Corporate Citizenship: Lost in Translation

June 2007

As someone managing corporate citizenship, do you sometimes get the feeling that nobody really understands what you do?

I do. It's bad enough when people outside of corporate citizenship inevitably ask: "So what is this corporate citizenship/responsibility?" It gets positively discouraging when your own kids or parents say they don't understand what you do. I used to pass this off as the price of dealing with new concepts.

But now that citizenship is appearing with greater frequency in the media and within company activities, I think we have to pay a bit more attention to the challenge of communicating what we do and the price we pay for allowing a common understanding of corporate citizenship to remain up in the air.

We've all been frustrated with the multiplicity of names that mark essentially the same territory: sustainability, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and corporate responsibility, to name the most prominent. Although I have given up on the idea of calling a summit to gain a consensus on a common language, I will say this lack of common terminology even within the fraternity of those practicing (whatever you call it) is a hindrance as we try to communicate and engage those inside and outside of the company in developing excellence.

The Center has chosen to use corporate citizenship as an expression of how we view the roles and responsibilities of business in society, understanding that others will lead with their names and definitions. We hope our own approach does not contribute too greatly to the persistent confusion that remains with the public at large.

But beyond this nettlesome problem of nomenclature and terminology lies an even more pressing problem for this field: the challenge of translating the nature and importance of citizenship to a broad array of stakeholders.

The concepts of citizenship and even triple bottom line have been around in most companies for more than 15 years, and it gets translated throughout the company in many different ways. Not unlike spores of a plant that float into the wind stream and spread every which way, a person's understanding of citizenship is most often shaped by his or her experience. For some it is through the annual United Way campaign. For others it has to do with environmental practices that are introduced into products, services and processes of the business. Those are the positive ways.

For others it is when their company is embarrassed by a product recall or environmental mishap. And for too many it is through an inconsistent message between the company's external citizenship practices and the treatment of employees inside the company. One senior scientist at a life science firm recently scoffed at the widely acclaimed citizenship of his company because of the poor way issues of downsizing, relocation and the basic communication about the future of the business were handled.

For all of these there is an essential breakdown, and the essence of citizenship gets lost in translation. If you took a poll across your company my guess is that you would get a broad range of understanding about the company's citizenship. Some of this is due to a colleague's experience of citizenship — positive and negative — and the "buzz" that is present in the particular location or network within which an individual employee moves.

Citizenship also gets translated over geographic and generational boundaries, which create more difficulty. Consider these translation challenges:

• Translation to the brand. There is a growing recognition that citizenship is a significant and increasing factor in brand recognition and value. Leading companies are bring their marketing and citizenship folks together to better align citizenship to the brand, and develop strategies that incorporate existing citizenship values and activities to enhance the brand and create new value-added dimensions for the company.
  
  
• Translation to new entrants to the workforce. There is growing data that the newest generation now entering the workplace places great value on a company's citizenship when deciding where they will work. Salary alone and contributing to profits are not enough for many in this generation, who are seeking a company that contributes actively to addressing and solving the social and environmental problems of the planet.
  
  
• Translation across the globe. As business becomes global, the translation of citizenship becomes even more challenging. Cultures and traditions of citizenship differ markedly, as do the basic issues of the role of government, labor laws, and NGOs. Translating across these dimensions and maintaining a consistency throughout the company is becoming one of the more challenging frontiers facing the corporate citizenship manager.
  
  
• Translation to external stakeholders. As difficult as it is to translate citizenship internally, imagine how this gets translated outside the relatively controlled environment of the company itself. The ability to communicate clearly with an awareness of how corporate citizenship links to business strategy is essential. Take, for example, this exchange which happened recently at an annual meeting of a Fortune 500 company. Question: "What are you doing to alleviate poverty?" Answer: "We are not in the poverty alleviation business." That answer provides no indication of the company's citizenship strategies, which, in fact, include providing billions of dollars in new innovative technology that is having a major impact on the planet and its poorest people.

Getting everyone on the same page regarding a company's corporate citizenship requires a great deal of effort to communicate, with great clarity and frequency, the citizenship value proposition. But translation has to flow to every employee on several basic levels including: 1) What is it? 2) Why is this critical to the company and its business? 3) What role should I be playing? 4) What opportunities are there for me to contribute to our citizenship efforts?

Those operating in the corporate citizenship space have to develop a new competency of translating the value and practice of citizenship inside and outside the company, locally and globally, and proactively, not reactively.

As citizenship becomes a more valued part of business success, we have to learn the lessons from the quality movement. It is not enough to raise the banner within the workplace. Everyone in the enterprise has to understand what it is, why it is important, and how to communicate that to outside stakeholders. What is most exciting in today's business world is that executives are now looking at corporate citizenship less as a risk avoidance measure and more a means for new opportunities.
 
There is a growing thirst from employees, customers, and even investors in understanding and contributing to strong citizenship in the company. Taking pride in the purpose and contribution of today's company to society may require multiple translations, but the payoff seems to be more and more rewarding — financially and personally.