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why transparency = social responsibility

When asked, I often don’t know how to define social responsibility in general or corporate social responsibility (CSR) in particular. It’s one of those philosophical discussions that never really make much sense after all is said and done. I have a feeling however, that the idea of social responsibility can be easier to understand than we think. Particularly if we boil it down to transparency or simply: a policy where clear and honest communication with others is standard practice. Transparency = social responsibility.

In the case of CSR, there exist the usual suspects in terms of academic and industry definitions. Frankly, I don’t think it matters what the agreed upon definition is or ends up being. A good functional definition is useful insofar as everyone believes the concept to be real and worth their time. And luckily, today most people already agree that social responsibility is a real and very important concept particularly within the corporate world.

Just as science begins with inadequate models and theories knowing that they will be replaced with more accurate ones in the future, ideas of social responsibility are in their early infancy. Although there are plenty of examples for what social responsibility could be in practice outside of these existing models and theories. Extreme transparency as practiced by Timberland, Google’s foundation and kiva.org come to mind off the cuff (there exist many, many more). This idea of corporate social responsibility, in my humble opinion, extends our notions of personal social responsibility, where people who are open and honest with others about who they are and what they do are considered by most as socially responsible human beings (people like the Dalai Lama or Ghandi come to mind). To me, social responsibility in practice is really as simple as that.

Today, information about you and your company are easily accessible regardless of how much control you may think or would prefer to have over it. If people want to find it, they will one way or another.

Transparency, through open and honest communication, is the future.