4.  Corporate Social Responsibility

In this chapter we outline and review the modern approach to corporate social responsibility and compare it to the classical approach, using many examples from around the globe to acknowledge the progress being made by businesses and governments, while still acknowledging that this element of strategic leadership is not fully mature in most organisations. Stakeholders are increasingly turning their attention to non-financial organisational outcomes, which for leaders mean that they must face into the challenges of tradeoffs in satisfying those stakeholders, while seeking to formulate strategies that are win-win, across dimensions of ‘People-Planet-Profit’, that will see their organisations well positioned in the medium and longer terms. We cite many corporate examples of how CSR work and activities are rapidly becoming mainstream and indeed core to organisations’ work, including resource allocation and other strategic decisions. Noting the prevalence of published corporate CSR and sustainability reports, it is noted that a broader stakeholder approach and longer-term sustainable development initiatives are providing advantage to many organisations in attracting talented employees, customers and investors, more than ever before.