THE CHAMELEON OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: CHANGING SHAPES AND CHALLENGES

A panel addresses how to hold multinational corporations accountable for their actions worldwide. The World Bank Inspection Panel has adopted formal procedures to investigate compliance with the Bank's policies and procedures which include strict timeframes. Terry Collingsworth, executive director of International Labor Rights Fund, said US companies embrace social responsibility as a public relations exercise, but have yet to make a commitment to any binding standards. After years of public claims of progress, they should be moving forward to a credible process of enforcing corporate responsibility, not seeking a surreptitious repeal of the principles set at the Nuremberg Tribunals. Lawrence E. Mitchell, professor of George Washington University, said the most elegant statements of social responsibility and corporate ethics will matter little if the incentives driving the actors constantly undercut the public statements and principles. Little if anything will change until the root causes of corporate irresponsibility are attacked; until the problems and not the symptoms are addressed.