Strategic CSR - Privacy

The article in the url below contains interesting research about the ability of A.I. to read a person's personality from their face:

"Personality assessments are an accepted part of recruitment processes. … Yet previous research suggests that personality types can be encoded in facial features, and that artificial intelligence (AI) can spot them."

 

Although "it's not obvious what the AI is seeing," if this is true, then it raises the interesting question of whether it should be allowed:

"If your face could tell a prospective employer something [about your probable performance at work], without discriminating on grounds of protected characteristics, then firms would have a strong incentive to analyze it."

The article makes a compelling case that subjective assessments made on physical characteristics already happen naturally:

"There is a height premium in hiring, for example, which makes it more likely that a taller person will get chosen than a shorter one. Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic than processes which reward, say, educational attainment. [Researchers] are now looking at whether AI facial analysis can give lenders useful clues about a person's propensity to repay loans. For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing."

 

There are also plenty of causes for concern that revolve around perceptions of fairness and the ability of someone to overcome any natural 'disadvantages' to become a productive colleague. There is also the concern that "aggregate patterns do not tell you how an individual will perform." Nevertheless, the article provides another glimpse into what is coming our way, whether we like it or not.

 

Take care

David

 

David Chandler

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation (6e)

© Sage Publications, 2023

 

Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler6e  

Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/

The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/

 

Face off

By Bartleby

November 8, 2025

The Economist

Late Edition – Final

64

https://www.economist.com/business/2025/11/06/should-facial-analysis-help-determine-whom-companies-hire

Strategic CSR - Cognitive dissonance

I enjoy reading Bloomberg's Green Daily newsletter. It is backed by a great deal of expertise and insight into the evolving environmental crisis we are imposing on the planet. My only suggestion would be that, more often than not, it reads like an extreme weather forecast — guess what, it is hot out there (except when it is cold)!

The newsletter sent on January 19 is notable because it clearly highlights the juxtaposition that is so often prevalent in sustainability discussions — we know what is happening and that we need to do something about it, but guess what … we are not acting nearly as quickly as is required.

This dissonance is highlighted initially by the headline article in the newsletter, which focuses on the market-driven costs to companies that ignore climate change:

"This month, a paper published by the European Central Bank found that banks with the greatest so-called transition risks now 'face significantly higher borrowing costs' in funding markets. That followed a December paper by analysts at the Central Bank of Ireland, which showed that companies facing physical climate risks are in a similar predicament, and will need to provide more collateral."

So far, so good. Unfortunately, a graph further down the newsletter, in a separate article about China's annual coal production, highlights the countervailing forces that, more often than not, cancel out any progress that is being made. Specifically, in spite of its amazing progress in generating electricity from sustainable fuel sources, China's demand for energy is such that it takes it from whatever source it can get it:

Oh well, half right.
Take care
David
 
David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation (6e)
© Sage Publications, 2023
 
Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler6e  
Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
 

Banks Ignore Transition Risk at Their Own Peril, ECB Warns
By Alastair Marsh and Laura Millan
January 19, 2026
Bloomberg Green Daily
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-01-19/ecb-warns-banks-should-heed-transition-risk

Strategic CSR - China

The article in the url below conveys the extent to which China is expanding its electricity generation capacity:

"China is undertaking an energy-building boom unlike anything the world has ever seen, as Beijing seeks to ensure supply for power-hungry facilities that are key to dominating emerging industries of the future."

The scale is staggering. In the last year alone, China has added more capacity than India's electrical grid:

"The nation added 543 gigawatts of new capacity across all technologies last year, according to data from the National Energy Administration on Wednesday. That's 12% more than all the power plants combined in India as of the end of 2024."

And, in the last 4 years, China has added more electrical power than the U.S. is able to generate:

"The generation China has added since the end of 2021 is also larger than the entire US system."

It is doing this across a wide-range of fuels and technologies (fossil and renewable), and it is doing it year-over-year.

