Changing Manager Mindsets

“Changing Manager Mindsets”
Report of the Working Group on the Development of Professional

Skills for the Practice of Corporate Social Responsibility
Department of Trade and Industry

Corporate Responsibility Group
April 2003
CONTENTS
Foreword ....................................................................................................................................... 1
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 3
Section One: The Working Group and Its Task........................................................................... 11

1.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 11
1.2. Background .................................................................................................................... 12
Section Two: Identifying CSR Skills and Competencies ............................................................. 14

2.1 CSR – An Emerging Profession? ................................................................................... 14
2.2 Does Embedding CSR Practice Require Specialist CSR Practitioners?........................ 15
2.3 The Research Study ...................................................................................................... 16
2.4 Identifying CSR Skills and Competencies ...................................................................... 17
2.5 Core CSR Characteristics .............................................................................................. 20
2.6 Implications for CSR Practitioners.................................................................................. 22
2.7 Conclusions and Recommendations for Building CSR Skills and Competencies.......... 23
Section Three: CSR Training and Development Provision ......................................................... 25

3.1 Objectives of the Research ............................................................................................ 25
3.2 What Training Exists? .................................................................................................... 25
3.3 Course Format ............................................................................................................... 28
3.4 On-going Research in Training and Development ......................................................... 30
3.5 Training for Skills and Competencies............................................................................. 30
3.6 Training and Standards .................................................................................................. 31
3.7 Training and Learning .................................................................................................... 31
3.8 Conclusions and Recommendations CSR Training and Development Provision .......... 32
Section Four: Is There a Role for a CSR Academy?................................................................... 34

4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 34
4.2 Purpose of CSR Academy ............................................................................................. 35
4.3 Conclusions and Recommendations on the Tasks of a CSR Academy......................... 36
4.4 Conclusions and Recommendations on the Organisational Structure of the CSR
Academy ........................................................................................................................ 38
APPENDIX 1: Contributors to Consultations and Discussions.................................................... 40
APPENDIX 2: CSR Skills and Competencies ............................................................................. 42
APPENDIX 3: Survey Results ..................................................................................................... 45
APPENDIX 4: Education and Training Provision ........................................................................ 49

DTI/CRG Report – “Changing Manager Mindsets” 1
Foreword
Our task was to make recommendations on how to create the people

with the skills, competencies and commitment to realise the CSR
agenda. We define CSR as the management of an organisation's total
impact upon both its immediate stakeholders and upon the society within
which it operates. Managerial decision-making needs increasingly to
take into account a wide range of criteria relating to the financial,
environmental and social implications of business operations.
We believe the key task over the next 10 to 15 years is to change

manager mindsets. There are many drivers to doing this but a key
strategic driver will be promoting CSR competencies into the education,
training and on-going professional development of all managers- not just
the CSR specialists, important though specialists are as change agents
in larger companies.
Creating the people will require changes to what is offered in the

business schools, universities and by training providers. It will require
embedding in the competency frameworks of professional institutes and
be a guide to companies' own investment in their people. Some of these
agents are already spearheading change. These are the enthusiasts
from large and small businesses and amongst the internal and external
stakeholders of organisations who are driving the agenda onwards.
We believe that CSR is relevant to organisations of all sizes whether in

the private, public or voluntary sectors as a necessary underpinning of
building trust in our pluralist, fast changing world.
We hope that our recommendations will support a leap forward in

promoting the understanding of how all managers can become CSR
practitioners and in developing their ability to put that understanding into
practice.
Our deliberations were based on the excellent research and analysis

undertaken by our consultants Ashridge and Accountability. The
Secretariat of the Corporate Responsibility Group and the Department of
Trade and Industry both ably supported us. The many people who took
part in our consultations and generously offered us their work in
progress and their insights helped shape our thinking. On behalf of the
Working Group I offer grateful thanks to them all.
Sue Slipman
April 2003
Executive Summary
1. Introduction
In December 2002, the Department of Trade and Industry and the
Corporate Responsibility Group established a Working Group to report to
the Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness, Stephen
Timms. The task of the Working Group was to carry out a process of
inquiry with three major objectives. These were to:
• Map and measure what specific generic skill sets are required for
the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the inter-
section with other professional practices.
• Examine how to incorporate CSR practice into the training,
assessment and qualifications of general managers.
• Decide whether the establishment of some form of CSR
Academy would be a valuable way to promote the development
of CSR in the UK.
The Working Group was chaired by Sue Slipman, Chair, Financial

