Corporations operate under the terms of a largely unwritten,
constantly changing social charter--a dictum as forceful as their
written legal charter. Wilson explores the rules that are beginning
to govern corporate performance, rules that arise from society's
ever changing values and expectations. Provoking these changes are
four formative forces: the power shift from the public to private
sector; globalization; economic restructuring; and, the
transforming technologies of the computer and communications
revolution. The rules emerging from them will dictate higher
standards and changed behavior in seven crucial areas of corporate
conduct. Wilson argues that corporate social responsibility is no
longer a peripheral public relations activity. Rather, it is an
integral part of corporate strategy. Trends may seem to be running
in corporations' favor, but the same trends also place greater
responsibility and higher public expectations on corporations. The
next decade, says Wilson, is likely to be a critical testing time
for democracy, market systems, and by extension the private
corporation. His book is a detailed analysis of the seven new rules
and what their impact will be on U.S. and ultimately world
corporations. Wilson concludes his book with a detailed agenda of
needed, and workable, corporate responses to the new rules and
cites the initiatives that many corporations are already taking to
live by them.
The seven new rules of conduct that corporations will have to
observe, sooner rather than later. (1) Legitimacy: to earn and
retain social legitimacy the corporation must define its mission in
terms of social purpose, rather than the maximization of profit.
(2) Governance: the corporation must be thought of, managed, and
governed as a community of stakeholders, not as the property of
investors. (3) Equity: corporations must strive to achieve greater
perceived fairness in the distribution of economic wealth and the
treatment of stakeholder interest. (4) Environment: corporations
will have to integrate the practice of restorative economics and
sustainable development into the mainstream of their business
strategy (5). Employment: they must rewrite the employment
contract, addressing the values of the new work force. (6)
Public-Private Sector Relationships: corporations must work with
governments to achieve a viable and publicly accepted redefinition
of their societal roles and responsibilities. (7) Ethical Conduct:
corporations will have to elevate and monitor the level of ethical
performance to earn the trust which is the foundation of sound
relations with stakeholder groups. Is all this impossible? Not at
all says Wilson, and he documents how many of America's most
successful companies are operating in whole or in part by these
rules already, and how others have begun doing so with immediate
positive results.
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