CORPORAT

E SOCIAL Kevin Gillan

RESPONSIBI Kevin.Gillan@manchester.ac.uk

LITY
  Lecture 1. Social Movements: Pursuing Alternative
Values
 How do movements construct alternative values?
 What strategies give movements power to pursue

TOPIC those values?

 Lecture 2. Corporate Social Responsibility: Beyond
OVERVIEW the Profit Motive?
 To what extent is CSR a response to criticisms of
corporations by movements and other groups?
 Does CSR involve corporations acting on values other
than traditional economic value?
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS RECAP
 Movements as collective actors with values and interests that bring them into conflict with
(perceived) systems of power.
 Values negotiated and expressed through interpretative frames and collective identities.
 Movements act through a variety of tactics to create social change.
 Many tactics associated with an indirect strategy: expressing dissent (worthiness, unity,
numbers, commitment) to persuade power holders.
 But some tactics based on a direct action strategy: attempting to have an unmediated impact on
the social problem or targeted opponent to make change without reliance on other institutions.
STRATEGIC LOGICS OF
PROTEST
Indirect Direct
• WUNC displays depend on appeal to • Direct action preferred by those who
authority to act. have no trust in authorities to act on
• Assumes reasonably democratic polity. their behalf.
• E.g. marches, rallies, public meetings, • Action intended to have a direct impact
petitions. on opponents.
• E.g. property damage, blockades,
sabotage, strikes.

 Different strategic logics imply that forms of action carry activists’ theories of social
transformation (though careful interpretation required).
 Not all strategic action looks like public protest...
STRATEGIC PRACTICES: A
BASIC TYPOLOGY
Strategic logic

Indirect Direct

Exceptional WUNC displays Direct action

Temporal
Domain

Everyday Lifestyle action Prefiguration

From: Gillan, K. (2019). Social Movements, Protest and Strategic Practices. In G. Ritzer &
W. Wiedenhoft Murphy (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology (2nd edn.).
Wiley.
  Social movements are a sociologically puzzling
phenomenon, in which people break dominant social
norms, generate different values and interests, and
devise new ways of finding power.
 We can approach movement values through the key
concepts of ‘interpretive frames’ and ‘collective
identities’. Both imply that movements are active in
generating and communicating meaning.

SUMMARY  Power flows from the strategic logic of various forms

of movement action:
 Protest can be powerful through moral persuasion of
decision makers, or through directly impacting the
activities of targets.
 Other forms of strategic practice exist too and have
generated economically relevant trends such as boycotts
and ethical consumption. Such trends target corporate
activity specifically.

NEXT: We’ll look at how corporations have responded to

critiques that have been generated by social movements.
CSR LECTURE
OVERVIEW
 Criticisms of corporations: size, impacts,
culture
 Defending corporations
 Corporate social responsibility and the
stakeholder approach
TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS
Definition: ‘a firm that has the power to coordinate and control
operations in more than one country, even if it does not own
them.’ (Dicken, 2007: 106)
Significance:
Ability to coordinate and control processes and transactions
within transnational production networks.
Ability to take advantage of geographical differences in
distribution of factors of production and in state policies
Ability to switch and to reswitch its resources and operations
between locations at an international scale. (Dicken, 2007: 106-
07)
BROAD CRITIQUES OF
CORPORATIONS
 Three major critiques of transnational corporations come up time and again:

1. They are too big and powerful as compared with democratic institutions
2. The pursuit of profit above all generates negative impacts
3. They create a culture of consumerism in which non-economic values disappear
 Note: these are arguments against corporations specifically; some social movement
activists would also take broader anti-capitalist positions, but not all. i.e. it is possible to
be anti-corporate without being anti-capitalist.
 WORLD’S LARGEST ECONOMIES (2018)
Rank Country/Corp GDP/Revenue (bn) Rank Country/Corp GDP/Revenue (bn)
1 United States 3,336 16 China National Petro. 326
2 China 2,591 17 Korea, South 318
3 Japan 1,678 18 Royal Dutch Shell 311
4 Germany 1,598 19 Mexico 292
5 France 1,446 20 Sweden 275
6 United Kingdom 984 21 Toyota Motor 265
7 Italy 884 22 Volkswagen 260
8 Brazil 819 23 Russia 254
9 Canada 623 24 Belgium 250
10 Walmart 500 25 BP 245
11 Spain 492 26 Exxon Mobil 244
12 Australia 461 27 Berkshire Hathaway 242
13 State Grid 348 28 India 229
14 Netherlands 344 29 Apple 229
15 Sinopec Group 326 30 Switzerland 224
CORPORATE (MIS)BEHAVIOUR
 The increasing scope of transnational corporations means bigger impacts, including:
 Increasing impacts of corporate decisions about, e.g., moving facilities, outsourcing, downsizing
etc
 Increasing cultural scope of corporate activities both internally and externally
 Negative externalities (i.e. impacts on third parties inc. environmental)
 Contributions to climate change via carbon emissions
 Negligence and misbehaviour…
When? Who? What?
1984 Union Bhopal Disaster. Toxic gas leak led to at least 4000 deaths in local area
Carbide plus ongoing and widespread health impacts. Union Carbide, who ran the
plant, denied responsibility. In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including
the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by
negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about
$2,000 each
1980s Nestle Baby milk marketing. Free trials of milk powder offered to women in
Africa; trials timed to end when women stopped lactating; clean water
access often an issue.
1990s Shell Shell accused of funding/bribing military to quell dissent of Ogoni people
who were protesting against environmental and social effects of oil
drilling. State responded violently to protests and executed leader Ken
Saro Wiwa. In 2009, Shell offered to settle the Ken Saro-Wiwa case with
US$15.5 million while denying any wrongdoings and calling the
settlement a humanitarian gesture.
2000s Coca-cola Heavy repression (including killings) of workers attempting to organise
trade unions in Coca-cola plants; linked to military style private forces
funded by Coca-cola.
When? Who? What?
2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, 2010 – 4.9 million barrells of oil spewed into
Gulf of Mexico after leak that remained unfixed for 87 days. Massive
environmental consequences, plus destruction of fishing industry along
affected coasts. BP largely seen as to blame for shoddy work in building
and maintaining the oil rig – found guilty of gross negligence and
reckless conduct
2015 VW Volkswagen found to have fitted ‘defeat devices’ to various Audis and
VWs that functioned to reduce emissions when the car’s computer
recognised that an emissions test was taking place. Discovered by US
regulators in 2015 and subsequently investigated in many countries. VW
eventually admitted deliberate attempt to mislead regulators.
2019 eBay After publishing a newsletter critical of eBay, reporter Ina Steiner started
receiving threatening social media messages and odd parcels at home (a
box of live spiders, cockroaches, a book about coping with the death of a
spouse). Behind the harassment was a group of eBay executives,
apparently motivated by a CEO’s message saying: “If you are ever going
to take her down … now is the time.” Seven employees have now pleaded
guilty to criminal charges. (Report from Sept 2022)
‘BRAND X IS NOT A PRODUCT BUT A WAY OF LIFE,
AN ATTITUDE, A SET OF VALUES, A LOOK, AN IDEA’
(KLEIN 2000)
‘BRAND X IS NOT A PRODUCT BUT A WAY OF LIFE,
AN ATTITUDE, A SET OF VALUES, A LOOK, AN IDEA’
(KLEIN 2000)

