Corporate Citizenship

Corporate Citizenship:

Analysis of BC Transit and CIBC

Managing Responsibly in a Global Environment

April 14, 2010

In today’s business society it is rarely seen that a company acts unethically in making decisions, and does not treat all stakeholders with respect but it still occurs, as I will explain through CIBC’s fraudulent investments with Enron. Global responsibility has become a norm among all businesses and is projected by companies assessing all that will be affected by their business ventures. A term given to this global responsibility is corporate citizenship. By acting socially responsible to society and stakeholders creates a successful and positive image of a company, which was a key component in the launch of the world’s first hydrogen bus fleet by B.C transit. Throughout this paper I will discuss how actions taken by B.C transit and CIBC affected their stakeholders generating both positive and negative conceptions of corporate citizenship.

Corporate citizenship is a term that can be articulated in many different ways depending on the perspective of the individual defining it. I believe that in general the word is defined by the relationship a business forms between themselves and their stakeholders by not excluding them from corporate decisions, and can be either positive or negative depending; if a company takes advantage of stakeholders and views them as opportunities to be exploited a negative corporate citizenship will most likely arise. Alternatively if the stakeholders’ are assumed to be a part of the company’s success and are treated well the business will be viewed as a good corporate citizen.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is directly related to corporate citizenship. Displaying good CSR through business practice will bring about positive improvements to the company including improved employee and consumer relations, increased bottom line and promote a good image of the company. As defined by Bauer, CSR is, “seriously...