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 Is CSR (corporate social responsibility) just another management acronym that gets mentally filed away along with all the other corporate spiel trotted out by internal communications departments? High performing businesses show a strong correlation between CSR activities and stronger performance in terms of productivity and profitability than other businesses, according to research. Ethical criteria are also becoming manifestly more significant in both purchasing and brand loyalty decisions among a growing proportion of consumers. The message to businesses is clear – ethical practice, CSR performance and the "bottom line" are more closely linked than ever. 
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Essential ReadingCSR - an introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also often referred to as business responsibility and an organisation's action on environmental, ethical, social and economic issues. The terms in the area can seem confusing if you don't know the jargon - but don't be put off by this.
CSR? What's that?
Corporate Social Responsibility may have become a hot topic in some management circles over the past few years, but for a significant proportion of ordinary employees, it is a complete irrelevance.
CSR minus HR = PR
HR practitioners have a crucial role to play in embedding a responsible approach to business in which employers 'live' company values rather than pay lip service to CSR.
CSR vital to the future of business
Corporate Social Responsibility is vital to the future of business CBI President Sir John Egan has told the organisation’s annual conference in Manchester. “A socially responsible approach to business is not inconsistent with profitable business.” he said. “Good corporate behaviour is good for business. And what's good for business is good for Britain."
How CSR can help manage risk
Positive actions that reduce the negative impact of an organisation on environmental, ethical, social and economic issues is one way of managing risk.
Latest on CSRPerformance-related pay doesn't encourage performanceRather than encouraging executives to work harder, performance-related pay may actually have the opposite effect. So isn't it time for a wholesale rethink?
Understanding whistle-blowersWhistle-blowers don't do what they do to cause trouble, but because they have tried to raise their concerns internally and have been blocked by their managers.
Failing to build trust in businessWinning public trust is a vitally important ingredient for success in business. So why do so few business leaders appear to make building and maintaining trust a priority?
A creative approach to executive payCompanies need to get more imaginative if they are going to take the poison out of the debate over executive pay, perhaps by putting bonuses into locked accounts that only pay out if long-term targets are met.
No sign of austerity in British boardroomsAmid all the talk of austerity, there has been precious little evidence of belt-tightening among Britain's top bosses over the past year, despite the value of their companies falling by a third.
How business can regain legitimacyThis recession has felt so bloody partly because our leaders have had to dismantle a business model focused on growth and adjust to a world of greater responsibility and state intervention. But without a new culture of transparency, business will struggle to regain its legitimacy.
Buddy, can you spare a corporate dime?Corporate philanthropy is becoming a distant memory as cash-strapped firms struggle to survive. And the long-term consequences for charities, sport and the arts could be profound.
Bonus curbs coming to a boardroom near youPresident Obama's tough new caps on executive pay may only apply to firms that have been bailed out by the government but it'll be a brave CEO who tries to argue that its effects will not ripple across the wider economy.
Will executive pay ever be the same again?Barack Obama is calling Wall Street bonuses "shameful" and UK politicians want to force companies to state the difference between their highest and lowest earners. But is this approach really how to get the best out of people?
Just how important are first impressions?Before they stepped into their private jets to fly to Washington and beg for billions from the public purse, perhaps the CEOs of Ford, GM and Chrysler should have realized that first impressions matter.
Will over-regulation strangle financial services?Onerous regulatory regimes such as Sarbanes-Oxley did nothing to prevent the current financial crisis. And more bureaucracy won't prevent problems in future. What we need is a regulatory environment that encourages fast, decentralized control, not a centralized, rules-based approach.
20 is the magic numberWhat gets rewarded usually gets done. So, when CEOs earn more than 364 times the pay of the average worker, it's only natural they will focus almost exclusively on short term, bottom-line results. There has to be a better way. So what is the appropriate way to pay a CEO?
Who guards the guards?All the discussion about how companies, particularly financial organisations, are regulated seems to be ignoring one glaring structural weakness. That is the erosion of the boundaries between a company's board and its management – between its leadership and management.
Strategy and the crashRobert Heller explains why the Second Great Crash is different from the First but all too similar to lesser crashes in between – and why it was completely avoidable.
Is CSR to blame for America's financial collapse?The collapse of America's financial system is as much down to an failure of corporate social responsibility as it is the arrogance and incompetence of the banking community.
Lax management leaves door open to fraudThe amount companies are losing to fraud is rising. And while you can blame crooked employees as much as you like, the primary cause is lax management.
What's happened to trust ?The Deutsche Telekom spying scandal is just the latest example of an organization in which trust has broken down. So is honesty on the decline in the business world? And if so, why?
Bribery rife despite anti-corruption effortsAlmost a quarter of senior executives admit that their organisation had been approached to pay a bribe in order to retain or win business in the last two years.
Employees the weakest link in IT securityWith staff wandering off site with memory sticks in their pockets, posting confidential information on the web and setting their password as "password", IT security policies count for very little.
Good governance can improve performanceWhile it may never get the blood racing, good corporate governance can boost a company's returns by nearly a fifth, new research has found.
MBA graduates spurn tainted jobsTraditional manufacturing industries are out, so are emerging markets. When it comes to deciding where to work, MBA graduates are increasingly choosy.
Boards learning to love CSRCorporate social responsibility was once dismissed something of a fluffy add-on. But with eight out of 10 top companies now reporting on it, boardrooms ignore it at their peril.
Preserving corporate reputationIn this age of instant communication, corporate boards need to recognise that reputations which took years to build up could be destroyed in a flash.
Fraud hits half of companiesWhile most British businesses believe they will never be ripped off by fraudsters, half will become the victims of fraud or other economic crimes.
David Bach on nonmarket strategyProfessor David Bach discusses the effect on competitiveness of nonmarket strategy – the way that companies manage relationships with governments, regulators, NGOs, the media and society at large.
Lawyers in the money as compliance climate bitesAmerica's demanding compliance climate means senior lawyers are increasingly commanding top-dollar salaries and bonuses.
The bottom line is not the bottom lineCorporations have been cutting corners and forsaking moral purpose in the pursuit of bigger profits for years. Yet as we continue to experience unnecessary illness, polution, death, and disease as a result, isn't it time we answered the question, "how much is enough?"
Integrity at work – how do you stack up?With the business sections of today's papers and magazines reading more and more like a police charge-sheet, "integrity" is fast becoming a hot topic of conversation in boardrooms and around water coolers.
Boardroom pay rises by a thirdBosses at Britain's biggest companies saw their pay rise by more than a third last year, with the average total package for a chief executive now nudging the £3m mark.
CSR has little impact on employment decisionsMost Americans may believe that corporations have responsibilities to their communities, but this doesn't mean that they are too fussy about CSR activities when it comes to evaluating job offers.
Earlier CSR Stories . . .
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