Corporate Responsibility: Perception Versus Reality
May 13, 2008
Edited by Jeremy Cohen
Maintaining a positive image of corporate responsibility can boost your sales and increase customer loyalty. But can you be sure your initiatives are effective? Recent research says most corporations can't be.
When it comes to corporate responsibility initiatives, it appears the people who design and implement them have a rosier view of their effectiveness than the outside consultants who counsel organizations on these efforts. This finding comes courtesy of a joint study by Sirota Survey Intelligence and the CRO, which looked at more than 200 corporate practitioners of CR efforts and providers of related services.
CR practitioners include executives and managers who have responsibility for developing and implementing their organizations' CR efforts. Providers of CR-related services include those who supply organizations with strategic advice and counseling, management consulting, communications solutions, research and development, training/education, advertising and public relations, and other services.
Among the differences between corporate practitioners of CR services and their outside providers are:
• 82% of practitioners rate their organizations favorably on their achievement of CR goals, but only 53% of providers say organizations' CR efforts have attained their objectives.
• 94% of practitioners rate their organizations favorably on being good corporate citizens, while only 65% of providers grade the organizations they serve as good corporate citizens.
• 93% of practitioners say they treat the communities in which they do business well, while only 65% of providers agree that organizations to which they supply consulting services treat their communities well.
• 88% of practitioners says their CR initiatives are relevant to the business, while only 60% of organizations that supply services to them agree that they are.
Discontent among the constituents of companies may be driving the big differences between CR practitioners and providers, according to Douglas Klein, president of Sirota. "The providers' survey results appear to be a surrogate for other constituent groups that are affected by the companies' CR programs," says Klein. "While further research needs to be conducted to validate the findings for other stakeholder groups, the gap indicates that companies hold a more favorable view of their CR efforts than those who these initiatives are supposed to benefit."
The views of CR practitioners and providers of CR-related services were closer when asked about developing partnerships with various constituencies:
• 62% of practitioners view their relationships with suppliers as partners, close to the 57% of providers who said organizations treat them like partners.
• Both practitioners and providers are less positive than in other areas about whether companies receive sufficient input from stakeholders, which is an important component of a partnership. 62% of practitioners said their organizations get enough input from stakeholders, while only 44% of providers rated this favorably.
• Most practitioners view relationships with their other constituents as partnerships, including 74% who regard customers and employees as partners, and 71% who consider communities as partners. Customers are rated the most important constituent group by practitioners, with employees rated the next most important.
"To optimize the investment in and benefits from CR, a partnership among various corporate constituencies needs be created," Klein says. "The alignment between the views of multiple corporate constituencies ensures sustained business success. However, organizations have yet to achieve that alignment."
"By surveying the opinions of key constituents on a regular basis, practitioners can learn how to close the gap between their views and those of providers," he adds.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
|
|
RSS
