Corporate Social Responsibility Has Mixed Results

Cone Research released a report on November 5 called The BSR/Cone 2008 Corporate Responsibility in a New World Survey of corporate responsibility officers that showed mixed results for the immediate future of coprorate responsibility. The sample population is comprised of 424 representatives from business, NGOs, government, and academia, representing 28 countries.

Some of the key findings include:

* Leaders are optimistic that global businesses will embrace corporate responsibility as part of their core strategies and operations in the next five years:

- Somewhat optimistic 66%
- Somewhat pessimistic 12%
- Neither pessimistic nor optimistic 11%
- Very optimistic 11%
- Very pessimistic 1%

* However, the current economic crisis may affect the budget for future CR initiatives:

- Budget will not decrease. 43%
- Budget will decrease. 31%
- Too early to determine. 26%

Muted enthusiasm, you might say. It will be very easy for corporations to pull back from major investments in social responsibility efforts over the next several years as economic uncertainty grips the world.

However, there's no reason that individual employees can't embrace new social change activities. Check out Saving the World at Work for ways that people are making their companies greener, more responsible, and more connected to their communities.