Breakout 3C: One Size Does NOT Fit All: Cultural Influences in CSR Decision-Making

By Michelle Khouri, Quotes president

In her presentation, Leticia Solaun, CH2M HILL international PR liaison, touched upon the cultural aspect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). According to Archie B. Carroll ("the father of CSR," according to Solaun), CSR is "the social responsibility of business that encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time." Solaun's presentation makes the point that CSR is not a blanket strategy that should be to all clients, countries, and people. For instance, Solaun gave the example of the Hispanic culture. Solaun is Cuban and has focused her doctoral thesis on Hispanic culture with regards to CSR. "It's the Cuban paranoia," she says. Hispanics will almost never donate actual money to organizations, but will rather spend time and energy to donate physical items to help advance the given cause.

I bare witness to this on a personal level. My mother, a native of Colombia, has never donated money (to my knowledge) to a charity. However, she spent many years collecting old clothes and toys from our neighbors, family, and friends and would ship them (instead of her own luggage) to Colombia. We would personally distribute the items to orphanages around Bogota. In my mother's case, she grew up in a time when the Colombian government was struggling and corrupt. She is not trusting of large entities, and, like most Hispanics, wants to see where exactly her help is going and how it is being used.

The most important part of "glocalizing" a CSR program is making sure you understand the client's perspective of themselves, their culture, their business, their beliefs. Culture is a huge part of each society and it, many times, dictates how business within that society operate, what their customs are, and how they perceive community service and giving.