Literature over the last 15 years discusses the changing nature of corporate responsibility (CR), and the role that public policy of national governments can play in shaping / enabling CR. However, I am keen to learn more about the role that local governments (or municipal governments) can play. Can anyone point me to recent literature about this?
It is very difficult to generalize in the local government subject and answer to your question is highly dependent on the local government system in given country.
In Poland where trust between private and public sector is on a very low level we can only speak about interesting examples of influence of local government on private sector's attitude. These examples are often built on human factors and not on system features. It is often also important to involve local business in community building processes related to local tradition, sport clubs, events which create local "memory" which, all together, influence business embeddedness in locality.
I hope the answer was useful to any extent.
Regards
Hi,
There's a recent review by Frynas and Stephens at Middlesex University "Political Corporate Social Responsibility: Reviewing Theories and Setting New Agendas" in the International Journal of Management Reviews (2014; DOI:10.1111/ijmr.12049), where they state quite categorically that "the axiomatic assumption [...] about the loss of power by national governments [...] may be misplaced and misleading [... given] the mounting evidence from around the world of government interventions with regard to CSR." and they mention several examples. For a more comprehensive survey done for UNEP by KPMG, they came to some 45 countries with 134 mandatory policies and 53 additional voluntary policies with regards to CR reporting aspects (in Carrots and Sticks. Sustainability reporting worldwide - today's best practice, tomorrow's trends. 2013 edition). Though this is admittedly with regards to national governments, it may well be of use for regional governments as well. Hope this is useful.
Dear Helen,
Slovakia is comparable with Poland, and one should see that there is unequal understanding of mutual relationships between private and public subjects, i.e. while the local governments consider the private companies very important collaborators, from the perspective of the private companies the local governments belong to rather moderately important collaborators (much more important for them are their clients, suppliers, providers of innovations etc.). Taking into account this fact, the local governments are able to influence corporate responsibility usually if (1) there is a clear advantage for the company due to its location, for instance City of Kosice and the U.S. Steel Kosice (http://www.usske.sk/citizenship/citiz-e.htm), or City of Zilina and the Kia Motors Zilina (http://eng.kia.sk/index.php?context=212&context=212&data_id=563&year=2009); (2) there is an efficient and target-oriented local leadership; for instance mayor, Mr. Konkoly, of small municipality called Kechnec (http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/opendays/od2007/doc/presentations/d/PPT_Jozef_KONKOLY_10D20.ppt).
Recently I was researching in the field of public/state aid for members of the Roma ethnic groups, and there is no doubt that the local governments, NGOs and private companies tend to replace a role of the state in dealing with poverty, discrimination etc. In other words: since 1989, the central governments have often implemented only the urgent policy tools required from the side of different international actors (e.g. OSCE, COE, and EU), and consequently, unsystematic approach, policy experimenting which is too often accompanied with failures, political unwillingness to take the responsibility for this policy issue, and general helplessness of state administration have become features of various central governments' policies focused on the Roma in Slovakia. In such a situation, various cooperation initiatives of the local governments, NGOs and private companies have led to much better results in many cases.
I'm aware of the Spanish case regarding the introduction of Social Clauses in Public Procurement at the municipal level.There are similar experiences in other countries.Same as the development of networks for territorial corporate responsability,including partners from different sectors and territorial social partnerships agreements
Thank you all for taking the time to respond - you have been very helpful.
Helen:
Having served as a City Manager prior to earning a PhD, I may have some insights. Local governments have the kinetic power to provide incentives and encouragement -- but their leaders often lack the moral courage to do so, the insight and vision in the face of multiple priorities, and the long-term vision to recognize the value of creating incentives.
Great leaders make the difference. They possess the combination of vision, talents, grit, and determination to recognize the value of public-private partnerships and the moral obligation to work together to make a better world.
My colleagues and I addressed the need for partnerships to honor the social responsibility obligation that we all share in the attached article reference.
CC
Anderson, V., Ndalamba, K. K., and Caldwell, C., 2017. “Social Responsibility in a Troubled World: A Virtuous Perspective.” International Journal of Public Leadership, Vol, 13, Iss. 2, pp 98-115
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