiction. The lack of a consumer force, absence of independent political control and indigenous cultural attitudes may explain why CSD reporting is so scarce.

Employee perceptions of corporate partnership: An affective-moral quid pro quo

An affective-moral quid pro quo model provided the framework to test the relationship between worker satisfaction, perceptions of employees' citizenship behavior, and corporate commitment to moral-ethical ideals. A total of 198 full-time employees from a wide variety of work settings anonymously completed questionnaires. More than half of the respondents held management or supervisory positions; the number of males and females was nearly equal. Participants who indicated high satisfaction with work, promotions, and co-workers, and who viewed employees in their work setting as altruistic, perceived their organization as committed to employee welfare, employee rights, product quality, and as good corporate citizens.

Social Entrepreneurs and Catalytic Change

In the past few years, U.S. society has witnessed the proliferation of an increasing number of initiatives that have extensively used the media to capture public attention about an issue of social concern in the hope that social action and changes in public policy would ensue. Examples include Hands Across America's efforts to raise money for and awareness about the problem of hunger and homelessness in the United States, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America's ad campaign to change public attitudes toward drug abuse, Earth Day 1990's re-emphasis on environmentalism, and The Business Enterprise Trust's attempts to improve corporate social performance by seeking out and publicizing good corporate citizenship. Each of these initiatives was headed by an individual that we call a catalytic social entrepreneur. A brief description will highlight the roles that catalytic social entrepreneurs played in the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and Hands Across America.

Taking "Free Action" Too Seriously

Previous articleNext article No AccessTaking "Free Action" Too SeriouslyW. J. NormanW. J. Norman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Ethics Volume 101, Number 3Apr., 1991 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/293314 Views: 5Total views on this site Citations: 4Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Miriam Bentwich On political participation, rights and redistribution: a Lockean perspective, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 12, no.44 (Dec 2009): 491–511.https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230903471418Pierre-Yves Néron, Wayne Norman Citizenship, Inc. Do We Really Want Businesses to Be Good Corporate Citizens?, Business Ethics Quarterly 18, no.11 (Jan 2015): 1–26.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1052150X00008101Kristján Kristjánsson Is There Something Wrong with `Free Action'?, Journal of Theoretical Politics 10, no.33 (Jul 1998): 259–273.https://doi.org/10.1177/0951692898010003001Wayne Norman Can You Teach the Old Dog New Tricks?, Journal of Theoretical Politics 10, no.33 (Jul 1998): 285–290.https://doi.org/10.1177/0951692898010003003

From Old Boys to Men and Women of the Corporation: The Americanization and Commodification of Australian Sport

Although there are obvious American influences on Australian popular culture, the term “Americanization” is of limited help in explaining the elaborate form and content of Australian sport. The recent transformation from amateur to corporate sport in Australia has been determined by a complex array of internal and international social forces, including Australia’s polyethnic population, its semiperipheral status in the capitalist world system, its federal polity, and its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Americanization is only one manifestation of the integration of amateur and professional sport into the media industries, advertising agencies, and multinational corporations of the world market. Investment in sport by American, British, New Zealand, Japanese, and Australian multinational companies is part of their strategy of promoting “good corporate citizenship,” which also is evident in art, cinema, dance, music, education, and the recent bicentennial festivities. It is suggested that the political economy of Australian sport can best be analyzed by concepts such as “post-Fordism,” the globalization of consumerism, and the cultural logic of late capitalism, all of which transcend the confines of the United States.

Postimperialism revisited: The Venezuelan wheat import controversy of 1986

Postimperialism is a class-analytical conception of international capitalism with implications for the behavior of transnational corporations (TNCs) in newly industrializing countries. It holds, inter alia, that TNCs will tend to act in accordance with an ideological “doctrine of domicile”: corporate managers are disposed to have each TNC subsidiary behave like a “good corporate citizen” of the host country where it is domiciled. This prediction runs directly counter to “imperialism” and “dependency” views of TNCs but has heretofore been examined only in the resource industries. In contrast, the present study involves the manufacture in a less developed country of food products from a raw material produced in the developed world. The study results in a strong confirmation of the “doctrine of domicile” idea and a refutation of the “imperialist” perspective. In addition, the observations of political bargaining modalities and outcomes reveal the nature and limits of TNC political influence over host-government decision making.

