Philip H. Mirvis

Stages of corporate citizenship

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Leading corporate citizenship: governance, structure, systems

AbstractPurpose – Thepurposeofthispaperistobenchmarkhow25companiesinfiveindustriesareaddressingcorporate citizenship through their governance, structures and systems. The paper aims to look atpatterns of leadership practice developing in firms in this regard and what might be shaping them. It alsoseeks to consider current practices in light of movement toward next-generation corporate citizenship.Design/methodology/approach – The study surveyed a representative sample of Fortune 500companies. To benchmark how companies are embedding citizenship into their governance, structure,and systems, two scorecards were devised measuring practices pertaining to: Corporate BoardGovernance; and Operational Management of Corporate Citizenship. Criteria chosen represent Boardand management policies, behaviors, and/or public commitments.Findings – It was found that, while corporate Boards are assuming more responsibility for oversight ofconduct and taking account of specific social and environmental issues, citizenship is not yet fullyembedded into Boards or the operating structures and systems of most firms.Research limitations/implications – Companies appear to be moving through developmental stagesas they integrate citizenship into their governance and operations, with several developmental patternsemerging.Whilethereseemtobespecificpatternsofdevelopmentthatlinktotheindustry,issuesfaced,and culture of firms, it is difficult to generalize specific influences within industry from the relatively smallsample. Further benchmarking is needed to better understand these issues and which ideas representbest practices going forward.Practical implications – A next generation approach to corporate citizenship requires more than topdown advocacy – this needs to be backed up by Board oversight and engagement and by layeredmanagement structures, systems, processes, and policies that make citizenship part of everyemployee’s remit, across the company’s value chain.Originality/value – The paper provides a unique set of frameworks to assess company performance inrelation to governing and managing corporate citizenship. It provides much needed data fromcompanies across a number of industries to prompt further discussion on next generation corporatecitizenship, where responsible business practices are woven into the corporate DNA.Keywords Organizational behaviour, Boards, LeadershipPaper type Research paper

Next Generation Corporate Citizenship

Jack Welch, dubbed “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine in its review of twentieth-century business, multiplied General Electric’s market value from

Engaging Employees as Citizens

14 to

Engaging Employees as Social Innovators

400 billion during his twenty-year tenure and he continues to be a role model for business leaders and certainly many of our M.B.A.s.1 But one of his final acts, according to insiders, “left GE looking like a bunch of slugs.”

Catalyzing Social Entrepreneurship in Africa: Roles for Western Universities, NGOs and Corporations

In the United States, three of four young people entering the workforce want to work for a company that “cares about how it impacts and contributes to society.”1 The Center has, for several years, characterized employees as the “missing link” in corporate citizenship. Now a case is being made to engage employees under the mantle of citizenship—and in progressively deeper and more meaningful ways. Here’s why.

Toward Shared Governance for Sustainability: U.S. Public and Private Sector Roles

This article explores a variety of ways employees are being engaged as social innovators in their companies or as co-creators in partnerships with other businesses, NGOs, and/or government agencies. They are engaged as intrapreneurs in company innovations contests, in partnerships with external social entrepreneurs, and in pro bono global service programs, and as members of innovation teams in organization-wide innovations. The study compares and contrasts four employee engagement platforms and assesses their impact on participating employees, companies, and communities from these efforts.

Taking Citizenship to Market

This article reviews research on promoting social entrepreneurship and enterprise in Africa. It also presents brief case studies on how select Western universities, NGOs and corporations are partnering with African institutions to help train and launch social entrepreneurs, to open up sources of venture funding and mentoring and to fortify social entrepreneurship ecosystems. The case material highlights opportunities and challenges encountered in supporting social entrepreneurship in Africa and points to research and practical opportunities pertinent to African scholars, educators and practitioners.

Integrating Citizenship into the Business

Abstract Purpose This chapter examines public versus private sector roles in addressing CSR/Sustainability issues in the United States. It provides an historical perspective on the primacy of market-driven corporate practice in the United States and recent moves by the state to “balance” private and public interests through both regulatory and non-regulatory means. A typology of government and business roles, based on “who leads” and “who makes the rules,” illustrates shared governance of CSR/Sustainability in a variety of multisector and public–private partnerships. Design/methodology/approach Case studies examine how the U.S. government interacts with business and NGOs and its varied roles in the shared governance of sustainability. Examples from field interviews with business leaders in global operator General Electric (Global Business Initiative on Human Rights), apparel maker-and-seller Patagonia (Aquatic “Hitchhikers”), electronics retailer Best Buy (product recycling), IBM (global corporate volunteering), and others illustrate varieties of shared governance between business and the state in operation today. Findings Depending on “who leads” and “who makes the rules,” there are variations in whether responsible actions by the private sector are regulatory versus voluntary and whether government’s role involves mandating, partnering, facilitating, or endorsing private sector efforts. Successful shared governance depends on business’s “license to cooperate” and the multiple parties’s sharing responsibility for their goals, operations, and results. Originality/value There is a substantial literature on multi-business CSR-related networks and on business–NGO partnerships. Less attention has been given to the role of governments in this space, particularly in the United States where, partly for historical reasons, a company’s relationship with and obligations to society have been regarded as discretionary more so than regulatory activity and where government intervention in markets and in the affairs of companies has been sharply resisted, particularly by business interests, and is suspect among the citizenry.

New Rules for Business Success

“Jella Sujatamma is part entrepreneur, part healthcare advisor, part hygiene specialist and part mother in the many villages in India that she visits each week as Unilever India’s most successful Shakti Amma [empowered mother],” writes Janet Roberts, one of the student reporters at the October 2006 Business and World Benefit Conference in Cleveland.1 Sujatamma, a weaver who lost work when synthetic fabrics came into popularity, became the first Shakti entrepreneur on