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Many companies striving to be good corporate citizens today face an internal tug of war between giving attention to community initiatives that address social problems and the growing demand to make environmental issues paramount.
Conference Exclusive: A process-focused discussion for a results-oriented Gen Y member
Don’t get me wrong: by calling myself “results-oriented,” I’m not trying to imply that I promote some sort of teleological approach to life and/or corporate citizenship; nor that I possess the “instant gratification” desires that conference presenter Tony Wagner appends to my generation’s learning/development style; nor that a “good” process is not important for achieving a “good” end. No, I’m merely saying that my neurological synapses, once fixed on a goal, are comfortable with a malleable, “learning-by-doing” sort of process. The more I stumble around in the dark in search of a light switch, the better I will be at helping others find their switch, or even the power-generator itself. Thankfully, the Boston College Center seems to realize this.
The Center’s research on the Stages of Corporate Citizenship was unveiled at last year’s conference, but the need for it has not diminished. During this year’s session, moderators Brad Googins and Phil Mirvis of the Boston College Center, along with presenters Theresa Fay-Bustillos of Levi Strauss and Hamlin Metzger of Best Buy, were able to meet my insatiable need for an end goal with their logical and easy-to-follow framework. Phil Mirvis made two points within the first five minutes that, in my mind, grounded the entire session:
The Stages are important for benchmarking:
- Uniform, precise measurement of a company’s citizenship progress is difficult. But rudimentary metrics such as the Stages are key to starting a measurement process as well as tracking one’s journey.
- The Center’s benchmarking matrix fits conveniently onto a single PowerPoint slide, and can be color-coded and redesigned to liven up any annual Board meeting. It could even double as a CSR bingo sheet or “Name that Corporate Citizenship Stage” board game!
The Stages portend future citizenship goals and aspirations:
- Knowing what you’ve already accomplished is not only key to planning your next steps, but to ensuring that each future stage is not a disparate event.
- Similar to benchmarking, having a good sense of which stage your company is in will allow you to compare yourself to other companies. It’s not a contest, but we can all learn from each other, knowing how/when/to what/with what your peers have moved forward with their corporate citizenship strategy.
Most companies, as Best Buy’s Hamlin Metzger pointed out, will never be entirely in one stage or another, and no two companies’ view on which CSR activities belong in which stage will be the same. This will be true even within companies. As citizenship strategies begin to permeate entire firms, companies may find that each division is in a different stage, or how one business unit perceives their position in the stages may be different than how another business unit perceives it. But it is this broad and adaptable framework for the stages that make it so valuable: it respects the uniqueness of each company while providing everyone with a single method for tracing progress.
And this is what I and my like-minded ends-driven peers need. Achieving good corporate citizenship is a long and often difficult journey; having an end, a benchmark, and conclusion to gather and reflect around – even if it is only an intermediate one – can provide the kind of closure and satisfaction my species craves, along with an appreciation for importance of process as I plan the next steps forward.
