Citizenship and Lobbies, Article Review Example

In this article I learned more about how lobbying is used in business.  While I am familiar with lobbying efforts in Congress, I have always envisioned grass roots efforts to sway public opinion in this country.  While the basics seem the same regarding how things would operate in the U.S., the description of the lobbying process and how parliament makes decisions was new to me.  I was surprised by how much businesses seem to lobby parliament directly to benefit their individual company and how corporate social media is viewed as a political force.

I still wonder how the idea of CSR which originally at least, was intended to refer to a type of self-regulation in business so they followed the laws and internal moral and ethical priorities, now refers to a type of selfish interest in shaping the political landscape through lobbying focused on the good of the one business over the good of the community.  It doesn’t seem to reflect the idea of social responsibility.

A quote that I felt was interesting and surprising in the article was, “Indeed, it became evident during the research that the CSR function had no role in lobbying. That is to say, firms CSR departments were not involved in developing their lobbying positions, nor did they influence individual lobbyists behavior. Indeed, the CSR and lobbying functions appear to be entirely separate in practice even when they are located in the same department. This functional separation is because CSR is not seen as being relevant to lobby” (pg. 273).

I found this quote interesting because at first it seemed like the article discussed how lobbying is an important part of CSR.  It appeared as if lobbying was important in maintaining reputation and respectability which was presented as part of CSR strategy.  Yet here after stating that CSR is completely separate from the other departments, which I also find unusual, that CSR and lobbying are not related and one has nothing to do with the other.  It is as if lobbying is to increase the company’s bottom line while CSR is a department set apart from the rest of the company which is also concerned with increasing company revenue but not the concept of social responsibility.  I thought social responsibility was something that was supposed to be a strong part of corporate culture and to be important at every level of the company including that of the individual employees.

This article shows how business, government and society are linked together in terms of the way they interact.  The article points out that in some countries without a strong political structure, business fills the role of government.  This shows the role that business plays in public opinion of most countries.  Business and government may also work hand in hand as business needs to ensure specific political outcomes for the good of the business and political leaders need the support, financial and reputation, of big business in order to remain in office.  Both business and government try to balance the needs of society in order to remain leaders with the needs of the organization or governmental body.