Soft touch: The gap between
business rhetoric and reality is causing problems at the Institute for
Public Policy Research (IPPR).
The 'left-leaning' think
tank's latest
report, based on a survey of 500 UK company directors, finds that
while there's plenty of business chatter about the importance of
corporate social responsibility (CSR), most companies fail to
implement effective social or environmental policies.
This hasn't gone down too well at the Institute of Directors (IoD)
which commissioned the report.
The IoD disagrees with the IPPR's interpretation of the results so much
that it's published its own summary. Unlike the IPPR, it regards the
results as another opportunity for yet another CSR good news story.
Ella Joseph, who wrote the IPPR report, told Newsnight's Stephanie
Flanders yesterday:
'I was really surprised by the IoD's
response. We'd be the first to praise, promote, endorse positive
company behaviour and we're absolutely delighted by some of the
findings around workforce policy.
'However we do think that where companies say they have a policy but
don't actually evaluate whether that policy is effective, we need to
change that situation.' [BBC
Newsnight].
It sounds as though the IPPR is tired of greenwash: corporate PR
designed to pre-empt any broad critique of business practice.
Pushing for 'soft' regulation,
it wants CSR company audits standardised and published widely to all
interested parties - workers, consumers, the community and
shareholders. [Observer].
Meanwhile, the government sticks to the voluntary approach. Business -
Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Global Crossing, WorldCom, Tyco, Arthur
Andersen, Martha Stewart, Enron - gets to decide its own code of
conduct.