Ombudsman's Service, and its members were: Richard Aylard, Director
of CSR, Thames Water; Anna Bradley, Director Consumer Affairs,
Financial Services Authority; Claire Hitchcock, Director, Europe
International Community Partnerships, GlaxoSmithKline; Jerry Marston,
Community Investment Director, Whitbread and Chair of Corporate
Responsibility Group; Lance Moir, Senior Lecturer in Finance and
Accounting, Cranfield University School of Management and
representative of the European Academy of Business in Society; Henry
Stewart, Managing Director, Happy Computers; Baroness Glenys
Thornton; Lucy Varcoe, Manager Advisory Services, Business in the
Community; Ed Williams, Head of Corporate Responsibility, Marks &
Spencer; and Janet Williamson, Policy Officer ESAD, TUC.
Despite having only a limited time for its work the Working Group
consulted around 450 people from a wide range of organisations in its
research and to inform its discussions.
The Working Group's Approach to CSR
The Working Group recognised that at the heart of its work lay the need
for strategies to establish and grow trust between organisations and their
stakeholders. Such trust requires increasing the accountability of an
organisation to its stakeholders through active dialogue to inform and
determine the organisation's policy and decision making so that these
increasingly both benefit the business or organisation and at the least
minimise damage to society and at best have a positive impact on
society.
The Working Group believes that CSR concerns the management of an

organisation's total impact upon both its immediate stakeholders and
upon the society within which it operates.
CSR is not simply about whatever funds and expertise companies chose
to invest in communities to help resolve social problems, although many
companies do make contributions in this way. It is about the integrity with
which a company governs itself, fulfils its mission, lives by its values,
engages with its stakeholders and measures its impacts and publicly
reports on its activities. The Working Group recognised that the central
need is for CSR practice to be embedded firmly within all business
practice so that responsible business progressively becomes just the
way we do business in the UK
The Group believes that popularising CSR, getting more companies,

both large and small to take up its practice and informing all sectors in
changing practice requires a 'leap forward'. It concludes that the
cornerstone of informing professional and managerial practice for
embedding CSR practice in organisations is to define the competencies
and skills required to underpin this practice and to ensure that they
become part of the training of all managers at all levels in organisations.
2. Conclusions and Recommendations for Building

CSR Skills and Competencies
The DTI/CRG Working Group recognises the wealth of data available
concerning the way the CSR profession is developing. However, the
research undertaken for this inquiry has shown that much of this
knowledge is fragmented and there is little clarity about a common set of
CSR skills, competencies or behaviours. In the light of this, the Working
Group supports and endorses the core CSR characteristics derived from
the results of the extensive consultation process. These are shown in
the diagram below.
HR
OPERATIONS MARKETING
CSR Characteristics
Understanding society
Building partnerships
Questioning business as usual
Stakeholder relationships
Strategic vision
Respecting diversity
COMMUNICATIONS FINANCE
© Ashridge/DTI/CRG STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

The Working Group makes the following recommendations based on the

findings of the research.
Recommendation 1
There is little evidence of any formal skills and competency frameworks
either within individual organisations, or among professional bodies and
institutions that seek to serve CSR practitioners. This stands in stark
contrast to other professions. Participants in the consultation process
argued there is a need for further work to extend current thinking on
CSR skills and competencies. This is reinforced by the results of the
survey that found 67% of respondents feel there is a need for a
professional institution (or similar body) to help develop and maintain
practitioner skills for CSR.
Recommendation 2
The research has identified the core characteristics that are at the centre
of management decision-making processes required to integrate CSR
within organisations. These core characteristics are relevant to CSR
practitioners and managers in a range of different functions. The
Working Group strongly recommends the further refinement and testing
of this model with CSR practitioners, across other management
disciplines and among internal and external stakeholder groups. In
particular, there is a real need to understand the perspective of smaller
businesses and organisations outside the private sector.
Recommendation 3
The Working Group recommends that the core CSR characteristics
should be amplified to encompass more detailed statements describing
how each of these principles translates into the range of management
actions.
Recommendation 4
The Working Group believes that the core CSR characteristics
developed by this research can help companies integrate CSR into their
business practice. For example, the core CSR characteristics can be
mapped against existing competency frameworks to help managers
develop their thinking in relation to CSR issues. In addition, companies
should reflect on how the core CSR characteristics can influence the on-
going development of managers. The Working Group believes that the
core CSR characteristics represent behaviours that “can be learned, but
are difficult to be taught.” It recommends that organisations consider a
wide range of development interventions (mentoring, job shadowing,
learning through experience, etc.) in order to better understand how to
equip managers to integrate CSR practice into the decision-making
processes.
3. Conclusions and Recommendations on CSR

