Stakeholder Based Measuring and Management of CSR and Its Impact on Corporate Reputation
With high-profile corporate scandals dominating news headlines, stakeholders are becoming increasingly cynical towards corporations and holding them accountable for their behavior and actions, expecting them to behave ethically and to support social and e
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How CSR, Corporate Reputation and l l.Stakeholder Management Are Interconnected
With high-profile corporate scandals dominating news headlines, stakeholders are becoming increasingly cynical towards corporations and holding them accountable for their behavior and actions, expecting them to behave ethically and to support social and environmental causes. This expectation applies particularly to large multinational companies which can be linked in peoples’ minds to environmental issues such as pollution, congestion and the depletion of natural resources as well as to social issues like ethical behaviour, human rights and labour conditions. No doubt: CSR is a hot and still rising topic in society (including media), business, academia & politics – some have even called this a “CSR euphoria” (Hermann/Kirchgeorg 2006). According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), CSR is defined as “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”. The stated stakeholder groups (employees, community, society) indicate the relevance of the stakeholder approach for CSR. In this context growing CSR activities (especially communication) are shown especially by large multinational companies worldwide, especially in resource and/or labour intensive industries (e.g. chemistry, textiles, manufacturing, automotive, energy) but also e.g. in finance. Other companies are not active or still behave unethically. In which way ever – activity or inactivity is noted by the stakeholders and affects a company’s CSR image and overall Reputation. Typical business questions that arise in this context are: How does the public perceive our company's behaviour and contribution to society?
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How can we be sure that stakeholders recognise your efforts to control pollution, for example, as much as those of your competitors? What matters most to our stakeholders and which strengths & weaknesses do we have in their perception? Corporate Reputation as concept is discussed since many years and its importance is undoubted. Companies with a good reputation: x x x x x x x x x
are in general also financially more successful, have a better Corporate Brand image, have easier access to capital, attract, motivate and maintain (talented) employees more easily, acquire new customers more easily, can take higher prices for their products & services, face higher acceptance of newly launched products, deter competitors from market entry, work as a “social insurance” for weathering a crisis in the future
A common definition for Corporate Reputation describes it as “the collective expectations (emotional and rational) that various audiences, specifically stakeholders have of a corporation’s products, services and activities surrounding its business, social and financial performance” (Norman, 2001). How the Corporation is perceived & experienced by stakeholders is, in s
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