Comments on: Responsible Business Practice Terminology: The Normal Chaos or Total Confusion?

By: Zubair Ahmed

Zubair Ahmed — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:53:00 +0000

so your outcome suggests CSR and corporate responsibility if the most important factor?

Z^A
classified

By: Home Business Ideas

Home Business Ideas — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:45:00 +0000

Corporate societal responsibility had many approaches that’s why it has the highest percentage.

By: mfarney

mfarney — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:13:27 +0000

I never took the time to interpret all the terms I hear daily but now that I've read this article I realize there are at least two terms for the same action or product. It must be confusing indeed, especially for someone who's new in this field. Is there a way to canonicalize business terms?
Mathew Farney | Trianz

By: mfarney

mfarney — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:13:27 +0000

By: FabianPattberg

FabianPattberg — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:06:34 +0000

Hello everyone. Thank you again for all your comments. They are so useful.

Here are my comments on the three newer comments:

@Adam: I agree. CSR will stay quite popular for some time I guess.

@Raisa: I have not really heard of Corporate Societal Responsibility. Do you have a reference for the usage by any chance?

@Tom: I also like these two terms Corporate Social Performance or Corporate Social Strategy. But as Adam pointed out I guess CSR will stay popular for some time to come.

Any more comments on the results?

By: Naming standards and the FTSE100 | Corporate Eye

Naming standards and the FTSE100 | Corporate Eye — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:51:46 +0000

[...] Fabian Pattberg recently ran a poll, asking which of the following would be the best term to describe this: [...]

By: FabianPattberg

FabianPattberg — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:06:34 +0000

By: Tom Snell

Tom Snell — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:29:11 +0000

Very interesting results, and it would be great if business leaders could come to some sort of a consensus and try to increase consistency. I use CSR, because I think that it's the best and most commonly recognized term, but at the same time I believe that it has its flaws. I think that all organizations, not only businesses, should measure the impacts that they have on their stakeholders and strive to improve them. There are many NGO's, public institutions, and other organizations that might have social missions, but have poor social responsibility track records in one area or another (HR practices, environmental impacts, etc..). Although I know you were only looking responsible 'businesses' practices, I think that we should start looking at every organization's responsible practices. So in my opinion, that's why the 'Corporate' is problematic in CSR.

I also think that the word 'Responsibility' turns a lot of small and medium sized business owners off to the entire concept of CSR. There are a lot of different ways to promote responsible business practices, and I think that focusing on the benefits to the organization is one of them. In order to engage in CSR initiatives that are beyond what's merely legal, the business should see some positive long term benefits, whether its improved recruiting, increased employee commitment and retention, higher levels of innovation, energy cost savings, increased sales, stronger partnerships, etc.. That way stakeholder groups will continue supporting the initiatives, as they produce both economic AND social value. So, the word responsibility might be a turn-off since it is telling business owners that it is their responsibility to go above what's merely legal, rather than it is good business to go above what's merely legal. And no one likes being told what they have to do. So for awhile I started using Corporate Social Performance or Corporate Social Strategy, but CSR seems to be the more recognized and accepted term.

By: Raisa

Raisa — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:19:26 +0000

Where's the term Corporate Societal Responsibility? That's what we really mean, isn't it? Companies or organisations being responsible in their operations and activities towards the society as a whole – economically, ecologically and socially.

By: Adam Garfunkel

Adam Garfunkel — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:13:48 +0000

One additional point about terminology is to consider perspective. From the point of view of a company, 'corporate' is arguably redundant. Indeed the alcohol sector has long talked about 'social responsibility', although the sector uses it in the narrow sense of responsible marketing and responsible consumption.

On the other hand, the 'social' is pretty bleeding obvious. I mean CSR is about how a business impacts on 'society' after all. Dropping the 'social' also means the end of that mis-stated phrase 'corporate and social responsibility' which drives me bonkers because it shows how poorly understood the concept is. Gladly I don't hear this much nowadays.

But TLAs (three letter acronyms - see what I did there ;-0) are always popular because we like to speak in threes. So I see 'CSR' remaining popular for some time.