Cross-sectorial, dynamic, and innovative partnerships are essential to resolve the challenges of humankind in the 21st century. At the same time, trust in each other’s integrity and good will is a ...precondition for the solution of any complex problem, and certainly for the success of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda. Experience shows that a nation’s economic and social success is at its greatest if, and when, there is cooperation and even cocreation involving a fair division of labor and responsibility among the different societal stakeholders. This paper uses Ralf Dahrendorf’s seminal work on obligations, as well as the European Commission’s Science with and for Society unit’s definition of responsible research and innovation (RRI), to motivate industry responsibilities to make the world a healthier place.
Today’s social, economic, ecological and political state-of-affairs, the lack of confidence in business and political leaders and the associated rise of populist parties pose new and structurally ...different challenges to mankind. They are likely to be deepened in the course of the implementation of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. While all societal actors are called upon to reflect on their contribution to necessary reforms, business has a particularly important role to play. Competing with integrity today means much more than compliance with law and regulation. The article discusses the necessity of top manager’s reflection on values and coherent practical action and uses the World Ethos body of thought as a compass. It also draws attention to the complexity of such a values management and stresses the importance of ethical leadership.
Today there is a growing wave of demands being placed upon the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to improved access to medicines for poor patients in the developing countries. 1 This article aims ...to contribute to the development of a systematic approach and broad consensus about shared benchmarks for good corporate practices in this area. A consensus corridor on what constitutes an appropriate portfolio of corporate responsibilities for access to medicines -especially under conditions of 'failing states' and 'market failure' 2 – is not only in the interest of the world's poor, but also of corporations that want to contribute to the solution of one of the most significant social problems of our time.
In recent years society has come to expect more from the "socially-responsible" company and the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in particular has resulted in some critics saying that the "Big Pharma" ...companies have not been living up to their social responsibilities. Corporate social responsibility can be understood as the socio-economic product of the organizational division of labor in complex modern society. Global poverty and poor health conditions are in the main the responsibilities of the world's national governments and international governmental organizations, which possess society's mandate and appropriate organizational capabilities. Private enterprises have neither the societal mandate nor the organizational capabilities to feed the poor or provide health care to the sick in their home countries or in the developing world. Nevertheless, private enterprises do have responsibilities to society that can be categorized as what they must do, what they ought do, and what they can do.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Corporate citizens - companies competing with integrity - have a role to play in a contrat social against extreme poverty. It is they and their contribution to solving the poverty crisis that form ...the focus of this article. Poverty alleviation, even within an enlightened business context, will only be felt by those who can benefit from the product and services markets or from the income opportunities arising from local production facilities and other employment opportunities. Where this is not the case, normal business activity cannot "lift the boats" of those living in extreme poverty. Conventional "doing well by doing good" philanthropy is also unlikely to reach the poorest billion. For them to escape the poverty trap, support programs in the form of low-cost, proven, and effective interventions are needed. Such programs could be implemented on a broad scale if substantial additional resources were made available through the top of the corporate responsibility pyramid. Corporations could make history by assisting one billion "lower class poor" caught in a vicious circle of socioeconomic underdevelopment to escape the poverty trap.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
This article responds to the review of Hemphill and Lillevik, "The Global Economic Manifesto: A Retrospective." It aims to contribute to the worldwide discussion of global accepted norms and values ...of corporate behavior by addressing universal ethical principles and implementation strategies. A focus is set on the means of specifying values to serve the action orientation of an organization and its management. Since external normative expectations rise in context of the upcoming Post-2015 Development Agenda, corporate responses need to take local specifics as well as international accepted norms into account. Therefore, a distinctive implementation design is outlined. Key strategic steps contain elements such as (1) awareness of common values, (2) differing consequences due to cultural environments and economic conditions, (3) integration of practical experience to gain impact-related insights, and (4) fostering global leadership education. Consequently, corporate value management approaches and Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda are connected through universal values.
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Most corporate stakeholders agree that Corporate Responsibility (CR) ought to be part of modern business management and practice. Academic work has been seminal to a fruitful and collaborative ...relationship between business and society. A closer examination of the contemporary academic narratives on CR, however, reveals a plethora of positions orbiting this complex construct, rendering it and its applications opaque, amorphous, and contested. The bewildering array of conceptualizations and applications leads not only to unintended consequences but also to concrete negative outcomes for most stakeholders. In this study, we map the conceptual landscape of CR in academia by systematically analyzing 120 audio and video recordings of university sponsored or endorsed CR-focused workshops, business meetings, interviews, lectures, conference presentations, roundtable events, and debates held between 2010 and 2014 and deposited at the media repository iTunesU. The recordings were analyzed using Content Configuration Analysis, a qualitative analysis method related to content and thematic analyses. Our results show how business ethics in academia are often debated in opposition to or independent from business and economic concerns. We highlight seven shortcomings within this conceptual space, relating to conceptual disunion, Eurocentrism, lack of specificity with regard to domains, stakeholder bias, areas of application, and normativity. Recommendations to overcome some of these shortcomings are presented to develop policy-relevant and change-oriented approaches to CR, which would make academic work on business ethics more applicable to globalized business and business practices, as well as to further develop collaborative partnerships between academia, business, and society.
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Providing access to medicines and health care is one of the most challenging issues facing society today. In this paper the author highlights some of the complexities of the health value chain as ...well as the problems that the world's poor have in terms of access to medical care and medicines. He then attempts to delineate the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders in order to define the specific corporate responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies in the context of the entire responsibility system—the strength of which is determined by its weakest link. Finally, he looks forward to a transformational change being wrought for pro-poor health development by forging new coalitions that cut across both the health and traditional development stakeholders.
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Business enterprises can play a pivotal role in the global implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and support all efforts to realize a future we want for all. To do this, they ...must compete with integrity in a complex manner: on the one hand they have to be successful in a particular foreign market and understand the needs as well as live up to the expectations of its customers. They must, therefore, become "part of" the societies they are engaged in and, to a significant extent, adapt to their cultural features. On the other hand, international business enterprises must comply with international norms and live up to the expectations of media and civil society representatives in high-income countries. The author shows ways and means to manage the issues arising due to cultural diversity and normative pluralism. He recommends that transnational corporations develop a transcultural responsibility framework that builds upon the knowledge base about normative principles and values that at all times have been shared by all cultures, accepted by all religions, and supported by common practical experience. He also recommends amending leadership profiles accordingly.
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