The good company
The union of concerned executives
The world according to CSR
Profit and the public good
The ethics of business

The movement for corporate social responsibility has won the battle of ideas. That is a pity, argues Clive Crook (interviewed here)

OVER the past ten years or so, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has blossomed as an idea, if not as a coherent practical programme. CSR commands the attention of executives everywhere—if their public statements are to be believed—and especially that of the managers of multinational companies headquartered in Europe or the United States. Today corporate social responsibility, if it is nothing else, is the tribute that capitalism everywhere pays to virtue.

It would be a challenge to find a recent annual report of any big international company that justifies the firm's existence merely in terms of profit, rather than “service to the community”. Such reports often talk proudly of efforts to improve society and safeguard the environment—by restricting emissions of greenhouse gases from the staff kitchen, say, or recycling office stationery—before turning hesitantly to less important matters, such as profits. Big firms nowadays are called upon to be good corporate citizens, and they all want to show that they are.

Access whole survey at the Economist web site.

When Robert Giacalone asked his students at Temple University business school in Philadelphia for examples of morally repellent management behaviour, they struggled to come up with anything. One of his students said: "Well, I suppose you can't kill your subordinates." The class could not agree on anything else they thought was reprehensible.

On another occasion, he asked students whether they would dump carcinogens. On this the class reached consensus: they would do it, because if they did not, someone else would. Prof Giacalone asked whether they wanted to live in such a cynical world. "We already do," they replied.

Prof Giacalone recounts these experiences in the December issue of the Academy of Management's Learning & Education journal as part of an article on who was responsible for producing the leaders of Enron, WorldCom and other scandal-hit companies.

Read whole article on the FT web site.

This consultation covers a number of areas that could be developed into index criteria (& on the industry exclusions), and we are seeking public comment on these:

Climate Change and Environmental Performance;
Stakeholder Corporate Responsibility;
Governance of Corporate Responsibility

For more information and to take part visit http://www.ftse.com/ftse4good/MarketconsultationDec04.jsp . The consultation will be running to the end of January.