The article in the url link below by Mallen Baker (Foreword, pxiii) provides an insightful perspective on the rise of the CSR ‘profession’:
“Competent people are competent because they've learned to do something well. Generally, they are proud of the fact they do it well, and they become resistant to change precisely because change is the one thing that can threaten that competence. Does it sound familiar? Don't we now have a generation of CSR or sustainability managers that have taken the brief within their business, learned about the issues and the tools of their trade (the systems), and focused on getting good at using those tools?”
Baker is not arguing against the value of professionalization and standards so much as against the idea that such professionalization and standards are ends in themselves. Baker points out that unless this “new rigour” is part of the solution, then it is just as much a part of the problem:
“… ultimately, whilst we are professionalising corporate social responsibility, adding new impenetrable jargon and making it a place fit for experts, we are missing the real deal. This is not a specialist part of business per se, it is business as usual. … The real question is this: Just what is a company going to have to do to be successful in the fast-changing world in which we find ourselves? Whatever sector you're in, the answer to the question probably isn't the name of an Index or a quality system.”
The field of CSR needs to remain focused on the broader question of keeping business relevant in a way that maximizes long term social value, without getting tied up in securing the trappings of professionalization.
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
Corporate social responsibility: When the competent become the enemy of the good
Many in the world of ethical business are searching for the wrong answer to the wrong question
Mallen Baker
February 25, 2008
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5735