Training and Development Provision
The CSR competencies are central to the development of CSR
managers and should be highlighted as a key aspect of learning. The
description (and subsequent understanding by potential trainees) of
these competencies will however be facilitated by the generation of
common definitions and their widespread promotion by significant CSR
networks.
Recommendation 5
The Working Group recommends that CSR training and development
providers map their course provision against the CSR competencies to
demonstrate to potential students and employers alike how these
learning outcomes are built by their courses.
Recommendation 6
When discussing the proliferation of CSR Standards such as GRI,
AA1000 and others, participants in the consultation agreed that some
standardisation of what thing is “vital” rather than “nice to have” could be
helpful. The Working Group believes that the current confusion on the
part of practitioners about which CSR standards to adopt will be resolved
over time by convergence as more organisations use them and discover
those that are most useful to them.
In the meantime the Working Group recommends that training
organisations should offer information about how their courses relate to
various CSR standards, how the learning opportunities offered increase
understanding of them and how this can be related back to the
participants’ organisation.
Recommendation 7
Training and development currently reflects the diverse needs of a new
and growing market, offering a range of courses whose variety in
structure and format can be confusing. The training market has not
developed a clear structure and is still part of a fragmented market.
Participants in the consultation identified the need for a dedicated
website where all providers could post details of courses, conferences
and other learning opportunities. The Working Group believes this
website would operate best under the auspices of the CSR Academy
(see Recommendation 25).
The Working Group recommends that training organisations should

collaborate to offer information on their courses for distribution through a
dedicated website to encourage awareness, understanding and where
relevant, take up of recognised qualifications.
Recommendation 8
The Working Group recommends further research be undertaken to
understand the full range of learning opportunities, including training,
experiential and peer network learning available to managers and in
what way these would be useful at each level of development identified
in section 2 of the report.
For example, basic training might cover the core knowledge needs of a
manager; a secondment would further build that individual’s competence
against specific elements from the range of skills that lie behind the
competence framework; and refresher courses would update and build
upon that individual’s specialist skills. This research could then map out
the best ways for continuous professional development of CSR
competencies and skills.
4. Is There a Role for a CSR Academy?

The Working Group examined the need for and purpose of a CSR
Academy as well as a number of models either existing or proposed and
concluded that such an Academy could have a major role to play in
promoting a 'leap forward' in CSR in the UK
Recommendation 9
The Working Group recommends the setting up of a CSR Academy to
support the growth of CSR competencies at the heart of education,
training and on-going development of both specialist and general
managers.
5. Conclusions and Recommendations on the Tasks

