Edited by Malcolm McIntosh, David Murphy and Rupesh Shah
Published in Association with The New Academy of Business

250pp
234 x 156 mm

Hardback
ISBN 1874719691
£40.00

Paperback
ISBN 1874719748
£19.95

October 2003

In a world where trust in politicians, corporations and the processes that determine our lives continues to dwindle, this innovative book brings together research, case studies and stories that begin to answer a central question for society: How we can create organisations, institutions, groups and societies that can nurture trusting relationships with one another and among individuals?

Something to Believe In provides a fresh take on the corporate responsibility debate, based as it is on the work of key global thinkers on corporate social responsibility, along with a raft of work developed from collaborations between the New Academy of Business and the United Nations Volunteers, UK Department for International Development and TERI-Europe in countries such as Brazil, Nicaragua, Ghana, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Africa. The focus is on business, and particularly how deeper, more systemic changes to current ways of understanding and undertaking business can and have been enacted in both developed countries and in nations where the Western concept of CSR means nothing. The market-based model of economic thinking—the increasingly distrusted globalisation project—which threatens to sweep all before it is challenged by many of the contributions to this book.

The book tells stories such as the mobilisation of civil society in Ghana to bring business to account; the reorientation of a business school to focus on values; the life-cycle of ethical chocolate; the accountability of the diamond business in a war zone; the need to reinvent codes of conduct for women workers in the plantations and factories of Nicaragua; a Philippine initiative to economically empower former Moslem liberation fighters; and the development of local governance practices in a South African eco-village.

The book is split into four sections. ‘Through Some Looking Glasses’ contains short, thought-provoking pieces about the issues of trust, belief and change from writers including Thabo Mbeki, Malcolm McIntosh and a reprinted piece from E.M. Forster. Section Two asks how it will be possible to believe in our corporations and provides new approaches from around the world on how space is being opened up to found businesses that are able to create trust. Section Three examines the role of auditing in fostering trust. Corporations continue to attempt to engender trust through their activities in philanthropy, reporting and voluntary programmes. But, post-Enron et al., even the most highly praised corporate mission statements are tarnished. Can social and environmental audits of corporate reports, codes and practices assuage our doubts about boardroom democracy? Section Four examines alternative forms of accountability, transparency and governance from around the world and offers some different ways of thinking about the practice of creating trust in society.

Something to Believe In provides a host of fascinating suggestions about redefining and renewing the underlying deal between society and its organisations. It will become a key text for students, thinkers and practitioners in the field of corporate responsibility.

Contents

Foreword
Sharon Capeling-Alakija, United Nations Volunteers

Introduction
Rupesh A. Shah, David F. Murphy and Malcolm McIntosh

Part 1: Through some looking glasses

1. Something to have struggled for and now to believe in
T.M. Mbeki, then Vice President of the Republic of South Africa

2. PlanetHome
Malcolm McIntosh, Writer and Teacher, UK

3. From terrorism to trust: trusting our nature?
Mary-Jayne Rust, Jungian Analyst (Society of Analytical Psychology) and Art Therapist

4. Partnering trust: India’s corporate social responsibility heritage
Viraal B. Balsari, TERI-Europe

5. Tolerance
E.M. Forster

Part 2: How could it be possible to believe in our corporations?

6. Demanding corporate responsibility is the key: the creation of a movement for corporate responsibility in Ghana
Joseph Yaw Boateng, United Nations Volunteer, Association of Ghana Industries, Ghana

7. Corporate responsibility: the emerging South Asian agenda
Ritu Kumar, TERI-Europe

8. Corporate governance, shareholder interests and managerial accountability in turbulent times
Scott Bourke and Neil E. Béchervaise, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Australia

9. Strange bedfellows make for democratic deficits: the rise and challenges of private corporate social responsibility engagement
Matthew J. Hirschland, Department of Political Science, University of Colorado, USA

10. The rise of the ‘abdroids’
Roger Warren Evans, Barrister-at-law, UK

11. Changing focus: a business school for sustainable development
Juliet Roper, Eva Collins and Mike Pratt, University of Waikato Management School, New Zealand

Part 3: Auditing for whom?

12. Love in a time of chocolate: the corporate discipline of compassion
Adrian Henriques, Middlesex University, UK

13. Voluntary governance or a contradiction in terms: are voluntary codes accountable and transparent governance tools?
Simon B. Archer, Torys LLP, Canada, and S. Tina Piper, Balliol College, University of Oxford, UK

14. In search of transparency: corporate codes of conduct and women workers in Central America
Marina Prieto-Carron, University of Bristol, UK

15. Trouble at the Hard Rock Café: diamonds and corporate social responsibility
Ian Smillie and Ralph Hazleton, Partnership Africa Canada

16. The auditor has no clothes: challenging the pursuit of objectivity in auditing
Rupesh A. Shah, New Academy of Business, UK

Part 4: New initiatives

17. In the business of making peace: La Frutera and Paglas in the Philippines
Charmaine Nuguid-Anden, United Nations Volunteer, Philippine Business for Social Progress

18. Corporate responsibility in New Zealand: a case study
Bob Frame, Richard Gordon and Ian Whitehouse, Landcare Research, New Zealand

19. Reforming government, working with business: the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform in Lebanon
Lubna Forzley, United Nations Volunteer, UNDP Lebanon

20. Living and learning in the Boland
Mark Swilling and Eve Annecke, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

21. It’s the film that matters, not the photo: good governance in development co-operation
David F. Murphy, New Academy of Business, UK

Part 5: Conclusion

22. Under the Trumpet Flower
Abdul Cader Riswana, Ismael Ashraff, Jinutheen Rasmina, Kanathan Dinojit, Stepan Sampath, The Butterfly Garden of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

List of abbreviations
Index