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 In an atmosphere of growing expectations from a skeptical public, more companies recognize the value of effective corporate citizenship. This report by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship examines the corporate citizenship professionals who provide the necessary perspective for companies to avoid too closely focusing on today’s bottom line and blurring the big picture of tomorrow’s risks and opportunities.
Based on a survey of more than 600 professionals, “Profile of the Profession 2010: Corporate citizenship leaders for today and tomorrow” provides a snapshot of this profession, including the roles and responsibilities of its practitioners. The report offers a look at an emerging field of business management in which individuals come from diverse backgrounds and have a broad range of responsibilities from designing an overarching corporate citizenship strategy for the company to ensuring a responsible supply chain, to government relations, to managing volunteer programs.
In addition to facts and figures on their backgrounds, positions, salaries and duties, this report explores what motivates today’s corporate citizenship professionals, what are the critical challenges they face and what it takes for them to succeed.
Among the key findings of the survey is how central relationships are to succeeding in the profession. Building internal partnerships with other departments (86.3 percent), and building relationships with external stakeholders (84.2 percent), are most frequently cited by survey respondents as part their job responsibilities.
The survey also finds leadership is essential to the job, as the top three skills cited by respondents as the most critical to success were the ability to influence, leading/motivating others, and network building.
Going beyond the numbers from survey data, this report also offers examples of a day in the life of a corporate citizenship professional. These professionals come from diverse companies and their days reveal the wide variety of functions they perform.
Also included is a portrait of the “typical” corporate citizenship professional among respondents. Drawn from the most common survey responses, this is more a collage than a depiction of any single person. And through open-ended responses to survey questions, these professionals tell in their own words about the highs, the lows and the confounding aspects of their jobs and their field.
» Download a two-page summary of Profile of the Profession 2010 Key Findings
» Center members: Download the complete report: Profile of the Profession 2010: Corporate citizenship leaders for today and tomorrow (members only; login required)
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