of a CSR Academy
The Working Group believes there is a range of tasks a CSR Academy
should perform if it is to be successful in embedding responsible
corporate and organisational behaviour. Primarily the Academy should
be a change agency, creating a learning space and acting as facilitator
to encourage wider adoption of CSR within management education at all
levels. Its tasks should include the following.
Recommendation 10
In its role as the custodian of the competency framework, the Academy
should keep the competency framework under periodic review through
further research. It should base its work firmly within developing best
practice at the cutting edge of large and small business and must secure
its legitimacy by keeping professional practitioner standards current.
Recommendation 11
Given its principle of not duplicating work that is being well done
elsewhere, the Working Group did not believe the Academy should be a
primary provider of education and training, although it might define an
unmet need and either design provision itself or, work with partners to
ensure provision be made. However, the Academy should 'licence' use
of the competency framework and standards to ensure the production of
appropriate courses and qualifications, working in partnership with
suppliers in market based solutions for course provisions. However the
Working Group do see a role for the CSR Academy in working with
partners to give practitioners access to a range of experiential learning
opportunities, such as secondments, peer group learning circles,
learning exchanges and visits and best practice workshops.
Recommendation 12
The Academy should have an active advice and support role to enable
other organisations, whether in business, public or voluntary sectors and
professional disciplines to develop their education and training
programmes to underpin the embedding of CSR practice. Its advice and
support service should also include referral to other organisations. The
Academy might also support organisations to interpret and make use of
best practice standards and benchmarks that are appropriate to their
continuous improvement in their journey to embedding CSR practice
within organisational functions and performance management. It also
seems likely that the Academy will find itself responding to request for
advice from individual managers on courses to meet their specific needs.
Recommendation 13
Any 'leap forward' for experiential learning, CPD (Continuous
Professional Development) and qualifications require assessment and
verification. The Working Group believes the Academy should be
responsible for devising strategies for the provision of assessors and
verification in partnership with providing and examination bodies.
Recommendation 14
The Working Group does not believe that a prime role for the Academy
should be the provision of CSR case studies as these are often supplied
through reward and recognition schemes run by existing organisations
such as Accountability/ACCA Awards and Business in The Community.
However the Academy will undoubtedly throw up a range of useful case
studies and could clearly have a role in assessing case studies against
the criteria and standards, and in the dissemination and strategies for
replication.
Recommendation 15
The Academy should work through alliances with all relevant
professional institutes by using the competency framework to support
these professional bodies in their exploration of what CSR practice
means for their own discipline. In doing so it should assist professional
institutes to embed CSR principles within the profession and the on-
going education and training of professionals and the qualifications to
which this leads.
Recommendation 16
The Academy should have an active marketing role to promote the take
up of the competency framework and any qualifications it sponsors.
Recommendation 17
The Academy should contribute to policy development in all relevant
partner and stakeholder organisations. It should help inform the
Government's strategy for the promotion of CSR in the UK and Europe
and for UK companies operating in a global environment.
Recommendation 18
The Academy should map the inter-connection between core standards
and relevant disciplines in co-operation with partner organisations.
Recommendation 19
The Academy should have a special brief for devising tools and support
for intermediate organisations working with small and medium sized
enterprises, including Business Link, trade associations, RDA's, and the
Small Business Consortium1.
6. Conclusions and Recommendations on the

Organisational Structure of the CSR Academy
The Working Group considered whether the Academy should have a
physical presence or be virtual and, if physical, whether it needed to be a
new organisation or could sit within an existing organisation. The
Working Group believes that a major part of the CSR learning space
itself will be supported by and disseminated through virtual networks.
There will also be real added value in bringing people together to share
best practice and encourage innovation and that this can only be done
effectively if there is an organisation to manage the process. A number
of potential existing 'homes' were considered for the location of the CSR
Academy, but the Working Group concluded that given the multi-
stakeholder nature of the Academy's remit and the trust it must develop
it would not be appropriate for it to be sited within an existing body.
Recommendation 20
The Working Group recommends that in order for the Academy to be
effective and fleet of foot it needs to be an organisation with an
appropriate governance structure and a small core staff.
Recommendation 21
The Working Group recommends that the CSR academy should be a
new and independent organisation able to develop trust with multi-
stakeholder groups. The CSR Academy must be a CSR values based
organisation. This should be embedded in its organisational structure
and operational goals.
It was recognised that the CSR Academy would need legitimacy both
within the business community and also with wider stakeholders. In
particular it needs to win the confidence and active support of CSR
practitioners. It needs to be seen by the business community as an
organisation that works in harmony with it and understands the role of
business and the range of its concerns.
1
This grouping aims to raise the competitiveness of SMEs through improving
the social, environmental and community impact, consisting of AccountAbility,
Arts and Business, British Chamber of Commerce, Business in the Community,
CSR Europe, The Federation of Small Business, Institute of Directors, The
Forum of Private Business, Scottish Business in the Community, and also
supported by Lloyds TSB.
Recommendation 22
The Working Group recommends a fair balance of the board
membership that reflects the need to win the confidence of large and
small employers, the specialist and general managers they employ, and
the wider stakeholder community without becoming too large and over
bureaucratic.
Recommendation 23
The Working Group recommends that the CSR Academy should employ
the methodologies of responsible corporate practice itself by being
transparent and accountable and working through open consultation. In
addition it should have a consultation infrastructure broadly accessible to
wider stakeholder interests and the relevant linked managerial and
professional disciplines. This might mean that the organisation should
have a broader advisory council structure beneath its governing board. It
should certainly facilitate learning circles as necessary to further the
work.
Recommendation 24
The Working Group recommends that the CSR Academy should have
an open membership policy initially based upon organisational
membership but should give consideration to an associate membership
for interested individuals.
Recommendation 25
The Working Group recommends that the Academy should initially have
4-5 staff members to manage administration, consultation infrastructure,
membership building, the development of partnerships and alliances and
the development of support and advice. These staff will also be
responsible for creating and managing database and new technology
functions including the CSR Academy website (see Recommendation 7).
Recommendation 26
Given the medium to longer-term nature of the CSR Academy's mission,
the Working Group believes that it will take some time before it could be
expected to be financially self-sufficient. The Working Group therefore
recommends that government invest in the start up and maintenance
costs of the CSR Academy, but that the Academy should seek to earn
some of its income and develop its income streams over time, including
through membership fees. The working group believes it may also be
possible to achieve sponsorship funding from forward thinking
organisations and businesses that recognise the need for the Academy
and its work.
Section One: The Working Group and Its Task
1.1. Introduction
In December 2002, the Department of Trade and Industry and the
Corporate Responsibility Group established a Working Group to report to
the Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness, Stephen
Timms. The task of the Working Group was to carry out a process of
inquiry with three major objectives. These were to:
• Map and measure what specific generic skill sets are required for
the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the inter-
section with other professional practices.
• Examine how to incorporate CSR practice into the training,
assessment and qualifications of general managers.
• Decide whether the establishment of some form of CSR
Academy would be a valuable way to promote the development
of CSR in the UK.
The Working Group was chaired by Sue Slipman, Chair, Financial

