Corporate Responsibility (corporate + responsibility)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Collective Responsibility, Corporate Responsibility and Moral Taint

MIDWEST STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2006
DAVID SILVER
First page of article [source]


"The Best Man for the Job": Corporate Responsibility and Racial Integration in the Workplace, 1945,1960

THE HISTORIAN, Issue 5 2003
Stacy Kinlock Sewell
First page of article [source]


RFID and Corporate Responsibility: Hidden Costs in RFID Implementation

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 3 2006
MEHMET BARUT
First page of article [source]


Corporate Responsibility in the Global Village: The British Role Model and the American Laggard

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 3 2003
Susan Ariel Aaronson
First page of article [source]


A language perspective to environmental management and corporate responsibility

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2009
Maria Joutsenvirta
Abstract Few environmental management scholars have applied a research approach that focuses on analysing the language use through which managers and other societal actors come to describe, explain or otherwise account for environmental and social problems. This article discusses some of the important benefits that treating linguistic materials as ,sites of language use' offers for studying corporate responsibilities in various societal challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty. Findings from a longitudinal discourse analysis of the debate between a leading global forest industry company (Stora Enso) and a global environmental organization (Greenpeace) demonstrate the utility of a research approach that focuses on the discussants' language use. The article shows how the application of a language perspective opens up new avenues for understanding how certain ways of talking about corporate responsibilities may hinder or facilitate our efforts to steer corporate actions into a more balanced relationship with nature and society. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Taming the shadow: corporate responsibility in a Jungian context

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2008
Tarja Ketola
Abstract Rampant shadows undermine true corporate responsibility (CR) when companies try to keep up appearances by fair means or foul. This paper studies the thoughts, words and deeds of CR actors in their Jungian context. The aim is to help CR actors to understand different CR behaviour and to gain new insights into developing CR values, discourses and practices. This research builds on earlier psychological articles published in this journal, and digs deeper into the psychological resources of the human mind to show what vast potentials lie there to solve CR issues. Jungian theories open up the individual, organizational and societal personality and give opportunities to expand it horizontally and vertically. The Jungian prospective quality of the psyche is illustrated by three levels of unconscious , personal, cultural and collective, which can help the development of CR values, discourses and actions of individuals, organizations, societies and humankind. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Islam and CSR: a study of the compatibility between the tenets of Islam, the UN Global Compact and the development of social, human and natural capital

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2007
John Zinkin
Abstract Previous research has found that Muslims score elements that are assumed to matter in determining socially responsible business behaviour less highly than people of other religions. This paper looks at whether the tenets of Islam are the reason for this lower score by comparing and contrasting the UN Global Compact's ten principles with those of Islam in the affected areas. In so doing, the paper reconstructs the principles according to their impact on social, human and natural capital and explores whether Islam is supportive of responsible behaviour in these three areas. The paper concludes that, with the possible exception of Islam's focus on personal responsibility and non-recognition of the corporation as a legal person, which could undermine the concept of corporate responsibility, there is no divergence between the tenets of the religion and the principles of the UN Global Compact. Focusing on this convergence of values could help avert the threatened ,clash of civilizations'. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


From CR-psychopaths to responsible corporations: waking up the inner Sleeping Beauty of companies

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2006
Tarja Ketola
Many large companies seem to fulfil the psychiatric criteria for psychopaths in their corporate responsibility (CR) practices. Are they really incurable psychopaths, or is it possible that they could be counselled into accepting their responsibilities? CR studies have so far paid little attention to the variations in the CR emphases between different companies. This article, based on a conference paper (Ketola, 2005b), presents a CR emphasis model, pinpointing eight different approaches to corporate responsibility. Some companies do not voluntarily take any responsibilities. Companies acting like psychopaths need a Prince of Virtues to kiss awake their inner Sleeping Beauty from its 100-year irresponsibility sleep. All companies could take advantage of virtue ethics, which present the values shared by all humans, and hence exemplify the natural law (lex naturae). Counselling top managers and key individuals on their personal and professional values enables all personnel to integrate virtues into the company's CR practices. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


How can you help organizations change to meet the corporate responsibility agenda?

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2004
David Lyon
As corporate responsibility (CR) has developed over the past decade, companies have developed and communicated their formal values relating to environment, employees, stakeholders and governance through public statements. Many of these companies have produced formal reports covering their performance on environmental and social issues. Continued improvement and delivery of commitments depends on buy-in not just from senior management (and the CR manager), but from managers and staff across the organization. This is only possible if there is a culture that is supportive of corporate responsibility. One key aspect of making this change is understanding how the company's culture affects corporate responsibility performance. This paper discusses some areas of organizational culture that affect CR performance including rewards and recognition, learning and managing change, awareness and involvement, questioning culture and flexibility underpinned by mutual respect. It also provides an overview of our approach for assessing and fostering a supportive culture. This is based on working with clients to manage their licence to operate in addition to extensive experience in innovation culture and safety culture. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


What's wrong with business ethics

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 185 2005
David Rodin
The field of business ethics is trapped between two competing and flawed conceptions of corporate responsibility. On the one hand is the shareholder value model, championed by Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, which claims that corporations owe positive moral obligations only to their shareholders. On the other hand is the normative stakeholder theory, which claims that corporations are morally obliged to secure the interests of a broad range of groups, of which shareholders are only one. In this paper I will argue that if it is to generate a viable account of corporate moral responsibility, business ethics will need to abandon both canonical approaches and adopt a new approach based on a more concrete conception of the business corporation. At the end of the paper I sketch what such a theoretical approach would look like. The argument is not only relevant to business ethics; it also has important consequences for Michael Porter's influential approach to competitive strategy. [source]


