Corporate Citizenship - How To Achieve And Sustain It
Schools realize that encouraging kids to play a positive and active part in the community is considered good citizenship and adults would do well to remind themselves that it is just as important for them to be good role models. Teach them that even though they are just beginning their careers, everything they do has the potential to impact a community, both negatively and positively. One major key to achieving sustainable performance and good corporate citizenship is to be a good business role model that includes integrity of the highest standards, legal conformance, appropriate administration practices and management systems.
After September 11, all big companies are expected to practice good citizenship on a corporate level or corporate philanthropy. Shortly thereafter, companies were asked to produce both social and environmental reports, but only about 1/4 of them have even attempted to do so and even those fell short of the required standards in many cases. There are four areas that are used to track a company’s citizenship rating and they include Operational Transparency, The Workplace, Community Help and Engagement and Sustainability.
Operational Transparency is a key area that is watched. It pertains to gaining the public’s trust by being more open about the different processes, which include both successes and setbacks. This information is obtained by getting feedback from its members. Another key area of corporate citizenship is Community Engagement, which basically means how much a company encourages its employees to participate by donating and volunteering both resources and time dealing with different areas of the community development.
As you can see, this type of sustainability and citizenship goes beyond the normal scope of finances, as that only really tells one side of the story. Corporate giving includes a strong sense of responsibility to the community and that in turn leads to a higher rated performance.
A company should provide all employees, regardless of level or location, with leadership training. The next key element is Workplace and creating a working environment that is conducive to diversity, education and good environmental practices. The final key element of corporate citizenship is Sustainability. A company may have an internal recycling program but their employees also pledge community help by making important changes, both at home and at work. This program is applied to support good environmental choices and practices.