Surely no one doubts that the practice of community relations among the UK’s leading companies is anything if not very healthy at present. In this issue alone, we report on new national initiatives to tackle, variously, housing, drug abuse, social exclusion through IT, employee volunteering and staff fundraising. Techniques for management and measurement are gradually improving. Despite recessionary worries, contributions are holding up well and few companies would ever contemplate taking a knife to the community budget except in wholly unusual circumstances.
If all is set fair, why the call for a professional association? The more usual approach is to set one up as a defensive measure, when standards are under attack or privileges threatened.
The answer is that community affairs may be maturing nicely but the debate is moving on. The buzz is all about the wider social impact of the basic business operation, responsibly managed. Some community affairs managers are able to grow their role, but others risk being sidelined and the whole subject marginalised. A focused professional association would help to define the subject, as an essential part of corporate citizenship.
While being inclusive in membership, it could set standards, host private discussions, collect data, answer `ethical’ dilemmas confidentially, commission research and undertake some publicity. Campaigning organisations such as Business in the Community would be unaffected in their mission, led by the chairmen and chief executives. (If they are the generals, is the association for the poor bloody infantry?)
Most affected would be the Corporate Responsibility Group, a private and somewhat informal, but very successful, grouping of managers from 40 or so leading companies. It is surely no coincidence that Sarah Portway, who leads the call, is a past chairperson of the CRG. The challenge, then, is to widen the circle of those involved and formalise the approach.
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