Abstract
Since its operational launch in 2000, the United Nations Global Compact has attracted a good deal of both support and criticism. The Compact represents the world’s largest network-based voluntary corporate citizenship initiative.1 The term ‘corporate citizenship’ is adopted here from the literature as a descriptor for a voluntary change of business practices to meet the responsibilities imposed on firms by their stakeholders.2 It is, however, outside the scope of this chapter to undertake a careful delineation of its similarities and differences with ‘corporate responsibility’. Although progress has been made in terms of the large number of business and non-business participants (now numbering 7,300) and improvements in business practices have been presented (McKinsey3 concludes that nine out of ten participants are doing more towards the Compact’s principles than they were 5 years ago), this progress also brought about a lot of criticism, largely from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academics and the wider press. Thérien and Pouliot,4 for instance, argue that the Compact fosters a ‘pro-market spin’ that breaks with the UN’s traditional position and thus is eroding its legitimacy in the long run. Amnesty International5 complains about the missing accountability of the initiative and asks for a more rigorous assessment of whether participants are really complying with the principles. In a more radical way, Sethi argues that the Compact ‘provides a venue for opportunistic companies to make grandiose statements of corporate citizenship without worrying about being called to account for their actions’.6
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Business and Society, 48/4, December/2009 by SAGE Publications, Inc., All rights reserved. © SAGE Publications, Inc. The article can be accessed at: http://bas.sagepub.com.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Hemphill, Thomas A. (2005). The United Nations global compact. International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 1, 303–316.
Norman, Wayne & Néron, Pierre-Yves (2008). Citizenship Inc.: do we really want businesses to be good corporate citizens? Business Ethics Quarterly, 18, 1–26.
McKinsey & Company (2007). Shaping the New Rules of Competition: UN Global Compact Participant Mirror. London: McKinsey.
Thérien, Jean-Philippe & Pouliot, Vincent (2006). The global compact: shifting the politics of international development. Global Governance, 12, 55–75, here: p. 67.
Deva, Surya (2006). Global compact: a critique of the UN’s “public-private” partnership for promoting corporate citizenship. Syracuse Journal of International Law and Communication, 34, 107–151; Nolan, Justine (2005). The United Nations global compact with business: hindering or helping the protection of human rights? The University of Queensland Law Journal, 24, 445–466;Rizvi, Haider (2004). UN pact with business lacks accountability, available at: http://2qwww.globalpolicy.org; Zammit, Ann (2003). Development at Risk: Rethinking UN-Business Partnerships. New York: The South Centre and United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.
United Nations (1 February 1999) Secretary-General Address to the World Economic Forum in Davos [Press Release SG/SM/6881]. New York: United Nations, here: p. 1.
Ruggie. John G. (2001). Global_governance.net: the global compact as learning network. Global Governance, 7, 371–378, here: p. 371;Ruggie, John G. (2002). Trade, sustainability and global governance. Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, 27, 297–307, here: 301.
Williams, Oliver F. (2004). The UN global compact: the challenge and the promise. Business Ethics Quarterly, 14, 755–774, here: 760.
Palazzo, Guido & Scherer, Andreas G. (2006). Corporate legitimacy as deliberation: a communicative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 66, 71–88; Windsor, Duane (2007). Toward a global theory of cross-border and multilevel corporate political activity. Business and Society, 46(2), 253–278.
Kell, Georg & Ruggie, John G. (1999). Global markets and social legitimacy: the case for the ‘global compact’. Transnational Corporations, 8, 101–120, here: 103.
Cohen, Jonathan (2001). The world’s business: the United Nations and the globalization of corporate citizenship. In J. Andriof & M. Macintosh (Eds.), Perspectives on Corporate Citizenship. Sheffield: Greenleaf, pp. 185–197, here: p. 185.
Kell, Georg (2005). The global compact: selected experiences and reflections. Journal of Business Ethics, 59, 69–79, here: 78.
Rosenau, James N. (1992). Governance, order and change in world politics. In James N. Rosenau & Ernst Otto Czempiel (Eds.), Governance Without Government: Order and Change in World Politics (pp. 1–29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dingwert, Klaus & Pattberg, Phillip (2006). Global governance as a perspective on world politics. Global Governance, 12, 185–203.
Carroll, Archie B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34(4), 39–48.
Birch, David (2001). Corporate citizenship: rethinking business beyond corporate social responsibility. In Joerg Andriof & Malcolm McIntosh (Eds.), Perspectives on Corporate Citizenship (pp. 53–65). Sheffield: Greenleaf.
Poncelet, Eric (2003). Resisting corporate citizenship: business-NGO relations in multistakeholder environmental partnerships. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 9, 97–115.
Kell, Georg & Levin, David (2003). The global compact network: an historic experiment in learning and action. Business and Society Review, 108, 151–181.
Global Compact (2003a). HIV/AIDS: Everybody’s Business. New York: Global Compact Office; Global Compact (2003b). Experiences in Management for Sustainability. New York: Global Compact Office; Global Compact (2003c). From Principles to Practice. New York: Global Compact Office; Global Compact (2004). Embedding Human Rights in Business practice. New York: Global Compact Office; Global Compact (2006). Business Against Corruption: Case Stories and Examples. New York: Global Compact Office.
Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) (2000). Tangled up in Blue: Corporate Partnerships at the United Nations. San Francisco: TRAC.
Palazzo, Guido & Scherer, Andreas G. (2006). Corporate legitimacy as deliberation: a communicative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 66, 71–88.
