and monitoring systems. Only when these organizational arrangements are in place will it be possible to make responsible choices.
individual and collective actions, and this learning (as a process) consists of a complex set of activities. Internal and external stakeholders will evaluate these activities positively, or negatively, depending on the way in which the starting points for the CSR policy are discussed with stakeholders, how this is integrated into actual behaviour, the results of this and whether these results are made transparent to the stakeholders. In this way the evaluation by and the associated reactions of the stakeholders are intertwined with processes taking place in the organization. Based on this line of reasoning we propose a CSR model that consists of four sequential processes (Nijhof and Fisscher, 2001):
● The consultation process: balancing the organizational identity and associ- ated values with the claims and expectations of all stakeholders in order to determine the social responsibilities of the organization.
● The integration process: integrating and anchoring attention to social responsibilities in the primary and secondary processes of the organization.
● The justification process: justifying the choices and actions of the organiza- tion to the stakeholders, based on monitoring and reporting actual cor- porate behaviour in relation to the organization’s social responsibilities.
● The evaluation process: based on the other processes, all stakeholders can evaluate the organization’s behaviour and judge whether it is responsible or irresponsible.
In order to develop competences for CSR, coherence between these processes is essential. For example, if the representatives of an organization have agreed upon certain responsibilities with its stakeholders and integrated these into corporate behaviour but neglected to communicate and justify the outcomes to the relevant stakeholder groups they should expect, despite their good intentions and efforts, a negative judgement from the stakeholders.
Similarly, it would be a mistake to agree upon certain responsibilities but to report upon other, less sensitive ones. The relative coherence of the consul- tation, integration and justification processes will determine whether stake- holders make a positive or negative judgement (Nijhof, 1999). These processes are cyclical in nature and new issues will gradually emerge, some placed on the agenda by new stakeholder groups. The interconnectedness of these processes is illustrated in Figure 10.1.
Clearly the model involves a continuous learning process. It exceeds the preconditions for responsible actions listed in Table 10.1 in respect of the consultation and integration processes, which are designed to facilitate responsible behaviour, and of making the results available for scrutiny and judgement.
The model is normative rather than descriptive. Organizations are not expected to go through the different processes sequentially, but rather to work on the various elements simultaneously. In our empirical work we used
the model to give the case study organizations a framework for reflecting on their CSR-related activities to date.
Identifying collective competences
Given that an organization has to develop collective competences to achieve CSR the question now is, how can that be done? If learning to be responsible is a strategic process, as suggested in above, then what activities are needed in each stage to develop collective competences? The model highlights the interdependence of two crucial elements in the acquisition of CSR compe- tences: the interaction with stakeholders, and translating the resulting agenda into tasks, responsibilities and actions for all members of the organization.
As balancing the shared values that make up the identity of the organization with readiness to respond to the legitimate expectations of stakeholders is at the heart of CSR, the organization has to be capable of engaging in dialogue with its stakeholders and of acting on the outcomes of this dialogue. CSR is a continuous process and learning to be responsible requires the organiza- tion to have some of the process competences listed below to enable them to complete the four processes discussed above.
The consultation process:
● defining which stakeholders are important;
● listening to the expectations and demands of external stakeholders;
● defining the relevant ethical dilemmas and issues;
● defining the business case for CSR in the organization;
● defining the norms and values through bottom-up processes in such a way that they are relevant to organization and its stakeholders;
● creating top-management commitment to CSR.
Evaluation:
• Reactions of stakeholders
• New issues
• More actors
• Increasing complexity Justification
Integration
Consultation
Figure 10.1 The strategic process of learning to be responsible
The integration process:
● putting the CSR strategy into concrete terms for all members of the organization;
● developing the personal skills needed to deal with ethical dilemmas;
● internalizing the basic values and communicating these in a commit- ted way;
● developing a personal position based on the organization’s shared values;
● creating space for experimenting with CSR;
● cementing the ambitions and basic values of the organization into the core processes;
● making the CSR strategy relevant to the value chain;
● monitoring the behaviour of all employees and rewarding or correcting them accordingly;
● resisting the temptation to opt for short-term results when these conflict with the basic values of the organization.
The justification process:
● monitoring the results of responses to economic, social and environmental issues;
● acting effectively in the event of errors;
● providing the information that stakeholders want;
● creating trust through transparency.
The evaluation process:
● gaining knowledge of the responses of stakeholders;
● learning from those responses;
● adjusting policies and actions;
● remaining alert to new issues and risks.
This is a fairly comprehensive list of all possible competences and whether they are all relevant for a specific organization will depend on its view and definition of CSR. In practice, there is no one model of CSR and therefore different competences will be relevant for different organizations. This also fits with our idea of CSR as a learning process. The development of new com- petences can be based on the changes that an organization has already undertaken and the challenges it is currently facing.
The question remains as to what extent competences are CSR-specific.
Some of the process competences are obviously so, for instance the compe- tence to identify ethical dilemmas and issues. Others, such as the competence to create top-management commitment, are important for all organizational change processes. In between are competences that are not strictly CSR-specific
but are essential to CSR. An example is listening to external stakeholders. To some extent all organizations already communicate with external stakeholders such as clients, but CSR requires them to engage with new types of stake- holder (for example NGOs) and to add moral and ethical issues to their exchanges.