With growing interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), generally the actions and activities undertaken by businesses to monitor their contribution to social and ethical issues, fair trade is a relevant and important issue. Businesses looking to act responsibly should be looking at fair trade as one way to realise this goal precisely because of the social, economic, environmental and other ethical issues on which fair trade is based. Whether an office is buying fair trade tea and coffee for its staff, a business converting its products to fair trade or investing with Shared Interest to further support the fair trade businesses it buys from, there are numerous possibilities to incorporate fair trade into your CSR policy.
It was with this interest in CSR policies and issues that I responded to a recent poll on Twitter entitled ‘Within business the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is often regarded as a management fashion. Do you agree?’ The link can be found here. The poll closes on Saturday but so far the response has been 53% No, 37% Yes and 11% Don’t Know. It is always interesting to see how people perceive the actions of others, whether they are big businesses or not, and how these organisations are then supported or otherwise as a result of their actions and accountability.
What do you think? Is CSR a ‘fashion statement’ used by business or does it give businesses an opportunity to show their commitment to the ‘bigger picture’?
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Click here to learn how you can invest in fair trade. Click here to donate to the Shared Interest Foundation |
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I think CSR is a fashionable management trend, but I think it’s OK for Shared Interest to exploit it. The money a business invests in Shared Interest will be put to genuinely good use, whereas many CSR initiatives don’t really bring lasting benefits.
Sally, you make raise some very interesting point about the growing trends in CSR.
I think Samuel A Culbert, Professor of Management at the University of California in his latest work “Beyond Bullsh*t” offers us all (including SharedInterest) an important insight when making judgements of business’s actions.
“Everyone knows that succeeding at work (in business) requires us to spin what we say, withhold some of what we know, and pretend to believe things that we know to be untrue. At work (in business) we’re constantly challenged to trust what others tell us. But at the end of the day, we know that all communications (and actions) are designed, first and foremost, to advance the self-interested agendas of the communicators…Straight talk begins by facing up to the fact that ours is a self-interested world”.
Hi David,
Thanks for your input. There are so many CSR opportunities and agendas out there it can be s minefield to find the right ‘fit’ for you business and I’m very pleased to hear that you feel investing in Shared Interest brings lasting benefits.
Hi Scott,
Thank you for your response. Samuel A Culbert offers an interesting view and I would agree to some extent that we live in a self-interested world. We try to promote what we believe in and what we thing are the ‘right’ things for ourselves. However, I think this can also be the ‘right’ thing for others.
If i take the example of Shared Interest as a CSR opportunity. A business recognises it needs to fulfill it’s ‘CSR’ agenda and looks for possible options. Investing in Shared Interest they may use some of their ‘CSR’ budget to invest, NOT donate so they can withdraw their money and use it for something else if they need to. 100% of their investment goes to support fairtrade businesses, because they recognise they themselves needed credit and finance to develop their own company. The CSR objective is acheived by the business because they have taken their ‘responsible’ action. Shared Interest is able to lend more money to fairtrade businesses. Fairtrade businesses are able to grow and develop and trade their way out of poverty.
So yes, the business may have been selfishly motivated but the fairtrade business is supported and benefits too.
HI Sally,
Thanks for you response…nice segue to the interests of SharedInterest.
I think the point Culbert is making is that the reality is that business actions are first and foremost focused on the fulfillment of some self interest. This is not a bad or good thing but just a business reality…as such, organisations like SharedInterest (as I am sure you are more than aware) that seek CSR investment need to ensure that an investment with them is tailored to meet the particular interests of the Corporate sponsor. Corporate sponsors aren’t doing it for fair trade or fair trade’s ideals they are doing it to advance their specific interest…and never assume you just know what that is…