Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management 36

334 Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management
■ The firm has explicit funding application criteria
■ Information is provided in the local language
■ The firm subscribes to the Global Reporting Initiative, a multi-
stakeholder process and independent institution that sets sustain-
ability reporting guidelines.
Based on published information on the internet, Jones has rated Diageo
as scoring the highest possible marks.
The conclusions of the authors are that Diageo’s efforts at corporate
citizenship have paid off in building ‘social capital’ inside and outside the
firm. Social capital refers to the levels of trust, socially responsible norms
of behaviour and social networks that are facilitated outside and inside an
organization through investment in social programmes. CC activities
have been especially positive in raising social capital with employees,
allowing them to make positive contributions to society while working in
an industry that presents some ethical concerns to people. The CC pro-
grammes have been very influential in recruiting talented graduates.
They also issue a word of warning, however, that:
subordinating corporate citizenship to commercial objectives reduces its
values to the company … There is an observable trend away from purely
charitable projects motivated by community need to projects that directly
serve the interests of Diageo’s brands. While this is understandable it is a
risky strategy as it undermines one of the major benefits of corporate
citizenship projects which is the building up of goodwill towards the
company based on altruistic involvement in the community. (p. 47)
Source: Based on Bek, Jones and Pollitt, 2005
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336 Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management
CHAPTER
The corporate agenda
and the HR function:
creating a
fit-for-purpose future
10
Introduction
At the end of the first chapter we raised the question of the sig-
nificance of the corporate agenda for the HR function. Given the
central theme of this book has been about the key role of people
management in creating difference through corporate reputa-
tions and brands and maintaining legitimacy through CSR and
good governance, we have sought to provide our HR readers with
a good grounding in these fields and some practical frameworks
and tools to help them contribute to these key strategic drivers
of organizational performance. However, the tensions between
corporate and local agendas – what we might call the universal
paradox in management – presents HR with difficult chal-
lenges but significant opportunities (see Box 10.1). These chal-
lenges and opportunities posed by reputation management and
338 Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management
Box 10.1 Scottish & Newcastle, branding and people
management
Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) was the fourth largest European brewer in
2005 and in the top ten by sales volume in the world. It is a public com-
pany with a history dating back to 1749 and is listed on the London
Stock Exchange. Its headquarters are in Edinburgh, Scotland. S&N has
corporate branding, as well as the related issues of CSR and cor-
porate governance are, we believe, among the most important

the profession is likely to face, not least because they incorp-
orate most of the issues identified by some of the leading aca-
demic thinkers on the future of HR who also have an impact on
practice (Pfeffer, 1998; Sparrow et al., 2004; Huselid et al., 2005;
Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005).
So, in this chapter, we examine research and the speculation
about the changing role of HR, as well as current practice, to show
how HR professionals can contribute to the corporate agenda
more effectively. We also make some specific recommendations
for HR leadership in this field, especially on improving HR’s
professional competence in this field and credibility with the
other functions contributing to the corporate agenda, including
marketing, branding, CSR and senior leadership (see Figure 1.1
in Chapter 1). These recommendations should be timely in an
international context since there are a number of projects and
investigations looking at the future of HR in various countries,
including the CIPD, SHRM and the World Federation of
Personnel Management Associations. Hopefully our contribu-
tion will help them with their reflections.
To begin with, let’s look at a short case that deals directly with
the relationship between HR and branding. We will use it to
ground some of the ideas raised in the rest of this chapter.
The ‘think global and act local’
problem, HR and people
management