The Concept of the Good Corporate Citizen in International Business

The Concept of the Good Corporate Citizen in International Business Get access Samuel K.B. Asante Samuel K.B. Asante Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar ICSID Review - Foreign Investment Law Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring 1989, Pages 1–38, https://doi.org/10.1093/icsidreview/4.1.1 Published: 01 March 1989

Heavy Oil Community Relations the Husky Experience

Abstract The key to Husky's generally successful community relations has been adapting to a changing social environment and relating to the community of Lloydminster and the surrounding area on a straightforward and personal basis. Prior to 1978, the principal owners And senior management of Husky directed the company's affairs and were the focal point of Husky's community relations activities. Their involvement was very personal and responsive to the aspirations of the community. In recent years and at present, the challenge has been and is to deal with an accelerated growth situation involving a doubling of refinery capacity, a proposed pipeline from Lloydminster to Cold Lake, intensified and more concentrated activity associated with exploration, production and enhanced oil recovery, and the possibility of the construction of an upgrader facility. The impact of these developments is broader and will involve more people and the timing is such that both social and environmental questions call for more attention and committment. The key to successful community relations will remain a personal approach in which senior Husky personnel communicate directly with the community on a timely basis. Husky has responsibilities not only to the people of the Lloydminster area, but also to the shareholders of the company. We fulfill our responsibilities by operating as a good corporate citizen with concern for the efficiency of our operations and for the people who live with us in and around Lloydminster. Introduction Husky's community relations is a changing process which is in part strongly influenced by our changing times and the activities we wish to pursue. In this respect, our community relations activities are no doubt similar to those followed by numerous other companies not only in the oil and gas industry, but in the mining industry and other industries as well. I would like to begin by discussing responsibility. Who is Husky responsible to? Husky is responsible to its shareholders, the vast majority of which are Canadians. This responsibility to the shareholders should come as no surprise, as the shareholders are the equity owners of the company. In a broader corporate sense, however, Husky is responsible to all the people of Canada. Husky can make this statement with some conviction because, as Bob Blair, chairman of the board of Husky Oil Ltd., pointed out in a recent address to the Financial Post Conference in Toronto, the NOVA/ Husky joint corporation, when ranked by assets, is the 14th largest corporation in Canada and the 6th largest Canadian-investor- owned corporation. From a Western viewpoint, the NOVA/Husky combination, on the basis of assets, is the largest corporation headquartered and directed west of Toronto. The large project management and investment responsibilities to be undertaken by NOVA and Husky in the years ahead will affect many communities. These communities do not request that these projects be undertaken in a responsible manner, they demand it, as well they should. A short analogy will illustrate this point. Husky carries out most of its heavy oil activities in the L1oydminster area that spans the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

What Is a Good Corporate Citizen?*

Au caeur du débat sur les corporations multinationales se trouve la question de déterminer si ces corporations agissent en « bons citoyens » Cependant, les critères à utiliser dans une telle analyse n'ont pas retenu l'attention des politicologues, économistes, sociologues et théoriciens en organisation. Certains des critères rencontrés dans les débats actuels et la situation de divers types de corporations par rapport à ces critères font l'objet de cette étude. Les donnés révèlent que, pour certain critères, la nationalité des propiétaires est importante mais que, pour d'autres critères, on observe davantage de variation entre types de corporation qu'entre propriétaires de différentes nationalités. Un nombre de questions sont soulevés au sujet de l'identification du critère le plus important et au sujet de la configuration de critères necessaires pour definir le « bon citoyen corporatif » Il s'agit d'une étude d'exploration visant à soulever des questions concernant un problème relativement peu travaillé en théorie de l'organisation.The question of what is “good corporate citizenship” is presently a central issue in the national debate regarding multinational corporations. However, the criteria used to answer this question have not been dealt with in detail by political scientists, economists, sociologists, or organizational theorists. Some of the criteria which have been raised in the current debate and the extent to which various types of corporations perform in terms of each criterion are examined. The data show that for some criteria the nationality of the corporate owners is important, but for other criteria variations occur between types of corporations rather than between the nationality of the owners. A number of questions are raised regarding which criterion is the most important and which combinations of criteria are necessary in order to determine “good corporate citizenship” in Canada. The paper is exploratory and intended to raise questions for discussion on this relatively unexplored problem in organizational theory.