Ombudsman's Service, and its members were: Richard Aylard, Director
of CSR, Thames Water; Anna Bradley, Director Consumer Affairs,
Financial Services Authority; Claire Hitchcock, Director, Europe
International Community Partnerships, GlaxoSmithKline; Jerry Marston,
Community Investment Director, Whitbread and Chair of Corporate
Responsibility Group; Lance Moir, Senior Lecturer in Finance and
Accounting, Cranfield University School of Management and
representative of the European Academy of Business in Society; Henry
Stewart, Managing Director, Happy Computers; Baroness Glenys
Thornton; Lucy Varcoe, Manager Advisory Services, Business in the
Community; Ed Williams, Head of Corporate Responsibility, Marks &
Spencer; and Janet Williamson, Policy Officer ESAD, TUC.
Despite the limited time available for its work the Working Group wanted
to consult as widely with stakeholders as would be possible in the
circumstances. It therefore invited written submissions on its grounds for
enquiry and involved stakeholders from large and small companies,
specialist institutes, NGOs and other interest groups in 4 working
seminars held in February 2003. Including a written questionnaire sent to
over 250 individuals, the Working Group had contact with around 450
individuals from a wide range of organisations during the course of its
work.
Many stakeholders objected to the term 'CSR'. Some object on the

grounds that they think it suggests a limited concern with philanthropy or
the role of business in local communities, when they are keen to assert
that its reach and significance should be much wider. It was clear that
there is not yet a common language.
Several different terms were offered including 'sustainability', 'durability'

and more straightforwardly 'responsibility'. In the absence of a
universally agreed terminology the Working Group continued to use the
term CSR whilst noting its limitation.
1.2. Background
The background to the Group’s discussions is part of a backdrop of a
lack of trust between business and civil society. This is also part of a
wider review of Corporate Governance, which includes both the Higgs
and Smith reports.
The operating environment facing business today is more demanding,

complex and faster changing than ever before. Over the past five years
there has been much greater public interest in the way businesses and
organisations behave both at home and abroad. The driving force for
such awareness often comes from pressure groups and community
organisations, but increasingly an agenda to respond to public demand
for accountability and transparency is being adopted by business itself
and embedded across business functions. However, the Working Group
believes that despite the many and growing examples of good business
practice there is a long way to go for organisations as a whole to satisfy
legitimate stakeholder demands.
The Working Group sees CSR as the management of an organisation's

