Many Corporate Responsibility Reports Too Good to be True

NGOs would like to see more admissions of shortcomings.

Corporations should give honest accounts of their shortcoming in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, according to a new survey of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that monitor such reporting. Seventy-nine percent of NGOs surveyed by New York-based public relations firm Burson-Marsteller said that while CSR reports are useful to a degree, only 44 percent of the reports are considered “believable,” according to a Nov. 13 Burson-Marsteller announcement.

NGOs surveyed said the most important thing companies can do to improve credibility in a CSR report is to acknowledge non-compliance, poor performance and other significant problems. Other factors that boost NGO confidence in triple-bottom-line reporting are comprehensive performance metrics, third-party certification and standardization of reporting rather than case studies and independent research, according to the Burson-Marsteller announcement.

While researching the 2003 “Building CEO Capital” survey, Burson-Marsteller interviewed a cross-section of 56 NGOs on leadership challenges and corporate responsibility communications. The public relations firm also surveyed 1,040 CEOs, executives, financial analysts, institutional investors, business media, government officials and board members to examine CEO and corporate reputation issues.