Profit from the Priceless: Heritage Sites, Property Rights and the Duty to Preserve

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 3 2009
KEVIN GIBSON
ABSTRACT This article suggests that corporate responsibility should be interpreted to include concern about resources that cannot easily be treated as commodities. Heritage Sites are places of historical and cultural importance. Given the primacy of contingent valuation methods in creating policy, these sites are often at risk from development or tourism since there is pressure to treat them as revenue centers. The article moves to looking at the status of sites in terms of property rights, drawing on Locke's original formulation. The article concludes that there is a normative justification for treating these sites as collective property that may warrant maintenance, preservation and restricted access. [source]


Corporate responsibility perceptions in change: Finnish managers' views on stakeholder issues from 1994 to 2004

BUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
Johanna Kujala
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in Finnish managers' corporate responsibility perceptions from 1994 to 2004. Following earlier research, the concept of corporate responsibility is operationalised using the stakeholder approach. Empirically, we ask how managers' views on stakeholder issues have changed during the 10-year research period, and how managers' stakeholder orientation compares with their economic orientation. The data were collected using a survey research instrument in the years 1994, 1999 and 2004. The research results show a positive change in managers' corporate responsibility perceptions during this time period. In addition, managers' stakeholder orientation seems to be in balance with their economic orientation. However, the economic context , in terms of both their own company's economic position and the general economic situation , has an effect on managers' stakeholder orientation. [source]


Shareholders versus stakeholders: corporate mission statements and investor returns

BUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 4 2002
Mohammed Omran
This paper seeks to discover whether companies that adopt a stakeholder approach, and thereby demonstrate a wider remit of corporate responsibility, provide inferior returns to those that embrace the shareholder value approach. To classify approaches, mission statements were analysed, the final sample comprising 32 shareholder oriented companies and 48 stakeholder oriented companies. To assess performance both accounting,based and market,based measures were used. A number of moderating variables were taken into account: systematic (beta) risk, gearing (long,term debt to total long,term finance), tax ratios, and firm size. ANOVA and Kruskall,Wallis tests revealed that mission orientation did not affect performance, whether in terms of stock returns or excess returns. Neither were accounting returns on equity different overall, although shareholder oriented companies experienced wider variations in this measure. A number of multiple regressions were also performed. However, the mission dummy was not found to be a significant variable. [source]


A language perspective to environmental management and corporate responsibility

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2009
Maria Joutsenvirta
Abstract Few environmental management scholars have applied a research approach that focuses on analysing the language use through which managers and other societal actors come to describe, explain or otherwise account for environmental and social problems. This article discusses some of the important benefits that treating linguistic materials as ,sites of language use' offers for studying corporate responsibilities in various societal challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty. Findings from a longitudinal discourse analysis of the debate between a leading global forest industry company (Stora Enso) and a global environmental organization (Greenpeace) demonstrate the utility of a research approach that focuses on the discussants' language use. The article shows how the application of a language perspective opens up new avenues for understanding how certain ways of talking about corporate responsibilities may hinder or facilitate our efforts to steer corporate actions into a more balanced relationship with nature and society. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


The political bottom line: the emerging dimension to corporate responsibility for sustainable development

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 6 2005
Jem Bendell
Abstract This paper explores the idea that businesses are being moved to proactively manage their political activities and influence in relation to their often-expressed responsibility for promoting sustainable development, which we define as managing the ,political bottom line'. We argue that three key drivers account for this shift: first, the growing criticism of voluntary corporate responsibility initiatives; second, the increasing awareness and targeting of corporate political activities, and third, a realization among certain corporate executives and financiers that, without changes to public policies, an individual company's own voluntary responsibility may not deliver sufficient commercial returns. We describe several initiatives on public policy dimensions of sustainable development, which indicate that some companies are beginning to manage their political power in light of societal concerns. In conclusion, we discuss the potential and limits of a ,political bottom line' concept by critiquing the mainstream triple bottom line discourse.Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Alcohol research and the alcoholic beverage industry: issues, concerns and conflicts of interest

ADDICTION, Issue 2009
Thomas F. Babor
ABSTRACT Aims Using terms of justification such as ,corporate social responsibility' and ,partnerships with the public health community', the alcoholic beverage industry (mainly large producers, trade associations and ,social aspects' organizations) funds a variety of scientific activities that involve or overlap with the work of independent scientists. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the ethical, professional and scientific challenges that have emerged from industry involvement in alcohol science. Method Source material came from an extensive review of organizational websites, newspaper articles, journal papers, letters to the editor, editorials, books, book chapters and unpublished documents. Results Industry involvement in alcohol science was identified in seven areas: (i) sponsorship of research funding organizations; (ii) direct financing of university-based scientists and centers; (iii) studies conducted through contract research organizations; (iv) research conducted by trade organizations and social aspects/public relations organizations; (v) efforts to influence public perceptions of research, research findings and alcohol policies; (vi) publication of scientific documents and support of scientific journals; and (vii) sponsorship of scientific conferences and presentations at conferences. Conclusion While industry involvement in research activities is increasing, it constitutes currently a rather small direct investment in scientific research, one that is unlikely to contribute to alcohol science, lead to scientific breakthroughs or reduce the burden of alcohol-related illness. At best, the scientific activities funded by the alcoholic beverage industry provide financial support and small consulting fees for basic and behavioral scientists engaged in alcohol research; at worst, the industry's scientific activities confuse public discussion of health issues and policy options, raise questions about the objectivity of industry-supported alcohol scientists and provide industry with a convenient way to demonstrate ,corporate responsibility' in its attempts to avoid taxation and regulation. [source]