total impact upon both its immediate stakeholders and upon the society
within which it operates. In all industries and across all sectors, the
managerial decision-making process needs to take into account a wide
range of criteria relating to the financial, environmental and social
implications of business operations2. This concept is what this report
understands by the term corporate social responsibility. CSR is not
simply about whatever funds and expertise companies chose to invest in
communities to help resolve social problems, although many companies
do make contributions in this way. It is about the integrity with which a
company governs itself, fulfils its mission, lives by its values, engages
with its stakeholders and measures its impacts and publicly reports on its
activities.
The Working Group recognised that the central need is for CSR practice
to be embedded firmly within all business practice so that responsible
business progressively becomes just the way we do business in the UK.
CSR practice is still in its infancy. It needs to mature at a reasonable
speed to keep pace with the requirement to re-build trust between
institutions and their stakeholders.
The Working Group believes that CSR strategies and methodologies are
relevant to all organisations, although the immediate perceived need for
their implementation is more pressing in the private sector where the
focus of accountability to shareholders alone has not taken into account
the wider social impact of the business, leading to a crisis of trust
between civil society and business.
2
“Exploring Business Dynamics - Mainstreaming CSR” – Ashridge, CSR
Europe and E&P
The public and stakeholders are concerned about the way business
behaves in all its undertakings. Companies are concerned about the
impact of damaged reputation upon the business. Failures of
governance and integrity in companies such as Enron and Worldcom
further damage trust between business and its stakeholders. But such
issues are not unique to the private sector. The trust that previously
existed between the public and the public sector can no longer be taken
for granted. .
The public sector, too, needs to change to meet the needs of widely
diverse and plural stakeholders. Increasingly as the modernisation of
public services takes place, there will be a great deal more partnership
between sectors. For both the private and public sectors this will require
the development of a new set of behaviours within the tolerances of
public expectation. The methodologies of CSR are equally relevant to all
organisations needing to build public trust.
Government aims to stimulate business to assess their social impacts for

themselves, and to work out what commitments they need to make that
are consistent with their entrepreneurial drive and values and
stakeholder expectations. If it is to mean something in the everyday
behaviours of a company, CSR must be embedded as part of what that
company wishes to be. In order to embed CSR the managers running
the company must understand why they are doing it and learn how to do
it within their company. In this context, the group specifically examined
whether the provision of management training and qualifications was
adequate to encourage greater understanding, development and
embedding of CSR.
The Working Group concluded that the cornerstone of informing

professional and managerial practice for embedding CSR practice in
organisations is to define the competencies and skills required to
underpin this practice and to ensure that they become part of the
education and training of all managers at all levels in organisations. As a
result of its research and consultation work, the Group believes that
popularising CSR, getting more companies, both large and small to take
up its practice and informing all sectors in changing practice requires a
'leap forward'
Section Two: Identifying CSR Skills and

Competencies
2.1 CSR – An Emerging Profession?

CSR practitioners are largely represented through a number of
membership networks, which exist at the international, European and
national level. As yet, there is no single professional body representing
all their needs and interests. There appears to be at least two major
reasons for this.
First, current practitioners are drawn from a number of diverse

disciplines including marketing, communications, environmental
management, public affairs, investor relations, community affairs and so
on. The reality is that CSR has a relatively short history as a
management discipline.
A second factor that militates against the creation of a single

professional discipline is the sheer breadth and complexity of the roles
and responsibilities of the typical CSR practitioner. Many of those
interviewed for this study highlight the need for the individual to operate
at numerous levels, both inside and outside the organisation, interacting
with a wide range of different audiences. The following quote is typical
of many others, illustrating what this means on a day-to-day basis.
“Each day brings different demands that require very different skills. I
may talk with my CEO who wants advice on setting out our corporate
priorities for the next 12-18 months. I then take the lead in turning these
priorities into action, persuading and engaging with senior managers
across the business about how to do this. . . Another day I might be
talking, and trying to assess, the issues of external stakeholder groups. I
have to assess and be aware of all the key issues, and the key players;
and then select which ones we can work with. . . Another day might bring
the media spotlight and requests for interviews where I become the
ambassador for the company or the advisor to others who are going to
be interviewed. I see my role as a bridge between the company and the
external world.”
While this quote shows a variety of different demands on the CSR

practitioner, it is by no means complete. Other issues that impinge upon
the role can include:
• Changing legislative demands and industry standards

