Social Strategy & Corporate Structure

by Chamberlain, Neil W.

• ISBN13: 9781416576457
• ISBN10: 1416576452
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-10
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

This new work by Neil W. Chamberlain will be of great importance to the business community -- and to all those charged with defining the role large corporations play in the affairs of society.Social Strategy and Corporate Structureis an objective, indepth examination of the organizational requirements of a social role for large-scale business. The role Neil Chamberlain presents is one of heroic dimensions: the political choice of goals, the strategic allocation of resources, and the tactical operations of the mechanisms of production.While there has been much discussion of corporate social responsibility, few have investigated the ways its structure will have to change if the corporation is to pursue a strategy that is both economic and social. This timely book integrates a large number of issues involving corporate activities and governance that go directly to the heart of this problem.In step-by-step detail, Chamberlain analyzes the organizational imperatives of this new age of social responsibility: the composition and functions of boards of directors and the relation of their duties to a broad system of national planning; the internal social audit; changes in the characteristics of corporate social planning; and proposals for restructuring ultimate corporate authority, either through public or outside directors. In addition, he examines the potential relevance of federal chartering of corporations, and the effects of international economic interdependence on the development of a new corporate social strategy.This book is not a detailed blueprint for change. Rather, it presents a thorough, systematic study of available courses of action for improvement, based on the principle that conventional notions of corporate independence will have to be modified for any social strategy to work. And while not everyone will agree with Neil Chamberlain, few can afford to ignore his provocative insights into what corporations must do to function effectively in a changed social environment.

Author Biography

<B>Neil W. Chamberlain</B> is the Armand G. Erpf Professor (now Emeritus) of the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University. He has also held the chair in management economics in the Department of Economics at Yale University. His professional interests began with industrial relations and labor economics and have subsequently extended to the economies of the firm and corporate planning, national planning, and most recently social values and corporate social responsibility, as reflected in the titles of some of his twenty-two books: <I>The Union Challenge to Management Control, The Labor Sector, The Firm: Micro-Economic Planning and Action, Private and Public Planning. Enterprise and Environment. The Place of Business in America's Future: A Study in Social Values. The Limits of Corporate Responsibility,</I> and <I>Remaking American Values: Challenge to a Business Society.</I>
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He is a past president of the Industrial Relations Research Association and was director of the Program in Economic Development and Administration of the Ford Foundation from 1957 to 1960. He has served on the board of editors of the <I>American Economic Review,</I> the editorial council of <I>Management International,</I> and the board of trustees of the <I>Columbia Journal of World Business.</I>

Table of Contents

Preface

The Uncertain Relation between Business and Society

The Corporation in the Early United States

Expanding Corporations and Their Impact

Social Challenges to Corporate Autonomy

Public and Private Purpose

A New Strategy, a New Structure

Alternatives to Structural Change

Management Ethics

Corporate Social Responsibility

The Ethical Investor

Industrywide Collaboration

Government Regulation

Proposals for Restructuring the Ultimate Corporate Authority

Outside Directors

Public Directors

Social Indicators, National Planning, and Corporate Motivation

The Not-So-Free Market

Social Guidelines

National Planning

The Question of Motivation

The Corporate Social Audit

What Purpose Social Reporting?

Comprehensive versus Selective Reporting

The Matter of Measurement

The Problem of Credibility

Voluntary or Compulsory Reporting?Back to Motivation

Corporate Structure

Reorganization at the Top

Corporate Relation to National Policy

Strategic Planning

Participation in Planning and Execution

Motivation

Performance Review

Proxy Machinery and Annual Meetings

External Monitoring

The Monitoring Professions

Accounting

Law

Federal Chartering of National Corporations

Federal Minimum Standards

Federal Incorporation

Is Federal Chartering Relevant?

Foreign Operations of U.S. Corporations

The Business of America Abroad

Interdependence versus Nationalism

International Economic Policy and the Corporation

Outlook and Perspective

Index

About the Author

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