Time for Advocacy

July/August 2007

Advocacy. What a loaded word for corporate insiders.

We are used to seeing this word in the context of campaigning NGOs, shareholder activists who are increasingly showing up at annual meetings, or in general as a description for a very proactive voice supporting a particular issue or cause. Rarely is it used to describe corporate behavior, especially related to pressing societal issues.

I have been thinking more about the role of advocacy in corporate citizenship as The Center has revised its educational programs over the past year. As we have moved to a competency-based learning approach, we have reexamined the competencies citizenship managers will need for 21st century leadership, which has led me to consider where advocacy belongs in the mix.

I began my professional career decades ago as a community organizer, a role where advocacy is at the very heart of organizing for social justice. When I reflect on this in light of corporate citizenship, I am beginning to think we may have put advocacy too far outside the corporate circle and it may indeed be time for advocacy in a new form.

Let me explain.

As defined in a recent Wikipedia citation, advocacy is “the act of arguing on behalf of a particular issue, idea or person. Individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments (for example at the level of the United Nations) can engage in advocacy.”

Now that certainly does not sound too threatening. So let’s relate that back to corporate citizenship.

Most companies have publicly stated values that they repeatedly drive into the business. Presumably these values are core to the very nature and purpose of the firm. They are often deeply felt and reflect who the company aspires to be and what is important to it.

So at the very foundational level, every company attempts to advocate for its values with employees and other external stakeholders such as customers, communities and investors, in order to ensure the purpose of the firm is understood and its related actions hold up to the light of accountability. In many cases the advocating of these values (quality, respect, etc.) are at the very heart of a company’s competitive advantage.

So how might advocacy be understood within the practice of corporate citizenship? I would suggest there are three levels: individual, organizational, and collective corporate advocacy.

Individual advocacy

The role of advocate is central to the role of those practicing or managing corporate citizenship. By utilizing philanthropic resources and employee engagement in community activities, an individual practitioner often advocates around selected causes and issues. The strength of that advocacy voice varies by individual, but the potential to create change, mobilize support and energize both the corporation and others in the community is at the heart of the corporate citizenship practitioner's role.

Because many managers know little or are ill-informed about corporate citizenship, people working on these issues need to advocate for a vibrant and effective citizenship program for the firm. This becomes not only an opportunity but an imperative. In an age where corporate citizenship can be a competitive advantage, advocacy can play a vital leadership role.

Organizational Advocacy

Citizenship emerges beyond the confines of headquarters or even satellite locations. Issues that are potential risks — and opportunities — are rooted in other business relationships, supply chains and neighborhoods. Companies may need to address corruption in developing countries, or labor issues within their supply chain.

But it is not simply the purview of one department to attempt to remedy a particular social issue in the community.

Assisting the CEO and others at the top of the organization to exercise leadership around critical social issues is emerging as a new competency, one that is particularly valued by leadership in companies where quickly changing dynamics around social issues (obesity, water, access to drugs) all pose potential threats when left unacknowledged and unaddressed. Because this often puts companies right in the middle of very politically charged issues, the role of advocate has to be managed with surgical precision to gain maximum advantage.

Collective Corporate Advocacy

Companies have long understood the value of creating a strong business voice on issues related to competitiveness. Groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable were brought together to advocate — or lobby, as it is more typically called in this context — for business interests.

Why shouldn’t this be the case for social issues as well?

As companies recognize the overlap between their business goals and the social and environmental issues affecting them, they increasingly need to find ways to weigh in on their interests. One example is Corporate Voices for Working Families, a group of 55 companies that have come together on a bipartisan basis to provide a corporate voice in the legislative arena on issues of working families. Another is the American Chemistry Council, which has brought companies together to set environmental standards such as Responsible Care  to provide an industry-wide voice on critical social and environmental issues.

Collective advocacy may be the next frontier as corporate citizenship continues to bump up against the shifting role of business in society.

Issues such as education, immigration, pensions and retirement, and health care all need business input. It is a very limited gain when business limits its involvement to philanthropy to address a community issue, while ignoring the larger set of issues posing growing risk to the competitiveness of American business.

It is time to reexamine the role of advocacy in corporate citizenship, not just around issues germane to a particular company, but around the collective political process where private, public and not-for-profit organizations can work together to insure maximum social and economic gain.

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