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The Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran World Information |
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| 05.08.2004 |
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| LWF Consultation Urges Companies to Assume Social and Ethical Responsibility |
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Call for Value-driven Corporate Culture
STUTTGART, Germany/GENEVA, 5 August 2004 (LWI) – “We have to consider how the concept of good neighborliness in organizations and companies can be realized through their social and ethical responsibility.” Rev Dr. Karen Bloomquist, director of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for Theology and Studies (DTS) made these remarks at an LWF consultation under the theme “Globalizing Vocation and Neighbor-Love.”
The objective of the June 17-19 gathering in Stuttgart, Germany, was to discuss and devise new approaches to implementing social and ethical goals in relation to business. In view of ethical challenges confronting workers in companies every day with respect to economic globalization, “we should ask how the church can motivate and encourage people to develop alternatives for action,” Bloomquist said.
Practical Guidelines for Congregations and Business Enterprises
According to the DTS director the consultation’s objective was to develop proposals and approaches that “could be really helpful to those working both in a congregation and in business.” One outcome – after the more abstract position papers of recent consultations on the LWF “Call to Participate in Transforming Economic Globalization” – could be a simplified leaflet with practical guidelines to encourage local churches to raise the pertinent issues at home.
The consultation took place in the context of the ongoing DTS theological-ethical engagement with economic globalization, and concentrated on relations between both church and business spheres. At a DTS consultation titled “Reclaiming the Vocation of Government” in January this year in Geneva, participants called for transparency and the exercise of public office for the good of the population.
As a basis for commercial ethics Rev. Dr Susanne Edel from Esslingen, Germany, proposed a model for the relation between the individual and his/her neighbor at three levels: individual ethics; organizational or institutional ethics; and macrosocietal, structural ethics. “The challenges are now to see how the three levels can come together in order to best serve human needs,” she told the conference. “Charity must be called for and practiced at all three levels.” According to Bloomquist, the churches need to put more efforts toward realizing corporate ethics and collaboration between churches and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Value-driven Corporate Culture
“We must change corporate cultures so that companies encourage their workers to uphold certain values, and promote environmental sustainability and fair distribution,” Dr Stewart W. Herman, teaching ethics at Concordia College in Minnesota (USA) stressed.
In this context the model of the so-called sustainability audit, that would extend beyond the usual financial balance sheet to assess the social and ecological objectives of a company, could make an important contribution, according to Mr Peter Stoll, LWF Treasurer and chairperson of the German diaconal association, Dienste für Menschen. Further criteria included strict corporate governance and fair business dealings.
Participants also discussed ideas like investment based on ethical and social criteria and the granting of micro credits to small and medium-sized companies. Another approach was the strategy of shareholder activism, where organizations like churches acquire shares in order to influence company policy along social, environmental and ethical lines.
Developing Business Models Based on Ethical and Social Criteria
Carl-Gustav Bjertnes, director of Orah, a Swiss capital investment and management firm working with small and medium-sized companies in southeastern Europe, said churches should indeed be platforms for small, value-driven enterprises. Business models based on ethical and social criteria should be developed with such companies, and the relevant support provided. While pointing out that it was difficult to discuss economic topics at congregational level, he cited another challenge as getting commercial organizations to consider the church as a serious partner.
However, the churches’ advocacy in corporate ethics is limited, stressed Gunstein Instefjord, director of the policy and human rights department of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). An NCA campaign mounted against the Tommy Hilfiger clothing company, which according to Instefjord, operates under inhumane conditions, only led to its closure and relocation to another region, instead of adopting working conditions based on ethical and social criteria.
“This is not the only example showing that it is questionable whether a change at the level of individual companies can really be implemented without, at the same time changing the structural framework,” stated Rev. Sandra Bach from Munich, Germany. “Companies are compelled to work under certain structural conditions.” In order to appeal for corporate responsibility at the structural level, taxing social and environmental costs is a patent remedy. Dr Cynthia Moe-Lobeda said the taxing of social and ecological costs could be constructive. “As a company it would be in my interest to comply with the principle of sustainability if I had to pay for environmental pollution,” declared the theology and religious studies professor at the University of Seattle (USA).
The outcome of the recent consultation and presentations from previous related meetings will be published at the end of 2004 in the LWF documentation series “Communion, Responsibility, Accountability.” (815 words)
The statement from the Stuttgart consultation is posted on the LWF Web site at www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/DTS/Statement_Stuttgart.pdf
(Reported by LWI correspondent Anne-Christin Sievers, Tübingen.)
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