Take care

David

 

David Chandler

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation (6e)

© Sage Publications, 2023

 

Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler6e  

Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/

The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/

 

China's Four-Year Energy Spree Has Eclipsed Entire U.S. Power Grid

By Dan Murtaugh

January 27, 2026

Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-28/china-s-four-year-energy-spree-has-eclipsed-entire-us-power-grid

 

Strategic CSR - Good intentions + bad outcomes

Appreciating the prevalence of the unintended consequences of good intentions is central to the counterintuitive nature of strategic CSR. Along these lines, the article in the url below made me laugh and rings true, in the very human sense that we often can't get out of our own way. Specifically, the article deals with promotions in companies:

"Many congratulations on your promotion. It's probably downhill from here. This deflating prognosis is not true of every job, person or organisation. But too often, a promotion is a precursor to problems."

Specifically, the article cited academic research that was designed to test the Peter principle:

"… developed by Laurence J. Peter, a 'hierarchologist'—that people are promoted to the level at which they are no longer competent."

In other words, people are promoted based on past performance (not future potential), and stop being promoted once they reach a level in a job they can no longer do very well. Taken to the extreme, this means that most people who are 'stuck' in a position at work are probably there because they are no longer performing at a high level, which might explain why so many organizations are dysfunctional:

"The [research] examined data on sales transactions and job moves across a panel of more than 50,000 workers at 214 America firms between 2005 and 2011. It showed that being a good salesperson increased the probability of being promoted into a management position, but was a negative predictor of managerial quality. In other words, the performance of a sales hotshot's new subordinates tended to go backwards."

These results reminded me a little of academia, and mirror prior research using a simulation to theorize the same principle:

"An organization where promotion depends on competence in a previous role and where the new job requires different skills will indeed end up elevating people to a position they do badly. Random promotions would be a better system, the researchers concluded." 

 

The article concludes that, where a promotion requires skills different to the dominant skills in a person's current role, then performance should not be used to assess whether the promotion is awarded.

Take care

David

 

David Chandler

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation (6e)

© Sage Publications, 2023

 

Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler6e  

Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/

The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/

 

The problem with promotions

By Bartleby

January 10, 2026

The Economist

Late Edition – Final

55

https://www.economist.com/business/2026/01/08/the-problem-with-promotions

Strategic CSR - Greenhushing

Welcome back to the Strategic CSR Newsletter! The first newsletter of the Spring semester is below. As always, your comments and ideas are welcome.

The other day, I was discussing with a friend the shift in public pronouncements by corporations about their equity and inclusion policies, and whether this reflected a similar shift in behavior (actions in addition to words). My sense is that many organizations are continuing as before (i.e., they are not fundamentally altering their mission and behavior), but are doing so surreptitiously. Perhaps a corollary is what is happening in the sustainability space, as explained in the article in the url below:

"Greenhushing is everywhere. While a rollback in green ambition has received a lot of attention in recent months, many speakers said companies were still pursuing their targets, just without talking about them in public. Peter Bakker, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said that 91% of companies WBCSD surveyed globally said they are investing the same or more than they were last year in decarbonization. Similarly, Sherry Madera, CEO of the environmental disclosure nonprofit CDP, said its data shows that the majority of companies are either maintaining or increasing their climate ambition. But, she said those conversations are happening behind a closed door. "I don't think companies have the appetite to talk about this as much."

Of course, this reaction might evolve — stages of resistance and then submission, perhaps. In other words, perhaps organizations start out changing their words and labels, but continue their behavior. Then, as the pressure to change continues and new norms (and stakeholder expectations) emerge, behavior eventually follows.

To distort Warren Buffet's well-known quote about bankruptcy — change happens slowly, and then suddenly.

Take care

David

David Chandler

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation (6e)

© Sage Publications, 2023

Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler6e  

Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/

The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/

Corporations Are Bringing Climate Talk to a Whisper

By Coco Liu

March 4, 2025

Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-03-04/corporations-are-bringing-climate-talk-to-a-whisper