Target- to obtain continuous improvement of Globally responsible corporate leadership practices in SME’s across PR China
Key theme: Cultural Change in Organisations Type: Execution
Champion:
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There is growing global awareness across the China’s commerce sectors, that current business practices in PRC are in general, aimed at increasing short-term efficiency, often at the expense of workers health and lives and the environment. As part of the increasing economic prosperity there is also wider involvement of municipal and regional government authorities to mandate better health and safety conditions. There are also major public campaigns to alert the public and firm owners of what is wrong and what is right. Yet despite these pressures, Chinese firms and particularly small to medium ones continue to engage in practices that put its employees, general public and the environment at risk. A common response of these firms when confronted with their poor environmental and social practices is one of “I cannot afford to do behave responsibly”.
Limited data suggests that it has mainly been the multinational firms and large domestic firms that have direct exposure to international forums where they can see the strategic advantages of changing internal practices in ways that acknowledge corporate responsibility to the global environment. And it has been these companies with some as NIKE, that have been won over through consumer pressure, that are now choosing not to use China as a place where there can be a weakening of corporate responsibility. We expect that pressure will also continue to be exerted by the Chinese government on its own large organisations, particularly in the approach to the 2008 Olympics. Given these pressures, and increased acceptance that they have a role to play in addressing global issues, we anticipate that these international and large national firms will increasingly engage in corporate responsible actions. However, the above does not address the major negative global environmental and social impacts that SME’s in China appear to be responsible for. Action is needed address this major maleficent global contributor associated with low engagement on sustainable business practices by leaders of SME’s in China. The following multifaceted research program is aimed at making an initial contribution in
Approach: Our Initial focus will likely start with firms located in and around Shanghai, in part because of CEIBS infrastructure, Professor Henri Claude de Bettignies’ initiative and EFMD underwriting. We anticipate that the initiatives, once documented as successful, will spread throughout China under national and local sponsorship and ownership. Our approach will be multi –pronged; based on a combination of what is known about the SME Business culture and practices in SE China, and experiences elsewhere (largely based on case studies) and on Western Society Industry backed Best practices. Our initial approach will: - Work with others in developing robust but country sensitive, indices of Global responsible practices of SME’s in China. We will build on the case studies of corporate responsibility practices of firms in China being conducted by MBA and executive students at CEIBS 2006-2007. These case studies, combined with government reports and surveys provide for a large inventory of environmental and HR practices across the business sectors. We will work with international and domestic NGO and commercial organisations who are also monitoring different sustainability domains in China (WWF, World Bank, etc) to build a set of country and industry sensitive indices of responsible and non-responsible SME business practices.
- Recognise the particular Chinese / family ethical and value systems and key leverage points that can be used to address the “cannot afford” view that is likely to inhibit adoption of good global practices. Social, economic and relevant individual data will be systematically gleaned from the above case studies and from parallel studies of decision making practices amongst Chinese business leaders ( GRLI- Centre for Creative leadership partnership).
- Recognise the potential power of civic organisations (Lions clubs, Rotary clubs etc) to provide peer pressure at a local level. We will pilot quasi-experimental action research projects with local chapters and monitor the impacts of such interventions over a two year period.
- Work with multi national and large domestic corporations in exploring the power and limitations of applying requirements on SME supply chain partners. Initially, case studies will be employed to document existing practices and the impacts of changing requirements of the multi national and large domestic corporations utilising SME’s in the Shanghai region. We will then attempt to model the successful collaboration of cross sector multinationals in North America and in Europe that used their individual and combined purchasing power to change the global and social impact behaviours Medium size suppliers, albeit her with the specific Chinese and industry context.
- In parallel with the above, we will help develop and sponsor Global Responsible Leadership education workshops to the leadership of SME’s in China. We anticipate that these workshops will utilise the findings from the other streams as part of their content.
- Work with the Chinese Government at all levels in distributing globally responsible information highlighting the progress made by Chinese SME’s in engaging in sustainable business practices and the challenges ahead. Work with organisations that will provide rewards and incentives to these Chinese SME’s that lead the way in globally responsible corporate behaviour.
Projected budget 2007-2008 All six initiatives will be piloted and evaluated over this first two year period. We anticipate that the costs of doing so will be 700,000 euro per year, much of which will be expended on building a Chinese based research team of four FTE action researchers/evaluators, mentored initially by 2FTE experienced researchers, and includes Shanghai based travel and material production expenses. In years 2-3, additional expenses in propagating the lessons throughout China are forecasted to be an additional 500,000K each year. Art Shulman, Griffith Business School, Febr. 2007
record latest report date here Oct 2007
report update here Further discussion of the idea was obtained at the Leeds meeting, with a desire to pilot it in India, where language barriers will be lower. However, since the Leeds meeting, little has occurred as a collective response. This is in part a failure to champion it as a top priority on my and Henri-Claudes part. But individual action, in the sense of discussing the idea with potential Industry partners operating in China and in India has occurred since the last meeting. Hopefully a more focused effort, likely to involve gaining commitment of resources for a pilot in India will be progressed before and at the meeting in Mumbai. |
