Reputation Management

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Reputation Management Corporate Social
Responsibility

• Gary Davies
• Professor of Corporate Reputation
• Manchester Business School

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Corporate Reputation

• A way of managing strategically
• Developed at MBS over the last 6 years
• 35 organisations (mainly service)
• Data base of 30,000 interviews with customers and
  employees
• 10 researchers involved
• Corporate Reputation and Competitiveness
  published by Routledge October 2002
• MSc in Corporate Communications and Reputation
  Management

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How Does CSR affect Reputation?

• An image for being socially responsible adds to
  an image of being honest and trustworthy
• Such a reputation is a major driver of customer
  and employee satisfaction
• It is often correlated with sales growth

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CSR is a Social Construct

• What CSR means varies from one country to another
• What CSR means varies over time

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Cultural Variations

• USA a long history of philanthropy
  quantifiable financial giving to charities, local
  communities lighter regulation - often driven by
  staff recruitment and retention
• Europe - broader terms than charityheavier
  regulation - often more defensive

Source Echo Research
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Cultural Variations

• Australia - crusading note shrinking government
  has incubated New World Order
• France - an Anglo-Saxon invention beginning
  totake root in French soil strong social bent
  but anti philanthropy
• Germany - social and environmental sustainability
• Japan - a public duty lifetime responsibility to
  employees integrated into the way of doing
  business
• UK - government moves to encourage corporate
  generosity

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CSR Over Time

• 1950s The obligation of business to society
• 1960s What business owes to society (beyond
  economic and legal obligations) Voluntary
• 1970s Corporate philanthropy and community
  relations Actions not economically motivated

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CSR Over Time

• 1980s Acknowledgment of CSR as underpinning
  profitability. Turn a social problem into an
  economic opportunity.
• 1990s CSR confused with many other issues
  including governance. Ethical issues added

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CarrollsPyramid of CSRSource Carroll (1991)
Philanthropic Responsibilities Be a good
corporate citizen contribute resources to the
community improve quality of life.
Ethical Responsibilities Be Ethical, obligation
to do what is right, just and fair. Avoid harm
Legal Responsibilities Obey the law Law is
societys codification of right wrong. Play by
the rules of the game.
Economic Responsibilities Be Profitable
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What will CSR be?

• 2000s A Disillusionment with capitalism. No
  Logo Global business attacked Enron, Anderson
  Alternative business models?
• CSR becomes Corporate Citizenship As we become
  disillusioned with our traditional icons (family,
  church, politicians etc) large firms fill the
  void

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Views Against CSR

• Business is incompetent to handle social issues
• The one responsibility of business is to maximise
  the profits of its owners or shareholders.
• CSR is not definable and just another marketing
  trick

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Reporting CSR

• 64 of large corporates report on social and
  environmental activities on their web sites
• No widely accepted standards for social and
  environmental performance
• Many codes, no laws

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BITC Corporate Responsibility Index

• Environment
• Marketplace
• Workplace
• Community

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Fundamental Issues in CSR

• Is CSR an organisational mindset, or
• Is CSR a gloss to gain differentiation advantage

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Is the Organisation Responsible or just the PR
Department?

• Who decides the policy of philanthopy?
• Are the company values really valued or are they
  there Enron style as pretty wallpaper.
• How are staff treated?
• Can a for profit organisation be truly
  responsible?
• Which comes first, Duty or Profit?

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Reputation Management Corporate Social
Responsibility

• Gary Davies
• Professor of Corporate Reputation
• Manchester Business School