By Tim Wilson, Editor & Writer, Boston College Center

Brad Googins and Phil Mirvis, who teamed up with Steve Rochlin on the 2007 book Beyond Good Company: Next Generation Corporate Citizenship, have a new report out that looks at what lies ahead. Published by the Center for Corporate Citizenship Germany, “Moving to Next Generation Corporate Citizenship” examines how companies are progressing along the developmental stages of corporate citizenship, both from the outside in and the inside out.

Googins and Mirvis look at the development of corporate citizenship in companies as they face a new operating environment where the public’s regard for business is low but its expectations are high regarding the role of business in addressing society’s problems. In the framework for stages of corporate citizenship development they presented in “Beyond Good Company”, Googins and Mirvis identify those five stages as compliant, engaged, innovative, integrated and transformative.

According to Googins and Mirvis, the top companies progressing through these stages advance by more openly engaging social issues and becoming more open and mutual in dealings with stakeholders. In the report, the authors explain that in order to successfully link business and society in their strategies, companies must first approach issues from the outside in. This requires “gathering intelligence on social, political and cultural issues that bear on the business” and identifying the risks and opportunities those issues present for both business and society.

Identifying the issues that are material to the business, the authors explain, helps a company move away from merely being reactive on issues. Coupled with transparent reporting and open engagement, this can change the relationship with some stakeholders from adversaries to partners. And the leadership that arises from all parties in these partnerships can drive innovation in addressing social issues.

Taking on the inside out approach to corporate citizenship brings the need for judgment calls on what to do with what was learned from analysis of issues and engagement with external stakeholders. Depending on the stage a company is at, Googins and Mirvis say, its relationships with society can range from those based on moral terms to risk management, to seeing corporate citizenship as a matter of “doing well by doing good.”

The authors find that the few companies at the more advanced stages of corporate citizenship take on the challenge of aligning all the functions of the business with a strategy that is tied to societal issues and needs. The strategic intent of companies at this game-changing stage involves more than responding to issues outside the business. Googins and Mirvis explain that for select corporations like these, the purpose is “to make a responsible and sustainable business out of addressing the world’s social and environmental needs.”

For companies attaining the ultimate inside out approach to corporate citizenship, Googins and Mirvis find, their efforts are based less on a specific business case and more on their core corporate values. “The truest expression of the value proposition for corporate citizenship,” the authors say, “is when it connects fully to the vision and mission of the enterprise.”

Googins and Mirvis also look at a further evolution of corporate citizenship that brings a global approach to its practice and involves even greater partnerships with other businesses, government and civil society.

Download Moving to Next Generation Corporate Citizenship from our web site.

Tags: Beyond Good Company, Bradley Googins, Moving to Next Generation Corporate Citizenship, Phil Mirvis
This entry was posted by Tim Wilson, Editor & Writer, Boston College Center on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 3:22 PM, and is filed under Center News & Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.