About the Book
In a world where trust in politicians, corporations and the processes that determine our lives continues to dwindle, this innovative book brings together research, case studies and stories that begin to answer a central question for society: How we can create organisations, institutions, groups and societies that can nurture trusting relationships with one another and among individuals? Something to Believe In provides a fresh take on the corporate responsibility debate, based as it is on the work of key global thinkers on corporate social responsibility, along with a raft of work developed from collaborations between the New Academy of Business and the United Nations Volunteers, UK Department for International Development and TERI-Europe in countries such as Brazil, Nicaragua, Ghana, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Africa. The focus is on business, and particularly how deeper, more systemic changes to current ways of understanding and undertaking business can and have been enacted in both developed countries and in nations where the Western concept of CSR means nothing.
The market-based model of economic thinking--the increasingly distrusted globalisation project--which threatens to sweep all before it is challenged by many of the contributions to this book. The book tells stories such as the mobilisation of civil society in Ghana to bring business to account; the reorientation of a business school to focus on values; the life-cycle of ethical chocolate; the accountability of the diamond business in a war zone; the need to reinvent codes of conduct for women workers in the plantations and factories of Nicaragua; a Philippine initiative to economically empower former Moslem liberation fighters; and the development of local governance practices in a South African eco-village. The book is split into four sections. 'Through Some Looking Glasses' contains short, thought-provoking pieces about the issues of trust, belief and change from writers including Thabo Mbeki, Malcolm McIntosh and a reprinted piece from E.M. Forster. Section Two asks how it will be possible to believe in our corporations and provides new approaches from around the world on how space is being opened up to found businesses that are able to create trust.
Section Three examines the role of auditing in fostering trust. Corporations continue to attempt to engender trust through their activities in philanthropy, reporting and voluntary programmes. But, post-Enron et al., even the most highly praised corporate mission statements are tarnished. Can social and environmental audits of corporate reports, codes and practices assuage our doubts about boardroom democracy? Section Four examines alternative forms of accountability, transparency and governance from around the world and offers some different ways of thinking about the practice of creating trust in society. Something to Believe In provides a host of fascinating suggestions about redefining and renewing the underlying deal between society and its organisations. It will become a key text for students, thinkers and practitioners in the field of corporate responsibility.
Table of Contents:
Foreword Sharon Capeling-Alakija, United Nations Volunteers Introduction Rupesh A. Shah, David F. Murphy and Malcolm McIntosh Part I: Through some looking glasses1. Something to have struggled for and now to believe in T.M. Mbeki, then Vice President of the Republic of South Africa 2. PlanetHome Malcolm McIntosh, Writer and Teacher, UK 3. From terrorism to trust: Trusting our nature? Mary-Jayne Rust, Jungian Analyst (Society of Analytical Psychology) and Art Therapis 4. Partnering trust: India's corporate social responsibility heritage Viraal B. Balsari, TERI-Europe 5. Tolerance E.M. Forster Part II: How could it be possible to believe in our corporations?6. Demanding corporate responsibility is the key: The creation of a movement for corporate responsibility in Ghana Joseph Yaw Boateng, United Nations Volunteer, Association of Ghana Industries, Ghana 7. Corporate responsibility: The emerging South Asian agenda Ritu Kumar, TERI-Europe 8. Corporate governance, shareholder interests and managerial accountability in turbulent times Scott Bourke and Neil E. Bechervaise, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Australia 9. Strange bedfellows make for democratic deficits: The rise and challenges of private corporate social responsibility engagement Matthew J. Hirschland, Department of Political Science, University of Colorado, USA 10. The rise of the "abdroids" Roger Warren Evans, Barrister-at-law, UK 11. Changing focus: A business school for sustainable development Juliet Roper, Eva Collins and Mike Pratt, University of Waikato Management School, New Zealand Part III: Auditing for whom?12. Love in a time of chocolate: The corporate discipline of compassion Adrian Henriques, Middlesex University, UK 13. Trouble at the Hard Rock Cafe: Diamonds and corporate social responsibility Ian Smillie and Ralph Hazleton, Partnership Africa Canada 14. In search of transparency: Corporate codes of conduct and women workers in Central America Marina Prieto-Carron, University of Bristol, UK 15. Voluntary governance or a contradiction in terms: Are voluntary codes accountable and transparent governance tools? Simon B. Archer, Torys LLP, Canada, and S. Tina Piper, Balliol College, University