How does the firm act on its commitment to the corporate citizenship philosophy?
Corporate citizenship philosophy as declared by a firm are the set of ethical guidelines and principles that a firm works by to ensure it carries its ethical responsibilities to stakeholders over and above the requirements as stipulated by the law. A firm’s primary concern, is to work in a manner that is most beneficial to its stakeholders, whether they are primary or secondary stakeholders.
A firm takes several steps to ensure that it keeps its commitments to its corporate citizenship philosophy. Of course, a firm must first have such a philosophy that will entail all the tenets that the firm hopes to achieve. Then the firm ensures that the way it operates is in line with these tenets, and actions taken are directed towards their fulfillment.
The achievement of corporate philosophy occurs at different levels; at the employee, managers and directors’ level. At the employee level, the firm ensures that workers are aware of the ethical philosophy in place by putting it down in writing and actively encouraging employees to live by it. This might involve recognizing employees who are exemplary of the company’s corporate philosophy, and having some form of retribution for those who continually go against the philosophy. Managers are expected to lead by example, and thus are expected to embody the firm’s ethical philosophy. Director’s, who are charged with the responsibility of making decisions that might compromise the firm’s corporate philosophy, have the moral responsibility of making sure that their choices are in line with the firm’s corporate philosophy.
Corporate philosophy is important to the company’s identity, more so in this day and age where a firm’s reputability is determined by more than its profitability. A firm’s brand is very much affected by the quality of its moral fiber, and it is imperative that this be safeguarded.
Does it measure the extent to which it follows through by implementing initiatives?
It is of no use if a firm has a corporate philosophy that only looks good on paper but is not practiced; neither is it helpful if the philosophy has the appearance of being practiced without it being effectual. For the corporate philosophy to be considered effectual, then there must be diameters through which its effectiveness are measured,
These diameters are several; charity begins at home, and the first measure of how effective a firm’s corporate philosophy is, is determined by whether employees and managers abide by it. if the corporate culture is in line with the company’s philosophy, it means that the end objective of the philosophy is more likely to be achieved.
A corporate philosophy is always set with an objective in mind; the best measure of effectiveness is determined by whether there are tangible results to show that the set objective has been achieved. A corporate philosophy is set with consideration to stakeholder needs. When there is positive feedback from stakeholders, that their needs are being met- the firm is profitably run in a legal and ethically sound manner, and gives back to the community- then it means that the corporate philosophy is effective and delivers on expectations.
A measure of effectiveness of the corporate philosophy is looking at whether a firm has an active corporate social responsibility program that is suitable to its stakeholders. For this to be the case, it means that the firm has followed through on its corporate citizenship philosophy to the last: the firm is economically sound for it to be able to give back to the community, the firm is ethically sound because it cares for more than a wide profit margin, and the firm, if it has such deeply rooted ethics, should be one that is run in accordance with the requirements of the law.