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Professionalization: A New Approach Required

In January 2005 the International Organisation for Standardisation announced the establishment of the group to develop a global standard on social responsibility. The ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility had its first meeting in March in Salvador, Brazil,  establishing a workplan culminating in the issuance of standardised guiding principles for the field of social responsibility. This represents an ISO reference for the business community to match its weights, measures, standardised grades of aluminium...and 15,000 other global standards. The development of this standard is the latest step in the growing 'professionalisation' of service provision in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship fields.

In addition to the development of standards for management practice, there are increasing moves to standardise the practice of those working in this field. At the end of 2004 AccountAbility and the International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA) came together to launch the world's first individual certification scheme in the field of sustainability assurance. The so-called Certified Sustainability Assurance Practitioner Program will help auditors - both internal as well as external to companies - provide quality assurance to sustainability reports.

Andrew DunnettThis initiative came fast on the heels of a new CSR Academy in the UK, which developed a "CSR Competency Framework" for managers.11 This outlines a set of core characteristics that CSR managers should exhibit, and is intended to help managers improve their practices both within the specific CSR profession, but also in other specialisms where business-society issues are relevant. This is because "in today's business environment" says Andrew Dunnett of CSR Academy "managers across the business require the skills and competencies to take into account an increasing range and complexity of factors relating to the financial, environmental and social implications of business operations." 12

History teaches us of the mixed blessing when individuals and organizations come together to establish, improve and ultimately protect a profession. On the positive side, they provide the opportunity for people to share knowledge and expertise and maintain standards through peer review. They also provide a form of guarantee for consumers of professional services that the provider is of a certain standard, with a particular training, qualifications and experience. However, this social benefit from professions and professional associations is not without its kickback. 'Professions strike a bargain with society in which they exchange competence and integrity against the trust of client and community, relative freedom from lay supervision and interference, protection against competition as well as substantial remuneration and higher social status' commented the sociologist Rueschemeyer, some 20 years ago.13 A body of work on the sociology of professions demonstrates that the definition of what is a professional training, qualification, experience and practice, is not just a technical exercise.

Some see professionalisation less as an issue of quality as one of self-interest. 'All professions are conspiracies against the laity' wrote George Bernard Shaw in 1906. Today many regard the development of professions as projects of occupational closure. This means making it more difficult to get into the profession, thereby restricting supply of a service and driving up prices and remuneration. Professions can therefore play a role in perpetuating class divisions14, which could become a key issue for professionalisation in the area of business-society relations. Further, professionalisation of the CSR domain is likely to filter out the more creative wavelength of idea generation, to challenge fast-moving changes and weight them with new administrative burdens, and to insulate itself from voices critical of the mainstream.

The history of professions also raises issues about the relationship of CSR and government. Professionals, whether accountants, doctors, or others have been found to seek and maintain the judgement domain and indeterminacy of their professional task as a way of empowering their members, and also restricting external interference.15 Thus professions seek a certain amount of independence from the state in order to carry out their activities, yet they need the state to give them a monopoly to protect their activities.16 As the issue of public policies on CSR becomes more developed in subsequent years, so the relationship of the CSR profession to regulatory processes will become increasingly important. Evidently, the an increasingly professionalised CSR community has a lot to lose by being actually critical of either its client base or regulatory masters.

Given that questions of organizational accountability are central to debates and initiatives on CSR and corporate citizenship, the accountability of CSR professionalisation must become a key issue. Who should CSR standards development be accountable to? CSR practitioners? Or their intended beneficiaries? Can we assume that their intended beneficiaries are not only their clients, but those affected by their client's activities? If so, what opportunities for meaningful participation in CSR professional standards development can those constituencies really have? CSR professionalisation could learn well from the history of professions, as well as innovating a new conception of professional identity, where the professional not only serves the client, but a set of principles that speak directly to the need for a more sustainable and just world. The establishment of the Association of Sustainability Practitioners (www.asp-online.org) in 2005 is one attempt to encourage such an orientation amongst professionals in this field.


12. Dunnett, A (2004) 'Embedding CSR is the key to better performance', Ethical Corporation, November.

13. Rueschemeyer, D (1983) 'Professional Autonomy and the Social Control of Expertise' in Dingwall, R and Lewis, P (eds) The Sociology of the Professions, Macmillan, London, pp38-58

14. Johnson, T 'The Profession in the Class Structure’ in Scase, R (ed) Industrial Society: Class, Cleavage and Control, George Allen and Unwin, London

15. Harding, N and McKinnon, J (1997) 'User Involvement in the Standard-setting Process: A Research Note on the Congruence of Accountant and User Perceptions of Decision Usefulness', Accounting, Organizations and Society, vol 22, no 1, January, pp55-67

16. Krause, E (2001) 'Professional Group Power in Developing Societies', Current Sociology, vol 49, no 4, July, pp149-75

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contents © Greenleaf Publishing, apart from the Introduction © jem bendell, 2006. site by waywardmedia.com

 

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