VOLUME VISSUE 2 and 3JULY - december 2013My Opinion
Corporations as Social Organisations
Alka Talwar
Head - CSR/Sustainability,
Tata Chemicals Ltd
The current Companies bill 2013 has suddenly put CSR on the top of management agenda. Every person and every organization is discussing what it means to an organization and what are the changes, if any, that needs to be brought about. In order to understand what it entails it is important to reflect on what does Corporate social responsibility or CSR mean. CSR is a broad and evolving construct that is essentially about the relationship of an organization with society. It is complex in its character and has evolved over time. Starting with a concerned organization that was essentially paternal in nature to its current state where it is essentially the way an organization does business.
What are the characteristics of CSR and what does this include? While we can continue to create a laundry list of all the elements the comprise CSR, I would say that it essentially has three main components: The first one being about leadership: That is, the need to do good, and the right thing along with having a long term vision that reflects not only the growth of an organization but also how it will impact the world in future.
The second aspect of CSR is the concept of inclusiveness. This includes an approach that considers the growth and development of all sections of society that are either impacted or influenced with the growth and advancement of the organization. Being inclusive and having a long term vision in a sense need to complement each other.
The third point concerns the extension of sphere of control to sphere of influence. It means looking beyond what one can physically do to what one can potentially influence and change for the benefit of society.
So what has changed over time? While the basic three parameters still hold good as these are the things that drive social responsibility, and have been used over time by responsible organizations, there is now an even higher belief that organizations can and should pursue more active strategies to achieve sustainable solutions to social and environmental concerns. This is because, across the world, the resources that business organizations have and the kind of power that they are able to wield have the potential to make a major contribution to development. This fast growing expectation from people and society is clearly stating that not only should you account for your own impact on society and environment in the way you do business, but also actively contribute to make both of these better than before.
With the society increasingly becoming a CNN type of society that puts organizations right inside the media glare, issues are becoming more global in nature as compared to only small local concerns and increasing randomness of risks and threats to an organization, all of these three are putting Corporate Responsibility right in the middle as a central theme to business growth.
Typical actions on corporate responsibility by various organization include: responsible/ethical sourcing, environment friendly/ sensitive manufacturing facilities, product design and production, reduction in energy use, emission control and active participation in social projects. It is assumed that the organization structure, the managers and employees are aware of and can implement the policies and procedures. This assumption would however be a leap of faith as a large chunk of employees are unaware of sustainability and corporate responsibility issues beyond their immediate work.
How do you enable employees to learn about sustainability and corporate responsibility? Learning about sustainability is an organization wide necessity not restricted to discussions by leaders and senior managers but is permeated across each and every level. It is about collaborative approaches that are cross functional spreading across the full range of business functions. It includes opportunities for employees to gain experience of sustainability initiatives and finally, integrating all the different parts into the learning strategy of the organization.
Summing up, the changing paradigm on corporate responsibility puts the onus on organizations to be more transparent on the business processes and decisions, to have highly sensitized employees and to ensure that responsibility is a central theme that is embedded across the organizations and is the way of doing business.