Dialogue for Sustainability: Implementing Responsible Business or ‘Going Native’?

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In recent years, increased pressure from civil society and NGOs in particular, has heightened the need for companies to seek to effectively engage with their critics. As the notion of Corporate Responsibility has come to the fore in the business world, there has been a rapid expansion in the commitment to stakeholder engagement and dialogue processes.

While many NGOs have been relatively sceptical of the potential of such dialogue processes, the opportunities for dialogue with corporations with whom these groups have largely had an antagonistic and often conflictual relationship, represents an interesting challenge. Failure to engage can be seen as a negative response to a potential opportunity to influence and change business practice, while participation brings with it many perils and pitfalls.

This paper utilises findings from a three year Economic and Social Research Council funded project focused upon examining CSR engagement and dialogue processes in the UK. It examines the impact of dialogue upon the reshaping of business activities and the pressures and barriers confronting individuals seeking to forward, or work within, the CSR agenda within their organisations. The paper questions whether we are witnessing the development of a new form of CSR professional active within both the business and NGO spheres, and how the individuals adopting these roles are bringing issues of socially and environmentally responsible business, and the lessons from business-NGO dialogue, into the centre of their organisations activities.

Stream: Economic Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Dr. Burchell's work focuses upon the two themes of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. While he currently works in the Management School at the University of Sheffield, his early research focused upon the fields of environmental politics, green parties and movements and the rise of anti-corporate campaigning. His most recent research has focused upon the shaping of the language and discourse of CSR and the impact of dialogue and engagement strategies between businesses and civil society actors. He is the author of The Corporate Social Responsibility Reader (2008; Routledge) and The Evolution of Green Politics: Development and Change within European Green Parties (2002 Earthscan).

Dr Cook's research centres upon the fields of citizenship and flexible employment, gender and ageing and corporate social responsibility. Her recent research has focused upon the citizenship and participation of older women from minority ethnic groups, user involvement in research and policy, and on processes of stakeholder dialogue on corporate social responsibility focusing on the impact dialogue has upon the traditional relationships between NGO's and Businesses and on corporate policy and practice.