The Path to Corporate Responsibility - Nike's Corporate Makeover
1. Title – The Path to Corporate Responsibility
2. Issue Identification –
The main issue presented in this case is that corporate social responsibility takes a lot of work, insightful leadership, a restructuring of a company’s operations, and sometimes a trigger from outside critics of your normal business practices to actually bring about an organization that is a leader in ethical business practices.
3. Facts - What are the key facts/data to be considered here?
- Businesses don’t change overnight
- There are five stages to organizational learning: o Defensive, where the company shifts blame o Compliance, where the company will change their practices only to the bare minimum o Managerial, where the attitude begins to shift that the problem is long-term, and managerial changes are implemented to fit a long-term solution o Strategic, where the companies being to realign their business methods with the insight that it will give them a competitive advantage o And Civil, where companies take the initiative to raise awareness about societal concerns and issues to garner collective action from governments and other companies.
- There are also four stages of issue maturity which demonstrate the severity of societal issues o Latent, where the issue is brought to attention only by activists and is not yet pertinent in the public eye o Emerging, where political and media attention begins to bring light to the issue o Consolidating, where business practices begin to conform to align around the societal issue, and there is a growing concern for litigation and legislation regarding the issue o And institutionalized, where business norms surrounding the issue are established, and the practices become embedded in the code for business-excellence.
- One point that really struck well with me was the idea of collective action. Nike, when making these structural changes towards a socially responsible model, not only made the internal changes, but called
2. Issue Identification –
The main issue presented in this case is that corporate social responsibility takes a lot of work, insightful leadership, a restructuring of a company’s operations, and sometimes a trigger from outside critics of your normal business practices to actually bring about an organization that is a leader in ethical business practices.
3. Facts - What are the key facts/data to be considered here?
- Businesses don’t change overnight
- There are five stages to organizational learning: o Defensive, where the company shifts blame o Compliance, where the company will change their practices only to the bare minimum o Managerial, where the attitude begins to shift that the problem is long-term, and managerial changes are implemented to fit a long-term solution o Strategic, where the companies being to realign their business methods with the insight that it will give them a competitive advantage o And Civil, where companies take the initiative to raise awareness about societal concerns and issues to garner collective action from governments and other companies.
- There are also four stages of issue maturity which demonstrate the severity of societal issues o Latent, where the issue is brought to attention only by activists and is not yet pertinent in the public eye o Emerging, where political and media attention begins to bring light to the issue o Consolidating, where business practices begin to conform to align around the societal issue, and there is a growing concern for litigation and legislation regarding the issue o And institutionalized, where business norms surrounding the issue are established, and the practices become embedded in the code for business-excellence.
- One point that really struck well with me was the idea of collective action. Nike, when making these structural changes towards a socially responsible model, not only made the internal changes, but called