Manfred Pohl, Judith Hennigfeld, Nick Tolhurst (eds). Wiley. 456 pages. Hardback. £45
The immediate appeal of this book is that it includes some high profile
contributors. Most people working in corporate social responsibility
will be curious about the opinions of individuals like Stephen Young,
global executive director of the Caux Round Table, Margaret Hodge, CSR
minister for the UK government, and Dirk Matten, professor of business
ethics at London University.
A further attraction is its claim to be ‘an application-oriented
handbook and a practical guide to implementing CSR’. However, the
Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs has produced neither a
management-oriented manual nor a systematic guide to operationalizing
CSR, but instead an eclectic collection of stories of what a few
companies have done and what a few opinion leaders think about how the
agenda is shaping up.
Its 23 chapters include contributions from CSR leaders like The Body
Shop and BT, and other companies, among them Credit Suisse, Henkel,
National Bank of Greece, Toyota and Volkswagen, have equally
interesting stories to tell. Other chapters focus on business ethics,
empowering women, human rights, microfinance and sustainability
reporting.
There are interesting perspectives offered, such as that of Fujio
Mutarai, chief executive of Canon, on how his company adopts the kyosei
philosophy of ‘living and working together for the common good’, which
have the potential to broaden the debate. There are also serious
challenges to the whole notion of CSR – notably from Sir Geoffrey
Chandler, founder-chair of Amnesty International’s UK Business Group.
This volume, then, caters for a wide variety of interests and
perspectives – with the notable and disappointing absence of developing
country contributors – and makes for stimulating reading.
Wayne Visser
