Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Relations

There is no universal definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), because the concept is always being redefined to serve changing needs and times. It is up to each company individually to define the values and principles it stands for. The fundamental of CSR remain the same everywhere, different emphases are found in different parts of the world. The issues vary in nature and importance from industry to industry and location to location. 

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility means that organizations have moral, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law. CSR is related to business ethic, but it is not identical. While CSR encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary responsibilities of organizations, business ethics usually focuses on the moral judgments and behavior of individuals and groups within organizations. 

There are eight-step program for CSR Issues Management (Ogilvy PR, 2012):

• Identification: What issues could arise either because of the client's industry or its scale?
• Prioritization/classification: Which of these issues could cause significant damage to the client's reputation or business operations if not managed effectively?
• Monitoring: How is this issue evolving, on a monthly or even daily basis?
• Preparation: How can we anticipate the course of this evolution and devise an action plan?
• Action to influence issue: What steps can we take to change the course of an issue's progression?
• Issue/crisis response: If the issue developed into a crisis that threatened the company's ability to conduct business, how would we react?
• Evaluation: Did we respond effectively to the issue, preventing its emergence as a crisis? What lessons were learned?
• Re-classification: Has the issue lessened in severity over time? Is it still a concern moving forward?

If we look further, there will be a question "What is the relationship between CSR and Public Relations?"

We can answer this question in short : CSR is a blessing for PR but also a curse for PR. It is a matter of which come first and what is the intention. 

Public Relations is vehicle for a company. If the CSR program done properly, PR could show the progress of they are making, or what the world may not know about them. Done improperly, PR is publishing the "sins" of the company to the public. True CSR guides the company away from making the “sins” or mitigating them in the first place.

Company who do not understand CSR is about business sustainability as much as social program, often make the mistake of CSR a marketing of PR program/problems. PR should lightly handle CSR initiatives until the CSR program has momentum and there is something to actually celenbrate and brag about. In CSR, it is not good for PR to celebrate decency and expected behavior. PR should let the public know about the existence of the CSR program, there will be a report, and some of the program are under development, or highlight historical CSR efforts. But the report on the activities is not out of proportion to the other activities of the company.

CSR program takes time to mature and years to yield significant, sustainable result though quite often are substantial change that occur the first year. The true test of sustainability and a company committed to CSR is history of improvement and performance. Unfortunately these initial documents tend to be fodder for PR and Marketing departments, which in their need for short term results and fantastic figures tend to overstate or understate the findings as they try to make the company look good. In CSR, however, the proof is in the year-to-year changes, the response from stakeholders, the integrity of the companies actions and words (Rochte, 2009)

CSR is about smart business practices. It is about constant improvement and integrity. PR is about reporting on the events as they occur or showcasing a history of events and trending. The danger is when the showcasing precedes the actual work.

The foundation of the relationship between an organization and its various publics depends upon whether that organization behaves responsibly. If it does, then its relationships will have a solid foundation; if it does not, those relationships will be incredibly difficult to sustain. I’d go so far as to suggest that an organization can’t have good PR without good CSR.

CSR benefits for a company is because it leads to improved relationships with many publics: employees are more motivated because the company has a purpose beyond the enrichment of shareholders and senior executives; customers are more loyal because they see an organization that shares their values; legislators and regulators are more favorably disposed because they see an organization contributing to the greater good; and so on.

In a well-run organization, CSR and PR are symbiotic, inseparable. In a company that’s truly committed to both, they’re synonymous (Holmes, 2011)

Source:

Goodwin, Felicity W. and Bartlett, Jennifer L. (2008) Public Relations and 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - Working Paper.

Holmes, Paul. (2011) PR and CSR: symbiotic, inseparable, and synonymous - Blog Article (http://blog.holmesreport.com) access: Oct, 2012

Rohce, Mattew. 2009. (http://www.opportunitysustainability.com) Access: Oct, 2012

http://www.ogilvypr.com Access: Oct, 2012