Microsoft Corp, one of the earliest companies to extend benefits to gay employees, has recently come under fire from gay rights groups, politicians and its own employees for withdrawing its support for a Washington State bill that would bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The measure failed in the state's Senate by a single vote.

"The uproar over Microsoft Corp.'s change of position on Washington's gay rights legislation is causing its top executives to ponder when -- and whether -- a company should take official stands that go beyond the basic business of making and selling products," write Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters Todd Bishop and Dan Richman. (Read the entire article.)

"Experts in corporate citizenship say Microsoft's situation illustrates a difficult question faced by many large companies -- especially on divisive social issues where there is no consensus among employees, executives, shareholders and customers," say the authors, who spoke with Center executive director Bradley Googins.
 
"Increasingly, companies are going to be faced with issues like this," said Bradley Googins, executive director of Boston College's Center for Corporate Citizenship. "Most companies will look at this and say, 'I better pay attention to this because we're going to be facing this same thing.' And if they're not, they should."

Googins said he expects more businesses to be faced with the same kind of PR problem that's fallen on Microsoft.
 
"Businesses today are right square in the middle of all sorts of real thorny dilemmas because of the shifting nature between the role of business in society and business in government."

The article also quotes David Batstone, a professor of social ethics at the University of San Francisco and author of "Saving the Corporate Soul."

Although a number of U.S. companies have taken stands on sometimes-controversial social issues, then built their brand and customer base around them, says Batstone, more and more companies these days are shifting into the same neutral stance Microsoft ultimately took.
 
"The trend is away from a company taking a political position that doesn't directly relate to its own business interests," he said. "You're going to have board members and shareholders make a passionate argument that that's not what we're in business to do."

Googins told AP writer Elizabeth Gillespie that he expects more businesses to be faced with the same kind of PR problem that's fallen on Microsoft.
 
"Businesses today are right square in the middle of all sorts of real thorny dilemmas because of the shifting nature between the role of business in society and business in government."

Read the entire AP article.