PARTNERSHIP WITH SOCIETY: The Social Responsibility of Business

The idea that a responsible company should be a good corporate citizen is not altogether a new one: but a number of factors, including the impact of technology, have led to new concepts in the way business conducts its affairs.

Business Records Management

SINCE records keeping is only one of the functions of records management but is the essence of archival work, it follows that archival work is subordinate to records management and, therefore, that an archivist is subordinate to a records manager. I venture to say that all the records managers present would like that arrangement—but very few of the archivists. The trouble with this cozy arrangement is that records keeping does not really have the same meaning for both archivists and records managers. Records keeping in the archival sense means retention of records permanently because of their historical or research value, whereas records keeping in the records management sense means keeping active records readily available for day-to-day use in the business. From these definitions it is evident that the major work of the archivist begins much further along in the life cycle of a record than does the work of a records manager. In fact, the archivist picks up where the records manager leaves off. I think that in order to place the records manager and the archivist in proper perspective insofar as private business is concerned it would be well to recall some fundamental facts about private business. First and foremost, in order to continue to exist a private business (as opposed to government or government-subsidized business) must operate at a profit. For comparatively short periods of time, of course, profit may be lacking, but over the long haul there must be a profit. Whenever a private company considers spending some dollars the expenditure is carefully evaluated in terms of its effect on the well-being of the company, that is, its profitmaking ability. Thus money for facilities, salaries, materials, and the like is spent with the expectation that ultimately these will contribute to that moneymaking ability. This rule applies even to charitable contributions, because being a good corporate citizen of a community enhances the public image of a company and contributes to its success. The point, of course, is that private enterprise does not ordi-

(A)woke Workplaces

With heightened expectations for a reckoning in response to the broad support for the Black Lives Matter movement after the senseless murder of George Floyd in 2020, employers explored many options to improve racial understanding through discussions with workers. In rejecting any notions of the existence of structural or systemic discrimination, let alone the need to address the consequences of such discrimination, certain groups have begun to oppose BLM by seeking to diminish any social justice actions. One of those key resistance efforts includes labelling in pejorative terms any employers that pursue anti-racism objectives via social justice statements or internal initiatives as being “woke” workplaces. These groups have also criticized employers who adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion training to help workers address racial differences by arguing these sessions apply divisive Critical Race Theory principles that discriminate against and seek to stigmatize white participants. By using CRT and woke labels as weapons, critics leave employers in the unenviable position of determining how to implement antiracism trainings in an environment of BLM reforms and race discrimination concerns. These all-encompassing anti-anti-racism narratives now force employers to show how their DEI trainings and related initiatives do not discriminate against white employees. This Article offers unique insight for employers who pursue DEI measures to achieve racial progress and asserts they may circumvent antianti-racism narratives by continuing to rely on the litigation reforms and stillpresent empirical results that led to the growth of DEI training practices in the 1990s. Many employers had adopted DEI initiatives as good corporate citizens valuing diversity in human resources as a growth of affirmative action in the 1970s. With legal concerns in the 1990s about huge jury verdicts in discrimination lawsuits and empirical indicators of systemic discrimination, employers embraced more comprehensive racial improvement and training steps via written consent decrees and judicially approved settlements. This Article concludes that awoke employers should adopt broader DEI goals and limit training on entry-level racial awareness given empirical data suggesting this particular approach tends to spark backlash without any resulting diversity improvements. Instead, awoke employers understand that most constituents want them to act and lead responsibly regarding comprehensive DEI measures by going beyond legal protections. Training can focus on managers who may subject a company to employment discrimination liability. Awoke training integrates key follow-ups and correlates to measurable DEI results. Focusing on DEI training alone ignores the more important structural change work.