Drucker (1993, p. 68) argues that ‘we have moved … into an employee society where labour is no longer an asset. We equally have moved into a capitalism without capitalists which defies everything still considered self evident truth, if not the laws of nature, by politicians, lawyers, economists, journalists, labour leaders, business leaders, in short, by almost everybody, regardless of political persuasion’ (see also Drucker, 1999). The inevitable conclusion is that we are in a process of fundamental change and can no longer seek comfort in the ideologies, terminologies and power distributions of modernism. Drucker, and many others, have been saying for years that
‘The economic challenge of the post capitalist society will be the productiv- ity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker’ (Drucker, 1993, p. 8).
However ‘The social challenge of the post capitalist society will however be the dignity of the second class in post capitalist society; the service workers’
(ibid.). According to Drucker society, or at least Western developed society, can no longer be considered in unitary terms – it is pluralistic, not only in its make-up but also in its expectations. There is a need to redefine society in terms of social ecologies, where ‘every organisation of today has to build into its very structure, the management of change’ (ibid., p. 59).
The new challenge of contemporary society is to redefine productivity, because ‘the productivity of knowledge workers will in fact require drastic changes in the structure of the organisation of post capitalist society and in the structure of society itself’ (ibid., p. 83). These changes lie at the heart of corporate social responsibility discussions. One of the terms that is repeated time and again in this context is partnership. For example ‘Partnership with the responsible worker is the only way to improve productivity. Nothing else works at all’ (ibid., p. 92). This change in the distribution of power is at the core of effective corporate citizenship. The paradigm shift is from ‘a power- based to a responsibility-based organisation’ and involves ‘a change from asking what we are entitled to, to what are we responsible for?’ (ibid., pp. 102, 109; see also Holme and Watts, 2000).
As Tichy et al. (1997, pp. 4–6) make clear, ‘As we move into the twenty-first century global businesses will find themselves increasingly intertwined with global, political, social and environmental issues that will force them to redefine their role as a potent force for world integration. This force coupled with the pressure being exerted by a burgeoning world population is determining the need for global citizenship.’ They argue that there are five cornerstones to corporate global citizenship: ‘understanding, values, com- mitment, actions and cooperation’. Understanding involves human capital, social issues, cultural differences, environmental issues and ecological issues.
Values are needed to ‘optimise the potential of human capital and to preserve the world’s environment’. Commitment involves ‘believing in and caring about these values and long term investment’. Actions, if ‘institution- alised within the company will reward employees’, and cooperation is needed ‘with people, with government, with the community’ (ibid.; see also Nelson and Zadek, 2000; Waddock and Smith, 2000).
Similarly Handy (1997b, p. 8) recognizes that in a postcapitalist, knowledge- based economy the major asset is people, and ‘individuals aren’t own-able any- more’. He suggests that we introduce a philosophy of ‘selfishness’ into the discussions; that is, ‘the search for ourselves that paradoxically we often pursue best through our involvement with others’ (ibid., p. 9). According to him, ‘To be properly selfish is to accept a responsibility for making the most of oneself by ultimately finding a purpose beyond and bigger than oneself’ (ibid.). Handy, like many other commentators, recognizes the incompatibility between democracy and capitalism, arguing that we will either have to restrain the free market or limit democracy (ibid., p. 41). As Ulrich and Sarasin (1995, p. 2) remark, ‘There is no such thing as “free enterprises” without responsibility and accountability to the community.’ It is clear, then, that we will have to aban- don our narrow emphasis on economic growth if we are to be sustainable in the future. Handy (1997b, p. 48) suggests that we ‘create more activity outside the purely economic sphere where the motivation will be unconnected with efficiency and more to do with intrinsic satisfaction and worth’, an argument that is at the core of the corporate social responsibility discussions.
This stands in strong opposition to the very common view ‘that life is essentially about economics, that money is the measure of most things and that the market is its sorting mechanism’ (ibid., p. 73). However most of us are rejecting this view, and although we may be trapped in the rhetoric of modernist economics ‘there is a hunger for something else which might be more enduring and more worthwhile’ (ibid.). That hunger has been evident for many years, but as Zadek (2001a, p. 221) says ‘corporate citizenship will only be effective if and when it evolves to a point where business becomes active in promoting and institutionalising new global governance frame- works that effectively secure civil market behaviour’. Being hungry for the ideas, as the extensive literature of the last 60 years has demonstrated, does not always mean the effective take-up of related issues into core business.
This take-up, then, is the greatest challenge facing business today, and it cannot happen in a serious and sustainable way without a profound change in our thoughts on and processing of the fundamental economics that underlie our understanding and practice of capitalism.
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3
Corporate Citizenship, Social
Responsibility and Sustainability:
Corporate Colonialism for the New Millennium?
Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country … corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to pro- long its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
(Abraham Lincoln, 21 November 1864)
Introduction
This chapter describes and critiques emerging discourses of corporate citi- zenship, social responsibility and sustainability, discusses some of the key assumptions that frame these discourses. It is argued that despite their eman- cipatory rhetoric the discourses are defined by narrow business interests and serve to curtail the interests of external stakeholders.
The chapter consists of three sections. The first briefly discusses key con- cepts in corporate citizenship and sustainability, as well as corporate ‘triple bottom line’ strategies to integrate economic, social and environmental con- cerns. The fundamental assumptions underlying these concepts are analyzed at the institutional, organizational and managerial levels. The second section provides a critique of stakeholder theory and practice. Understanding and integrating stakeholders’ needs are key issues in corporate citizenship and some of the theoretical shortcomings in this area of research will be explored.
The final section discusses the implications for critical management studies and suggests directions for future research.
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