Recently, at a party telling a bunch of hippy 20 some-year-olds that I do a master in corporate communication I was met with disapproving looks and responses close to, “oh you are one of those corporate people.”
Before I started my master in Corporate Communication, I was curious about the direction of my education and if it would take the shape of “profit as the essence of success”, but instead, to my surprise, my school emphasizes on teaching us about stakeholders, ethics, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. It has in fact stirred a great interest in me to work in the sector of corporate social responsibility.
In my previous job, I noticed how much I indeed cared about what the company I worked for did for its community, environment etc. Corporate social responsibility is the company’s ability to regulate itself according to the environment, employees, community and stakeholders to ensure it meets ethical standards. I want to go to a store and pick up a product and know it is environmentally friendly (not just pretends to be, -which unfortunately too many does), or that the product supports cultural industries in its community and that is truly socially responsible. Every time you purchase something you are indirectly supporting a cause. I want to know the brand I buy doesn’t indulge in “green-washing,” corruption, or in harming its environment.
Although I cannot say this for sure, I do feel the recent trends in consumer behavior shows that people do care about what they buy and what the brands they purchase stand for. I think bad CSR and/or corporate governance can be the death of a company. Therefore, I see the important role that CSR plays in winning the public’s trust and respect. Even though, my boyfriend agrees, he argues that profit essentially always comes first. Perhaps it does, but it does not take away from CSR.
In terms of corporate governance, I read about a global company who had its "internal laws" stating that if someone was caught stealing they were to be handed over to the state of the country the company was operating in. Sure enough, when an employee was then caught stealing, they were turned in and in return the government hung the employer. This is because the laws in the country did not match the ethics of the company. I find it very interesting to question whether a company should have its own laws or create laws depending on the country. But anyways, this is for another discussion.
So back to the disapproving looks I received from my encounter at the party. Being "corporate" is not about solely profit or being “one of those corporate people”. It is about caring about the community, the planet, and the employers and about people in general. It is about creating a space where communication and an open dialogue to criticism and to strengthening relationships can take place whether it is online or offline. Unfortunately, I think more often than not, amongst young people being "corporate" has more negative connotations rather than positive ones.
If you want to read more about CSR here are some links I recommend:
These are the predicted changes for sustainability and CSR:
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/01/05/5-predictions-sustainability-csr-2011?page=0%2C0
Also a link to Harvard professors Michael E. Porter, who explains how CSR should be done: http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2011/01/rethinking-capitalism.html
-pictures are from Bing image search.
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