Flying back to London last night, I bumped into a very inspirational individual who reminded me of what it is I want to achieve in life, and who enhanced my drive to do so. While I should have probably made full use of the 1 hour 30 minute opportunity to sell myself, I found myself taking in valuable lessons of life, passion and career instead, listening to his stories of failure and success and the coincidences behind them.
I explained to him that I was a recent PR graduate with an interest in landing a job in corporate social responsibility (CSR). He was a senior conflict specialist with more than a few impressive roles behind him in international affairs. I listened with profound interest as he shared his stories from Iraq, the Balkans, Palestine, Somalia and Indonesia, to name a few of the places he had made his mark.
While I could focus this blog post on the lessons I learned from him, I am instead going to focus it on a small comment he made during our conversation, which has relevance to communicators who, like me, believe that PR has the potential to be more than just a field existing to engineer a climate of consent to foster a favourable environment for an organisation. Rather, I believe, communicators hold a role in which they can truly contribute to creating mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and its stakeholders, and should actively seek to do so.
You see, when I mentioned that I was a PR graduate and interested in working in CSR, my travel companion automatically assumed that my intentions were purely financial, rather than being related to the true essence (I believe) of CSR and communications; namely that communicators hold a unique role in organisations, from which they have an opportunity to build truly sustainable relationships between the organisation and its publics; and not simply exercise ‘green washing’ or ‘window dressing’ as he (and many others) assume. In fact, if PR is to accomplish its self-declared aim of building mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and its publics, it has no choice but to own up and practise transparency and accountability; and CSR communication is the ideal starting point.
“Next time you introduce yourself as a PR graduate with an interest in CSR, you should elaborate your humanitarian interest,” he said, continuing: “for obvious reasons, one does not associate PR and CSR with more than just window dressing.” He had a point, and indeed couldn't be the only one with that understanding of PR. After all, it is no secret that the profession does not (ironically) have the best of reputations.
Indeed, as my flight companion pointed out, the notion of CSR as a strategic reputation management tool has received much criticism. Internally, business owners have enjoyed the multiple reputational benefits that CSR communication has brought to their businesses. Externally, the relationship between public relations and corporate social responsibility has for long been under the scrutiny of critics. In 2008, for example, Lawrence and Webber stated that many believed that “social responsibility is nothing but a clever public relations smokescreen to hide business’s true intentions to make as much money as possible,” and prominent characters such as Peter Frankental of Amnesty International has suggested that there are paradoxes evident in the application of organization’s CSR efforts and that rather than embracing their real duty to society, CSR has become a ‘PR invention’.
However, a bit or research, to my delight, seems to identify that all of this has the potential to be changing. I dare to make this statement because while people differ in what they aim for in their social life, they are very much alike in what they find harmful or strive to avoid. Thus, as a result, a growing number of people in modern societies, expect that large companies become more involved in seeking solutions to societal problems that go beyond their direct sphere of influence or core competences. Moreover, consumers have woken up to the fact that they, to a large extent, can control companies in their purchasing behaviour and that often, they have more power over companies than they do over governments.
As a result, hands-on examples of philanthropic achievements no longer fills the gap. The emergent CSR is much more comprehensive. People in modern societies expect corporations to achieve benchmark financial results and not only to avoid scandal, but to consistently meet social, environmental and political standards. Consequently, during the last 50 years, companies have progressively assumed responsibilities which are beyond their economic activities within the social sphere.
For example, a global study carried out by Havas in 2010 found that 74% of consumers believe that businesses bear as much responsibility for driving positive change as governments. With such a number, it is to be assumed that the famous assertion of Milton Friedman discussing CSR in 1970, declaring that business’s only responsibility is to maximise profits for shareholders and therefore social responsibility is anti-business, is swiftly becoming obsolete.
The Millennial Generation (anyone born somewhere between 1980 and 1999), specifically, cares strongly about corporate behaviour and the motivations behind it. The group, together with the growing crowd of ‘prosumers’ who are proactive, empowered and engaged consumers, are leading the charge of change and are not satisfied with corporate philanthropy ‘made in the twilight of stellar careers’; they expect business to improve now.
In fact, 80% of consumers believe that they carry the responsibility to censure unethical companies by avoiding their products. The Millennials, in particular, are true to their cause, with 84% agreeing that it is their duty to change the world, and almost equally many, 82%, believing that their generation has the power to bring about global change. Thus, the punishment for those corporations falling short can have fatal consequences to business.
As a result, business strategy is swiftly changing as business leaders have started to reassess their roles in society. Many of these leaders are young entrepreneurs, who have decided that financial profit is not everything, and are therefore starting new brand ventures. Thomas Edison famously stated: “I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent it;” a drive which is very similar to that of some of the emerging Millennial Generation leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg, while he might be perceived as an 'overused' example, is also one of the best examples of a model for his generation; the Millennial Generation. One of the richest entrepreneurs in the world, his motivation to create Facebook was not to monetize it but to ‘accomplish a social mission to make the world more open and connected’. Commenting on the above statement, corporate reputation guru Van Riel (2012) stated that the emerging business leader attitude should serve as a notice to stakeholders everywhere, that a new generation of business leaders has ‘entered the arena’. The new generation, ”leads with reputation-based thinking and actions, not the 20th century brand building or “slow and steady wins the race” strategies.”
Van Riel’s warning of a new generation of business leaders who lead with reputation based thinking and actions, and the above statement, should serve as an eye opener to the future challenges of business leaders and the next generation of public relations executives, alike. However, while the non-conjunction of PR and CSR continues to be widely debated, it is of importance to take note of the fact that the next generation of public relations practitioners themselves, belong to the Millennial Generation and can therefore be expected to demand change on an equal level to their non-PR generational counterparts.
The next generation of PR executives has the ability to reshape businesses as they gradually begin to replace older generations. Here, employees can constitute a highly positive or negative force for a brand and can become powerful advocates if they passionately believe in the business. Therefore, it is with no emphasis of say that public relation practitioners who are truly passionate about their cause, not only have the ability to change businesses, but also have the ability to change the image of CSR as a strategic public relations management tool.
Who is with me?
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