July 2nd, 2008

CSR and Spirituality

Didn’t expect to see the topic of CSR and spirituality covered by Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), for some reason, but glad to see it.

BSR just put out the first in a series of papers on how spirituality affects the practice and perception of CSR in different emerging economies around the world. The focus is on China, India, Brazil and South Africa, but starts with an interesting case study involving DuPont in Thailand. DuPont needed to figure out where to locate the “spirit house” for its new facility, critical to the worker’s spiritual and emotional well-being, while still complying with organizational environmental health and safety standards.

The paper states that:

“…considering the spiritual practices of the countries where your business operates — and considering how those practices influence society’s expectations of a responsible company — can influence your reputation and long-term success in those places. Foreign companies moving into new reigions cross not only political but cultural boundaries, where a coutnry’s religion and religious history may play a greater role in setting societal expectations for the conduct of business.”

While spirituality is clearly a part of the larger set of cultural differences that global businesses have had to address for a long time, it’s useful to single it out as particularly influential and examine it more closely in the most important emerging economies.