Corporate Social Responsibility: Fad or Here to Stay?

When it comes to CSR, the argument keeps arising, is CSR just a fad or actually here to stay?  Well, let’s see….

In Creating Corporate Social Responsibility That Makes Sense, Michael Laff quotes Peter Hesling, assistant professor of management and organizations at Southern Methodist University:
“[To the question of] whether this is a fad that will fizzle out, I think the answer is no.  I don’t see companies going in reverse.”

In Surprising survivors: Corporate do-gooders in which Lawrence Delevingne discusses how several companies are staying committed to their CSR programs despite the economic turmoil he quotes Bennett Freeman, senior vice president for social research and policy at the Calvert Group, who states, “Corporate responsibility is a nearly recession-proof commitment because it’s become so mainstream.”

In the same article, Delevingne states, “Corporate responsibility’s surprising staying power is illustrated by a recent survey by Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship. It found that half of companies believe corporate citizenship will “become more critical to corporate reputation and business success” and less than ten percent forecast a lesser role.”

In The Washington Post article, Responsibility Is Still Good For Business, Christopher Flavelle states, “However you define CSR, and whether you agree with the financial arguments in favor of it, as a cultural phenomenon the idea seems to have some staying power.”

These are very optimistic approaches, and not everyone agrees.  Also in
In Creating Corporate Social Responsibility That Makes Sense Laff states, “According to a survey on the issue conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, most organizations continue to sponsor community service activities several times each year—a sign that such efforts are more like singular events rather than strategic, long-term initiatives.”

CSR Doesn’t Pay by David Vogel suggests that CSR is not here to stay because it simply does not produce the results we are led to believe.  He states, “The belief that corporate responsibility “pays” is a seductive one: Who would not want to live in a world in which corporate virtue is rewarded and corporate irresponsibility punished? Unfortunately, the evidence for these rewards and punishment is rather weak. There is a “‘market for virtue,” but it is a very limited one. Nor is it growing.”

In CSR: More Than A ‘Management Fad,’ It’s A Movement of History and Pedigree Joe Sibilia discusses an article that appeared in the Financial Times by Stefan Stern that challenges the lasting power of CSR.  He quotes the article: “In the inevitable life cycle of management fads CSR is now heading for the exit. Customers are generally unconvinced by the hype. And “social responsibility” was always too flimsy a concept to gain serious traction with business leaders.

That gives us a clue as to the identity of the next Big Thing in management: sustainability. Unlike CSR, this concept has some meat and commercial potential to it. Innovations that make money while helping to reduce carbon emissions are actually worth pursuing. So here’s one further prediction for next year: the urgent rebranding to be carried out by all those CSR consultancies, which will be replacing the old acronym with the more contemporary ‘sustainability’ label.”

Will Marre, couldn’t agree more.  While CSR efforts should be applauded, the way to make CSR more than a fad is to expand the definition from its traditional meaning associated with writing a check to what he calls, socially strategic enterprise.  In Corporate Social Responsibility Becomes Strategic he states, “The imperative is to recreate your core business model, the way you make money, as a Socially-Strategic Enterprise.  This means your products or services will cause 1) human wellbeing and 2) save our planet.  To make money by saving the future.  This should be our goal.”

So to answer the question, CSR: Fad or Here to Stay?, it seems that the answer is both.  For CSR efforts to truly remain a driving force for the long haul, CSR initiatives need to become more than short-term efforts and become an integral part of the business model.  Furthermore, CSR needs to transform into socially strategic enterprise, making money by saving the future.  Because, let’s face it, for the majority of companies, CSR efforts aren’t going to last unless they are truly sustainable, and that means producing a profit.

As for me, I will continually hold on to the hope that no matter how one defines CSR, it is here to stay because no matter whether it’s popular or not, it will always be the right thing to do.  I have three children, and for their sake, it has to be here to stay because the reality is, the world cannot sustain itself otherwise.