Corporate Social Responsibility in a Globalizing World: What's a Christian Executive to Do?

Several years ago John Houck and Oliver Williams (1996) produced a book entitled Is the Good Corporation Dead? It was prompted by the question of whether globalization is changing?or worse?eliminating, our modern sense of corporate social responsibility (CSR). As is often the case with edited compilations, there was a range of opinions expressed, both about what defines CSR and what should be done to save it. But if there was a common theme, it was that while the "good" corporation is not dead, it is certainly facing new challenges because of globalization. To this I would add that new opportunities for CSR are emerging as well. Globalization is expanding the reach of even the smallest businesses, and with that comes the capacity to do great harm or great good. The CSR debate more often emphasizes the former; this essay will focus on the latter. Anyone familiar with the CSR debate knows that the only real dif ference between the concerns being raised today?corporate obligations toward employees and other stakeholders, the ethics of outsourcing, down sizing, and so on?and those raised in past decades, is the global nature of today's marketplace. Where once the debate focused on the ethicality of, for example, outsourcing certain stages of the production process to low wage states like South Carolina or Mississippi, now the sharpest criticism is reserved for those who use overseas sources.