Taking Corporate Social Responsibility

Most business leaders would say that their main purpose is to meet customers’ needs by supplying particular goods or services.  But in doing that successfully, they have to be competitive (so people trade with them not with their rivals), satisfy their shareholders (by making the business profitable), and reward their staff appropriately (so that they attract the best people).

Sometimes, it’s exactly those practices that keep companies competitive, profitable and ahead of the game that give businesses a bad name – especially the great big corporations with operations and staff all over the world.  Raw materials come from one part of the world, but the added-value processing or manufacturing takes place somewhere else.  Companies can pick places with lighter regulatory regimes, or cheaper labour, or lower taxes, to make life easier for themselves.  Meanwhile, big bonuses, jet-setting lifestyles, and salaries at the top out of all proportion to the earnings of workers at the coal face/shop floor/grass roots, further distance companies from the ordinary folk who live around their factories or refineries or superstores, who pass the gleaming doors of their corporate HQs, or even from those who buy their products.

So for some time, there has been in the business world the concept of ‘corporate social responsibility’.

CSR – as it’s known – can take many forms.  It may reflect a concern about the environment, so that the company does its best to minimise energy use, waste or toxic materials.  It may involve offering a helping hand to people less fortunate than their highly-qualified, well-remunerated, job-satisfied workforce – perhaps by prioritising work experience or apprenticeships for people in areas of high unemployment.  It may consist of nominating a ‘charity of the year’, or having a fund to support community projects.  It may mean giving staff time off to take part in voluntary activities, whether that means a gang of them painting the village hall, or individuals serving as charity trustees or school governors.  Sometimes, companies talk about the ‘triple bottom line’:  an assessment of not just their financial success, but also of their environmental impact, and their contribution to the wellbeing of the community.  On the Business Link website, you’ll even find an encouraging section showing how your business can benefit from ‘corporate social responsibility’.

And this year, amidst honours for Young Achievers, Business Leaders, Science and Technology innovators and promoters of Welsh at Work, the Inspire Wales Awards included a category for Corporate Social Responsibility, sponsored by the Church in Wales.
As a body devoted to promoting ‘fullness of life’ (as Jesus called it) for every member of the human family, we were looking for initiatives that showed how being a good corporate citizen is embedded in the organisation like the words running through that well-worn metaphorical stick of rock.  We weren’t just looking for a collecting-tin on the counter, or even for pre-tax donations to favourite charities.  We wanted something beyond staff getting together outside work to do a sponsored abseil.  We were looking for the combination of corporate support and personal commitment that builds relationships between the company and the world outside.
In essence, corporate social responsibility is a recognition that businesses do not exist in isolation.  However hard they have to work to produce their goods, or to make their profits, or to stay afloat, businesses – like everybody else – are part of the wider world, and they have a network of relationships that goes beyond their investors, their staff or even their customers.
CSR isn’t just charity work.  It’s about playing your full and responsible part in society.

Revd Carol Wardman, Bishops’ Adviser for Church and Society, Church in Wales