What CSR Means to Me

A Capitalist's Perspective on Corporate Responsibility

The Capitalist CSR Strategist: An Unlikely Combination?

When I got my Master in the Psychology of Economic Life, I wasn't planning to end up in the Corporate Social Responsibility field. The title found me after a winding and interdisciplinary career. With experiences across sectors, industries, and departments, I’ve accumulated the perfect expertise to thrive at the intersection of the work I’ve always been most curious and passionate about - the economy’s part in our societal and environmental futures. 

I'm a capitalist with an economist's training and a psychologist’s perspective. So why am I also a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategist? Doesn’t corporate responsibility only get in the way of maximizing profits? Doesn’t that interfere with a laissez-faire economy where the market’s natural path will lead humanity to its best self? 

Isn’t CSR incompatible with capitalism? 

Fortunately, I’m also an amateur historian and know better than to fall for this oversimplified narrative.

The Wealth of Nations by A Moral Philosopher

Did you know that Adam Smith, the famous father of modern economics and author of The Wealth of Nations, was primarily a philosopher of morality? 

While his advocacy for a free market and the guiding "invisible hand" are often cited from his aforementioned more popular book, he first published A Theory of Moral Sentiments, where he develops an in-depth look at the human pursuit of morality and good behavior. Smith only ever wrote these two manuscripts and requested the 16 unfinished pieces he had lying around at the time of his death be burned.

Being so careful to ensure that his unfinished thoughts wouldn’t be published without context, presumably, this was a man who would have wanted us to read both of his books in conjunction with each other. If we read both books, (and I have), The Wealth of Nations teaches something antithetical to classic education in a BS of economics program. Summarized perfectly by Andrew Sheng and Sneha Poddar in their article "We Owe an Apology to Adam Smith":

"We cannot maximize our happiness by just maximizing wealth, as high rates of anxiety and depression in rich societies plus growing social inequality and climate injustices testify. We need moral sentiments to bind humanity."

Redefining CSR: It's More Than You Think

I like to think that Adam Smith would have been an advocate of having corporate responsibility initiatives throughout organizations across industries and sectors. I believe in being a strategist who works the way I like to think Adam Smith would have supported - including but not limited to environmental efforts, and employed to operationalize the morality of a company's efforts to maximize profits. 

A CSR strategist should be working on implementing ethical business practices from the highest level to entry-level employee behaviors. They should be in the rooms where decisions are being made, involved in risk avoidance, talking to compliance, and interviewing employees about their experiences to ensure that leaders are encouraging their futures. A CSR strategist should be a bridge between HR, Compliance, C-Suite, Sales, Product, Design, IT, and more. They should work interdisciplinarily and cross-departmentally to create systems that work for everyone and produce the best, most lasting, and long-term outcomes.

This, of course, requires a distinct skill set from project management and communication to Community engagement, synthesis, and systems thinking. Organizational Psychology is helpful and a little financial exposure is beneficial, if only to support setting SMART metrics and incentives for CSR programs.

Don’t let your CSR work begin and end with a green campaign to improve your real estate energy efficiency, or to get the employees to recycle their documents. If we all build our organizations with the future in mind, we all get there together. 

Why I'm Here: A Future That Works

So, no, I didn't get into CSR because I have a climate background. I didn't get into CSR with a compliance or law background. I didn't get into CSR with a philosophy background. I got here with a background in economics and psychology, a curiosity for history, a passion for human and natural well-being, and a desire to make the systems that are broken work the way they were supposed to in the first place.

I'm a capitalist. I simply want our organizations to be more responsible with the power that comes from operating within capitalism.

Tune into future posts for details on how companies have the power to make our economy work better for society and Mother Earth. (Hint: they get to keep their profits, too!)

This blog was written with the probing support of Anthropic’s Claude 3.0