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October 2007
 Much has been written about top-down leadership and leaders who follow. But if you're like many who are responsible for defining their company's corporate citizenship strategy, you may often find yourself leading from the middle.
Over a two-year period, Center researchers analyzed eight members of the Executive Forum – Abbott Laboratories, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Agilent Technologies, JPMorgan Chase, Levi Strauss & Co., Petro-Canada, Unocal Corporation, and Verizon – to gain insights about how these practitioners brought about the type of internal change needed to integrate corporate citizenship in the company.
Some of these managers had senior executive support, others scarcely any high level support. In some cases they made substantial progress in the face of daunting business downturns.
 In watching these individuals navigate, The Center observed that they operated with a pragmatic approach to identifying and seizing opportunities rather than adhering to an overarching strategy with prescribed steps and activities. One participant described these opportunities as "handholds" to establish traction and create opportunities to align and integrate corporate citizenship company-wide.
These practitioners engaged in three distinct but overlapping types of activities to move citizenship forward in their companies:
- building knowledge of the company and of the landscape in which the company operates
- building relationships with corporate function and business unit managers
- taking catalytic action to align citizenship with the business, integrate it into the organization, and institutionalize it in policy, mindsets, and culture.
Building knowledge
By gaining broader and deeper knowledge of both their businesses and the context in which the business operates, the corporate citizenship managers could approach functional and business unit staff in conversations that focused on business problems and needs rather than just on corporate citizenship.
First they became familiar with business operations and issues. For example, at AMD citizenship managers participated in strategic conversations about marketing on several key products and initiatives, simultaneously gaining greater insight into marketing priorities and promulgating a citizenship perspective. This ultimately informed AMD's launch of its 50/15 program, which aims to get 50 percent of the world on the internet by 2015. On the business side, the program relies on a combination of new technology and supply-and-distribution channels; this is complemented by community partnering and programs to enlist and train users on the citizenship side.
Many of the corporate citizenship managers studied said that a key aspect of their role was "bringing the outside in," alerting and educating management on issues that were likely to develop into important industry specific or general social debates. The practitioners' awareness of anticipated legislation and new trends in such areas as compliance and codes of conduct enabled them to educate managers around their companies and created more credibility for themselves as business partners.
Building relationships
The corporate citizenship managers studied often operated with no formal authority and scant budget and staff. How, then, to accomplish their goals? By building alliances with like-minded and potential supporters. Grounded in deeper knowledge of the business, these managers opened new conversations, met people around their companies and established alliances in support of their goals. These conversations, too, added to their knowledge which, in turn, helped in developing relationships.
The most common cross-functional alliances were with EH&S, community affairs, and other externally-facing corporate functions such as public policy, procurement, and communications. Sometimes these relationships were driven by citizenship managers scouting for problems where they could insert themselves and build a business case. Abbot's global citizenship group, as one example, sought out the purchasing department as a partner because of issues of drug affordability and counterfeiting that were racking the entire industry.
Taking catalytic action
Finally, the managers took action, often building on and extending existing efforts. Again, their knowledge and relationships gave these actions relevance and commitment. They affirmed that networks, rather than hierarchy, drive change in practice.
The action phase often took place in three modes (although these often overlapped): aligning citizenship with the business, integrating it into the organization, and institutionalizing.
- Alignment: Aligning corporate citizenship requires connecting it with corporate purposes and business objectives across the company.
At Agilent, this meant aligning a variety of existing company activities under the broader umbrella of corporate citizenship. "It's a matter of getting others in the company to think that corporate citizenship is not a public affairs responsibility," said Gene Endicott, former public affairs director at Agilent. "It's about saying that our employee-relations practices are part of what we do as a corporate citizen. Our environmental, health, and safety practices are part of what we do as a corporate citizen. Same with being involved in the community: Align it and put it under a common heading. Being able to articulate — in a bold and declarative way — how different functions, programs, and operations connect to corporate citizenship seems to be a key step to aligning corporate citizenship and business goals."
- Integration: Integration means embedding shared corporate citizenship principles and responsibilities in business units and functional areas, which often means creating cross-unit systems, processes, and structures
At Petro-Canada, this meant shifting from corporate citizenship being led by three executives in community affairs, EHS, and human resources, to a new high-level governance structure and management system. After a lengthy internal assessment and research process, Petro-Canada created a director-level citizenship position and adopted a simplified corporate responsibility management system as a companion to the existing total loss management systems, including an Executive Corporate Responsibility Steering Committee that would set policy, oversee citizenship in the company overall and ensure accountability for compliance. As one of the leadership team commented, "To have somebody who wakes up thinking about corporate responsibility every day is great — it (helps) to bring all the pieces together and to organize and coordinate and think more strategically about it."
- Institutionalization: Institutionalizing corporate citizenship helps to ensure its durability by embedding it in a company's cultural identity and brand image. Firms like Johnson & Johnson, Herman Miller, and Timberland seem to have citizenship "DNA" that keeps their values and image constant in the face of changing economic, social, and ecological pressures. One powerful force for institutionalization is to connect citizenship to a corporate-wide understanding of the brand and business. As companies increasingly recognize the power of corporate citizenship in driving corporate reputation and ultimately, the value of the brand, we have begun to see more and more instances where statements of mission and values are able to make citizenship an integral part of a company's culture.
These strategies are described in greater detail in The Center's working paper, "Integrating Corporate Citizenship: Leading from the Middle."
» Download Integrating Corporate Citizenship: Leading from the Middle
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