McIntosh, Malcom, Thomas, Ruth, Leipziger, Deborah, & Coleman, Gill (2003). Living Corporate Citizenship: Strategic Routes to Socially Responsible Business. London et al.: FT Prentice Hall.
Fort, Timothy L. & Schipani, Cindy A. (2002). The role of the corporation in fostering sustainable peace. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 35, 389–435.
Cavanagh, Gerald F. (2004). Global business ethics — regulation, code, or self-restraint. Business Ethics Quarterly, 14, 625–642.
Scherer, Andreas G., Palazzo, Guido, & Baumann, Dorothee (2006). Global rules and private actors: toward a new role of the transnational corporation in global governance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16, 505–532.
Bigge, David M. (2004). Bring on the bluewash — a social constructivist argument against using nike v. Kasky to attack the UN Global Compact. International Legal Perspectives, 14, 6–21, here: 10; Kell (2005), supra note 16, here: 71.
Levy, David L. (2008). Political contestation in global production networks. Academy of Management Review, 33(4), 943–963; Levy, David L. & Prakash, Aseem (2003). Bargains old and new: multinational corporations in global governance. Business and Politics, 5(2), 131–150.
Murphy, Sean D. (2005). Taking multinational corporate codes of conduct to the next level. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 43, 388–433, here: 389.
Global Compact (2007). UN Global Compact Annual Review. New York: Global Compact Office.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2005). Implementing the Global Compact: A Booklet for Inspiration. Copenhagen: UNDP, here: p. 8.
Kell, Georg (2003). The Global Compact: origins, operations, progress, challenges. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 11, 35–49, here: 47.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (2007). Sustainability Reporting Guidelines on Economic, Environmental, and Social Performance v3. Boston, MA: GRI.
Gilbert, Dirk U. & Rasche, Andreas (2007). Discourse ethics and social accountability: the ethics of SA 8000. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17, 187–216.
Baldwin, Robert, Scott, Colin, & Hood, Christopher (1998). A Reader on Regulation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Selznick, Philip (1985). Focusing organizational research on regulation. In Ed R. Noll (Ed.), Regulatory Policy and the Social Sciences (pp. 363–367). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, here: p. 363.
Webb, Kernaghan (2004). Understanding the voluntary code phenomenon. In Kernaghan Webb (Ed.), Voluntary Codes: Private Governance, the Public Interest and Innovation (pp. 3–32). Ottawa, CA: Carleton University Press, here: p. 6.
United Nations (24 June 2004). Global compact participants on ‘Common Historic Journey’ to fairer, more stable world says Secretary-General at UN Summit [Press Release SG/SM/9383, ECO/69]. New York: United Nations.
Bardach, Eugene & Kagan, Robert A. (1982). Going by the Book: The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Coglianese, Cary, & Nash, Jennifer. (2001). Regulating from the Inside: Can Environmental Management Systems Achieve Policy Goals. Washington: Resources for the Future.
International Chamber of Commerce (24 June 2004). The Global Compact: A Business Perspective [Press release]. Paris: International Chamber of Commerce.
United Nations (3 December 2001). Towards global partnerships [General Assembly Resolution A/56/L.33]. New York: United Nations.
Hemphill (2005), supra note 2, here: 312;Williams (2004), supra note 11, here: 758.
Ziegler, Oliver (2007). Global Compact membership in Europe and the US: a case study of the automobile industry. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 26, 55–68.
Blagescu, Monica & Lloyd, Robert (2006). 2006 Global Accountability Report: Holding Power to Account. London: One World Trust;Rasche, Andreas & Esser, Daniel E. (2006). From stakeholder management to stakeholder accountability: applying Habermasian discourse ethics to accountability research. Journal of Business Ethics, 65, 251–267.
Centindamar, Dilek & Husoy, Kristoffer (2007). Corporate social responsibility practices and environmentally responsible behavior: the case of the United Nations Global Compact. Journal of Business Ethics, 76, 163–176; McKinsey & Company (2004). Assessing the Global Compact’s Impact. New York: Global Compact Office.
Aupperle, Kenneth E., Carroll, Archie B., & Hatfield, John (1985). An empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability. Academy of Management Journal, 28(2), 446–463.
Waddock, Sandra & Graves, Samuel B. (1997). The corporate social performance: financial performance link. Strategic Management Journal, 18(4), 303–319.
Orlitzky, Marc, Schmidt, Frank L., & Rynes, Sara (2003). Corporate social and financial performance: a meta-analysis. Organization Studies, 24(3), 403–441.
Goldman Sachs (2007). Introducing GS Sustain. London: The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Christian Science Monitor (2000). A New Global Compact. Retrieved 20 July 2007, available at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0908/p10s1.html.
Deva (2006), Nolan (2005), supra note 8;Thérien & Pouliot (2006), supra note 5; Williams (2004), supra note 11.
Gilbert, Dirk U. & Rasche, Andreas (2008). Opportunities and problems of standardized ethics initiatives: a stakeholder theory perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 82, 755–773.
Rasche, Andreas (2009). Toward a model to compare and analyze accountability standards: the case of the UN Global Compact. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 16, 192–205; United Nations (2004), supra note 62.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2011 Andreas Rasche
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rasche, A. (2011). ‘A Necessary Supplement’ — What the United Nations Global Compact Is (and Is Not). In: Buhmann, K., Roseberry, L., Morsing, M. (eds) Corporate Social and Human Rights Responsibilities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294615_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294615_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-31185-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-29461-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)