Is Corporate Social Responsibility Relevant?

Take a look at your favorite company’s corporate information homepage. Odds are, buried nowhere near the bottom is a link that says “Corporate Responsibility” or “Environmental Action” or “Social Programs”. I recently wandered past the Alcoa website (www.Alcoa.com) and was surprised to discover there are probably more links on their website devoted to their corporate policies and environmental missions rather than the process and leadership of just creating and producing the largest supply of aluminum on the planet.

What is striking to me, especially in light of reading Robert Reich’s latest, Supercapitalism, is that we truly are shifting a great deal of social burden to the corporation - but at what cost? Fundamentally, we’re removing government accountability to the citizenry, and removing individual accountability to the community, and shifting it to the ethereal gates of corporate public relations. I’m torn to determine where the appropriate balance lies, but I tend to believe that corporations should focus heavily on doing their best to provide excellent returns for investors and excellent employment to their employees. Imagine a company so bent on social responsibilities that its costs rise to the point where adding new employees is unfeasible, and then subsequently that non-employee must depend on the company’s “social responsibilities” for charity. Obviously that’s a long-shot case, but I think there is some merit in recognizing and appreciating that the best companies in the world produce the best products / services in the world - and that that action is good for the world.

In this election year, we’re hearing lots of chatter about the balance of power between organizations and government. What I’m personally saddened by is that it’s politically destructive for anyone in leadership (both in corporate relations and government office) to state that the individuals of a community should be responsible to that community. We’ve lost sight of the relationship between our neighbors and our locales in preference of handing off those burdens and responsibilities to government, which has further shifted that burden to corporations that simply want to do the best by their shareholders.

In the coming decades, will Americans retain the ability to rely on themselves? Or will we have to each individually write Alcoa an email, asking for better responsibility in their neck of the woods? Just something to ponder on.