Corporate citizens and leaders (Cornelissen Ch. 12 & 13)

These two chapters took on a more critical analysis than in previous chapters. Cornelissen’s case studies of British Airways’ leadership changes (234-7), and Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury (252-4) involved the kind of contentious situations that are part of corporate reality, including layoffs and strikes. I was pleased to read Cornelissen point out that simply giving lip service to corporate social responsibility (CSR) wasn’t effective. As he points out, most organizations’ non-profit-driven commitments come in the form of “glossy social and environmental reports that are often more about style than substance” (245). I think genuine CSR takes commitment to organizational change and strong leadership, and not just public relations.

I suspect most organizations treat CSR as an additive change. A food company may set up scholarships for nutrition science majors, or a utilities company may commit to an initiative making “green jobs.” These actions may making positive differences, but they may also just be a way to offset an otherwise-negative reputation on social responsibility. To qualify for Cornelissen’s definition of a true corporate “citizen,” I think changes need to be substitutive, and that takes both transformational leadership to drive, and transactional leadership to implement. How likely is it that companies will truly commit to the triple bottom line, when just meeting financial needs can be difficult?

Cornelissen mentions the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which sets reporting standards on many CSR metrics for organizations. While a noble initiative, this is a non-governmental organization whose standards organizations are not obligated to adhere to. I perused GRI’s website, and the output largely looks like the glossy reports that are so easy to put out and overlook. I think the best that can be said is that these reports provide documented commitments that organizations can be judged against. But again, this is an NGO. Any commitments are voluntary. Our commitments as actual citizens are not subject to our whims. Without strong leadership commitment to organizational change that drives CSR, corporate citizenship is just an idea.

Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory & Practice (4th ed.). London: SAGE.