Unknown Values and Stakeholders

This chapter deals with the responsibility reports of large global companies representing a variety of industries. Selected companies include Microsoft, McDonald’s, Total, Nike, as well as a weapons manufacturer.

This chapter shifts the attention to large national corporations which are not subject to international competition and sometimes they even enjoy monopoly power within the national borders. Telephony, Utilities and Railway are some of the companies studied.

We now consider the vast segment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which is subject to–mostly domestic–competition. We also review responsibility in the realm of non-profit organizations–not only charities but also those organizations that exist to make money for those they represent, such as business associations and trade unions. The latter may not be subject to much competition and we take due consideration of that.

The chapter initiates the discussion on the issue of responsibility and accountability of organizations that are largely shielded from competition (domestic or international). Such organizations include public administration which provides employment to millions of people and affects the socioeconomic life of a country significantly. Culture, language and legal systems are some factors that impede international benchmarking and accountability.

We continue the discussion started in the previous chapter focusing on organizations at the higher levels of public administration, as well as organizations of the political system in general, including elected and non-elected bodies such as parliaments, top posts in the executive branches, cabinets, ministers and secretaries.

Previous chapters dealt with the degree of accountability of several types of organizations. They also related the degree of accountability with the degree of exposure to competition. The following chapter shifts our attention to the consequences of the lack of accountability with respect to employment.

In the last chapter we introduced and explained the concept of competitive divide. Here, we elaborate more on the issue and we develop a new type of socioeconomic inequality as defined by the competitive divide, namely, employees who are subject and are not subject to competition.

In Chapter 9 we analyze the nature of responsibility and propose four generalizations about it. From observation of distinctive CSR content in the cases examined in our first chapters, we derive four generalizations about responsibility: (1) responsibility always exists, independent of the awareness of the responsible person or organization; (2) awareness can be gained of one’s own responsibility; (3) an organization can manage its own responsibility; (4) a responsibility report is the vehicle for accounting for an organization’s awareness and management of its own responsibility.

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We now move to demonstrate a process framework of social responsibility in organizations. After having recognized that irresponsibility is the norm, an organization can start thinking about how to limit the level of such irresponsibility. A first step in this process is the identification of the unknown stakeholders.

The abstract is published online only. If you did not include a short abstract for the online version when you submitted the manuscript, the first paragraph or the first 10 lines of the chapter will be displayed here. If possible, please provide us with an informative abstract.

The abstract is published online only. If you did not include a short abstract for the online version when you submitted the manuscript, the first paragraph or the first 10 lines of the chapter will be displayed here. If possible, please provide us with an informative abstract.

The abstract is published online only. If you did not include a short abstract for the online version when you submitted the manuscript, the first paragraph or the first 10 lines of the chapter will be displayed here. If possible, please provide us with an informative abstract.

Business corporations–much more than public administrations–go to great lengths to show themselves responsible before the public. These efforts are summarized and presented in documents that are very similar to financial statements (which also have the same finality) to the point that they share part of the name: responsibility reports or sustainability reports vis-à-vis annual reports.

In this chapter we show how organizations which are not exposed to market competition -such as organizations of public aministration- could implement the previously described framework. Specifically we show how these organizations could provide meaningful accountability reports that a) inform the public and, b) help these organizations improve.

Innovation comes about when it is mature from an intellectual point of view (Kuhn 1970). Parallel to the stakeholder analysis we performed in Chap. 8, we also need to consider the professions that can produce the knowledge we need to become aware of the inequality of working conditions across the competitive divide. Like other inequalities–and in the responsibility and accountability of organizations not subject to competition–this analysis is not evident per se. We have introduced a process framework to detect responsibility and accountability within organizations (Chap. 15) and case histories to illustrate responsibility and accountability across organizations (Chap. 16). Now we want to consider the skills that are necessary and the professionals that work in the field of responsibility and accountability. Currently, accountants and public relations professionals are in a better position vis-à-vis organizations to perform the role of the mentor towards responsibility and accountability. However, our reformulation of responsibility in the core activities of organizations requires more skills as it is useful to have in mind a model of what the organization is about in order to report about it.