A recent opinion piece in Ethical Corp. magazine by Brendan Mays, takes a “sideways” look at NGO types with the intent of helping guide companies on “how to pick a NGO partner.” Mays provides some insightful advice, such as companies are “best off not ignoring” activist groups. But his characterizations of NGOs are too simplistic, almost sarcastic, and reinforce stereotypes such as “Angry Activist”, “Smiling Salesman”, or “Overfed Giant” that hinder corporate engagement of NGOs.
NGOs and corporations are simply organizations comprised of individuals; by negatively typecasting NGOs, Mays homogenizes the individuals who work there, essentially stripping them of their unique identities. Rather than promote understanding, such labels erect barriers to understanding. Corporate/NGO engagement only succeeds when each side recognizes the unique individual(s) sitting across from him or her and is open to the opinions of the other.
Additionally Mays, like many pundits focused on stakeholder engagement, suggests partnership is the goal of corporate/NGO engagement. But corporate/NGO partnerships require substantive investment of time and money (direct or indirect) to forge and manage and are therefore effective in rare, unique circumstances, when a company:
- is measuring its baseline CSR performance according to external stakeholder standards, AND
- enjoys trust with a range of influential stakeholder opinion leaders with whom it works on continually improving its baseline CSR performance.
When it has a robust CSR performance measurement programs and enjoys trust with key stakeholders, a company is best positioned to pursue a substantive NGO partnership. Such partnerships are most effective when they:
- are proposed by the NGO(s), who is then more vested in a successful outcome
- leverage a company’s core competency, ensuring a company is vested in a successful outcome
Formal corporate/NGO partnerships emerge from a series of informal meetings over time building trust between individuals. Some of the biggest breakthroughs in corporate/NGO relations occur when individuals find they share a passion for a hobby like fly fishing or fondness for the same sports team. These informal approaches, less resource intensive than partnerships but can yield tremendous knowledge sharing for corporations and NGOs alike, include casual phone or email exchanges, impromptu discussions at events, and conference participation, etc.
Ultimately, success of any engagement would be limited if corporate engagement practitioners approached NGOs thinking of them as “tunnel visioned zealots” or “hypocrites”, two more of Mays’ NGO labels. Instead, corporate engagement practitioners should continually strive to humanize their companies’ NGO relationships, seeing the individuals within NGOs rather than seeing NGOs as monolithic organizations. Further, they must strive to individualize NGOs, recognizing that each one adds something of distinct value and find ways to tap that value. In this way, mutual sharing of knowledge will most likely ensue, leading to better outcomes for both corporation and NGO alike, and maybe even a successful partnership.
Tags: activist groups, corporate partnership, csr, ethical corporation, NGO partner, Stakeholder Engagement