“the ideal outcome…is for consumers

to see Coca Cola as woven into their
local context, an integral part of their
everyday world” (Coca-Cola Marketing
Director)
ADBUSTERS:
RESISTING
CONSUMERISM
“We try to coax people from spectator to
participant in this quest. We want folks to
get mad about corporate disinformation,
injustices in the global economy, and any
industry that pollutes our physical or mental
commons” (Adbusters Website)
They do this through, e.g.
• Subvertising (= subverting brand images)
• Buy Nothing Day (27th Nov 2020)
• They also called for a national day of
protest in 2010 which turned into the
Occupy protest wave in North America
DEFENDING CORPORATIONS
‘Profit alone is not enough
for corporate survival, and
that’s something new. All
in all, the corporation is
being perceived as a social
institution, an influential
determiner of how people
live.’
(Bradshaw 1981: xxvii)
 Bradshaw & Vogel (1981) argued
that it was essential to recognise
corporations extended roles (i.e.
beyond profit). Including:
 Wealth production
 Innovation
 Fulfilling social expectations
 Coping with regulation
 Meeting the media
 Political engagement
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
 CSR may involve:  May improve financial position
 Changing production methods, of corporation through:
and the products themselves  Less waste
 ‘Triple bottom line’ accounting  Better products
 Increased transparency  Better reputation
 Corporate philanthropy
 But, significant changes may
 Inclusive governance structures
have economic costs.

CSR defined: “the firm’s considerations of, and response to, issues beyond the
narrow economic, technical, and legal requirements of the firm to accomplish
social [and environmental] benefits along with the traditional economic gains
which the firm seeks” (Aguilera, 2007)
“businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they
declaim that business is not concerned "merely" with profit but also with
promoting desirable "social" ends; that business has a "social conscience"
and takes seriously its responsibilities for providing employment,
eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution ... In fact they are–or would
be if they or anyone else took them seriously–preaching pure and
unadulterated socialism...

In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate executive is an

employee of the owners of the business. He has direct responsibility to his
employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance
with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as
possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those
embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.”

Milton Friedman, 1970

WHO ARE STAKEHOLDERS?
 Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of an
organization’s objectives.
 Not to be confused with shareholders, who are a companies owner investors.

Primary Secondary
Financiers Competitors
Employees Government
Customers Consumer groups
Suppliers Interest groups
Communities Media
IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS
 Not a natural category. May vary according to:
 Salience – an urgent issue or high visibility
 Legitimacy – who does the group speak for? How do their claims fit with wider
social norms?
 Power – what is the relationship of the stakeholder to the corporation?
See: Mitchell, R.K., Agle, B.R. & Wood, D.J., 1997. ‘Toward a theory of stakeholder
identification and salience’. Academy of management review, 22(4), pp.853–886.
 Interests of different groups may conflict, and the purpose of
stakeholder management is to try to find the most acceptable
compromise.
 Campaigners against corporations may carry out stakeholder analysis
to identify campaigning targets.
  Transnational corporations have been growing in
number, size, scope, impact and visibility.
 They are present not only in the economy, but also in
society, culture and politics.
 Their activities in these other spheres have generated
controversy.
 Viewing the corporation and an inherently social
institution leads to recognition of their wide ranging
SUMMARY impacts
 Corporate social responsibility has, thus, become one
way of a) achieving better impacts, and b) avoiding
negative publicity.
 But, as the stakeholder model demonstrates: when
many interests come into play, there is great potential
for conflicts.