 “Difference Makers” are people who invent new institutions to change the world as we know it. Four members of the CSR Initiative team have been deemed “difference makers” in Prof. Sandra Waddock’s new book, The Difference Makers: How Social and Institutional Entrepreneurs Created the Corporate Responsibility Movement. The book chronicles the careers of John Ruggie, CSRI Faculty Chair; Jane Nelson, CSRI Director; CSRI Senior Fellows David Grayson and Simon Zadek, and 19 others. Sandra Waddock is Professor of Management, Boston College Carroll School of Management, and former CSRI Visiting Scholar.
According to Waddock, “all of the people discussed in this book are leaders, but they are not leaders in the traditional sense. . . Their individual roles have been to hope to do good in the world by focusing on a progressive view of the public good and by building new institutions of accountability, responsibility, and transparency for corporations and other institutions. They have been able to see or sense that a problem exists in the macrosystem that supports the world as we know it, and move to establish new institutions that create leverage for long-term change – institutions that create a demand for greater responsibility and accountability from corporations and large institutions. In that sense, the difference makers operate in a domain of what some scholars call institutional design, while they are simultaneously attempting to mobilize a social movement of responsibility assurance for large and powerful institutions.” (Sandra Waddock. 2008. The Difference Makers: How Social and Institutional Entrepreneurs Created the Corporate Responsibility Movement, Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing Limited.)
Description from the Publisher, Greenleaf Publishing.
Since the 1970s, public and civil society dissatisfaction with the global power of corporations has generated a growing wave of new institutional mechanisms that attempt, in different ways, to create more accountable, responsible, and transparent businesses. These institutional mechanisms have become part of a much-larger social movement that is attempting to develop a set of constraints on business that stands in stark contrast to the dominant economic logic of maximizing shareholder wealth and growing multinational corporations' size and power. They include business associations and alliances focused on sustainability, responsibility, and accountability, consultancies that are helping companies to behave as good corporate citizens, responsible investment entities, social research organizations, social and environmental standard setters, monitoring and reporting initiatives, and organizations focused on incorporating social issues into management education.
These new institutions would not have emerged without the work of a number of pioneering individuals: "The Difference Makers" - visionary social and institutional entrepreneurs who, together, have had a massive impact on getting decision-makers to incorporate social and environmental criteria in the strategies, practices, and purposes of the modern corporation. Thanks to these "Difference Makers", there has been remarkable progress in advancing an alternative agenda and in creating a corporate responsibility infrastructure, particularly since the late 1980s and '90s.
It is not often that we have the opportunity to hear from the early pioneers of a social movement about how it grew and evolved, but that is exactly what this book sets out to do. It tells the stories of these social and institutional entrepreneurs and the organizations they have founded and led, largely in their own words. The book examines 23 of the key players who have been instrumental in developing the corporate responsibility movement in North America and the UK.
The Difference Makers is a history and detailed analysis of how corporate responsibility has emerged as a key political, social, and business issue, why it has evolved so quickly, and what the visions of its thought leaders are for the future. It will be essential reading for academics, business people, and all those who are interested in the future of the corporation.
Excerpts from the Book
Who are the Difference Makers?
Foreword
Introduction: creating a social movement
Chapter 1: Making a difference |
