U.S. Companies Show Progress in Role of 'Good Corporate Citizens,' Survey Suggests

By Brennen Jensen

Major U.S. corporations have made strides in responding to the public's calls for them to do more to become "good corporate citizens" — through their philanthropy, employment practices, and general operations — a new survey suggests. But they still have a long way to go to meet Americans' rising expectations in this area, say officials with GolinHarris, the public-relations firm in Chicago that commissioned the survey.

Forty one percent of survey respondents said that business is moving the the wrong direction for the future of corporate citizenship, down from 44 percent who felt this way last year.

More than two-thirds of the 5,000 peope surveyed said they believe that businesses should put more time and money into practicing good corporate citizenship.

A majority also said that good corporate citizenship should be "high priority" for business, and should be viewed as an investment that can provide a competitive advantage.

The survey, conducted annually since 2002, was based on interviews conducted via the Internet.

Respondents were also asked to rank the importance of 12 corporate behaviors designed to build goodwill. Treating employees well and fairly was the most important behavior, followed by "ethical, honest, open" business practices. "Checkbook philanthropy" — when a company donates money to benefit others — ranked 8th in importance.

As in past years, the survey asked participants to rate dozens of corporations based on their good citizenship practices. Ben & Jerry's ice cream company was ranked the highest, moving up from the No. 2 spot they held in last year's survey. Retailer Target received the second highest corporate citizenship marks this year, followed by outdoor clothier Patagonia. Neither firm was ranked in the top 10 last year.

Oil company ExxonMobil, cigarette maker Phillip Morris, and Shell Oil recieved the lowest corporate-citizenship scores.

Word of mouth from family and friends was the most trusted way for survey respondents to learn about a company's goodwill behaviors, followed by hearing directly from individuals helped by the action. Learning about corporate citizenship from a nonprofit organization or government agency was a less trusted means of communication, and ranked 7th out of 10 options.

The report, "Corporate Citizenship gets Down to Business: Doing Well by Doing Good 2006," is available free at the GolinHarris Web site: http://www.golinharris.com