of Oxford, UK 16. The auditor has no clothes: Challenging the pursuit of objectivity in auditing Rupesh A. Shah, New Academy of Business, UK Part IV: New initiatives17. In the business of making peace: La Frutera and Paglas in the Philippines Charmaine Nuguid-Anden, United Nations Volunteer, Philippine Business for Social Progress 18. Corporate responsibility in New Zealand: A case study Bob Frame, Richard Gordon and Ian Whitehouse, Landcare Research, New Zealand 19. Reforming government, working with business: The Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform in Lebanon Lubna Forzley, United Nations Volunteer, UNDP Lebanon 20. Living and learning in the Boland Mark Swilling and Eve Annecke, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa 21. It's the film that matters, not the photo: Good governance in development co-operation David F. Murphy, New Academy of Business, UK Part V: Conclusion22. Under the Trumpet Flower Abdul Cader Riswana, Ismael Ashraff, Jinutheen Rasmina, Kanathan Dinojit, Stepan Sampath, The Butterfly Garden of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
About the Author :
Malcolm McIntosh I am a writer and teacher on corporate responsibility and sustainability and a Visiting Professor at the universities of Bath and Nottingham (UK) and Waikato (NZ). I also teach at the universities of Stellenbosch (SA) and Bristol (UK). In 2003 I was appointed a Special Advisor to the UN Global Compact. I am Founding Editor of The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Editor of Visions of Ethical Business 1998-2002 (FT Management/PricewaterhouseCoopers) and author and co-author of many books and articles on corporate citizenship. My latest book is Raising a Ladder to the Moon: The Complexities of Corporate Responsibility (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). I am currently working on a new book, Learning To Talk: The Early Years of the UN Global Compact (Greenleaf Publishing, 2004) with Sandra Waddock and Georg Kell with a Foreword by Kofi Annan. I am most interested in the possibility of a new metalanguage which reaches across professional and intellectual divides. This requires the development of cultures of humility and conviviality. David F. Murphy I am Director of the New Academy of Business, an independent business school that provide entrepreneurs, managers and organisational leaders with the insights and capacities necessary to respond progressively to the emerging challenges of sustainability and organisational responsibility. Since I joined the organisation in 1998, I have developed the New Academy's international network of partners working together on various education and research initiatives on global corporate responsibility. This work has included a two-year international action research project on business-community relations with United Nations Volunteers (UNV) in seven countries. Other recent projects include good governance in development co-operation with the European Commission, corporate responsibility practices in South Asia with TERI-Europe, and a feasibility study on the social marketing of job quality in micro and small enterprises with the International Labour Organisation. From 1993-97, I undertook research at the University of Bristol on the implementation of corporate social responsibility policies and completed my PhD on business-NGO relations and sustainable development. Prior to my arrival in the UK in 1993, I co-ordinated various community development programmes for the Canadian NGO CUSO in West Africa and Canada, where I also managed volunteer programmes for a Canadian AIDS organisation. I am the co-author of In the Company of Partners: Business, Environmental Groups and Sustainable Development Post-Rio (The Policy Press, 1997) and am currently a member of the Amnesty International (UK) Business Group on Human Rights. Rupesh Shah I am an action researcher at the New Academy of Business, UK. My PhD in sustainable development and action research was from the University of Bath. My interest is in an action learning process that can develop locally grounded forms of organisational practice that avoid the techno-management-oriented attempts to 'solve' the 'problem' of sustainability. I am engaged in an ongoing inquiry to understand my personal acting and responsibility in a broad system movement for change.
Review :
The discussions in this book range across a wide number of areas including management schools, specific companies, countries, industries, codes of conduct, communities and government. What emerges is ... a recognition that just as people and individuals and institutions are very diverse, so too are the journeys to change the future. ...the most important feature of the journeys described here is that ... to change the world requires considerably more imagination and creativity than we are seeing from the sorts of codes and standards which are increasingly taken up by many right now. The Corporate Citizen 4.1 (2004) This book addresses themes related to the idea of trust...one strength is that there is a refreshing focus on examples of corporate social responsibility from countries that is unusual to hear from (including Ghana, Lebanon and India). Another strength is the weaving of quite different perspectives on trust from a variety of perspectives. Social and Environmental Accounting Journal Vol. 25 Issue 1