• Supply chain management

• Risk management
• Diversity issues and employment relations
• Ecology and sustainability
• Community affairs.
Hence, despite the growing interest in CSR as an emerging profession,

there appears to be little clarity about the skills required by CSR
professionals.
2.2 Does Embedding CSR Practice Require

Specialist CSR Practitioners?
There is a debate as to whether or not the focus of skill definition in the
competency framework and the education and training provision to
support it should be geared to meet the needs of specialist or generalist
managers (recognising that CSR specialists tend to be found in larger
companies). Underlying this debate is a caricature of two positions. The
first is that creating a specialist CSR profession makes it less likely that
general managers will become competent in understanding the CSR
dimension of their own functional role within the organisation. Further, as
the goal should be embedding CSR in the mainstream, specialists stand
in the way of this and are unnecessary. The second caricature is that
only CSR specialists understand the goals and that they are therefore
justified in striving for a closed shop CSR industry in which they become
ever more necessary.
As with most caricatures, these distort reality. The Working Group

believes it is likely that at this stage in the process of establishing and
responding to the CSR agenda, specialists who bring skills, focus and
knowledge to CSR issues are necessary, but that if embedding is the
goal, generalist managers need to develop those aspects of CSR skills
that are relevant to their management discipline and function within the
organisation.
Even in companies where the CEO and the board are committed to
adopting the CSR agenda in their organisation they may not know what
to do and may require specialist support in achieving ‘their’ agenda. At
this stage of the organisational learning journey, the skills gap is unlikely
to be bridged simply by having non-executive directors on boards. The
critical job to be done is an executive one, requiring operational directors
and managers to develop appropriate policy approaches and strategies
in order to deliver them in action.
General managers have an ethical dimension within their own

professional practice, but they are unlikely to have been exposed to the
wider demands that the CSR agenda places on the organisation; are
unlikely to have received education and training to meet those demands
and may or may not innately posses the skills necessary to meet such
new challenges.
The role of the board is strategic and may offer leadership or give
permission, but there is a two-way process between the executive
leadership teams and the board to fully embed CSR in the organisation.
For a considerable period to come this is likely to require support from
specialists, although the Working Group recognises this may be more
applicable to large rather than small companies.
It may well be that even in the longer term, companies that have
embedded CSR into their every business practice still require on-going
support from CSR specialists to keep abreast of changing times. A
useful analogy might be the way in which the HR function in the
organisation supports general managers in carrying out their people
management functions, whilst it retains a specialist function of its own, or
the way in which the finance function sets the budget and procedures
but the company expects generalist managers who are budget holders
to have sufficient financial literacy to run budgets effectively.
The Working Group did not try to resolve a debate that only time will
resolve. Its task was to examine how best to use education and training
tools to enable all managers to develop the skills they need to meet the
CSR agenda. However, in order to define those skills it seemed a good
idea to look at the emerging best practice. Given where we are in the
CSR journey this is likely to be developed most clearly by specialists.
The work started with CSR specialists but expanded to take into account
many other professional managerial groups.
2.3 The Research Study

At its first meeting in December 2002, the Working Group decided that it
needed to involve a wider cross section of CSR professionals and other
stakeholders in a broad process of consultation and inquiry and agreed
to appoint consultants to manage the research programme.
A number of organisations were invited to submit proposals to identify:
• The generic skills, competencies and knowledge required by CSR

specialists and other functional managers in relation to CSR issues.
• The extent to which existing providers of management training and
development are meeting these needs.
• The demands of external standards for increased performance in
CSR issues.
The Working Group managed a competitive tender process and

appointed the Ashridge Centre for Business and Society (ACBAS) and
AccountAbility who submitted a joint proposal.
In order to ensure the findings of the study reflected the reality of what is
currently happening within the CSR profession the research was largely
shaped through dialogue with practitioners, learning from their
experience. The consultants worked with specialists to develop core
competencies, then tested the outcomes against other manager
disciplines to establish overlap and relevance and also with the wider
groups of stakeholders concerned to see organisations adopt the CSR
agenda.
The research project comprised five strands of inquiry carried out in

parallel from January 2003 to the middle of March 2003. These were:
• Desk-based and Internet search of relevant research and

materials, including an analysis of current job descriptions of
CSR specialists.
• Interviews with leading CSR practitioners.
• A mapping exercise of the current provision of relevant training
and development opportunities and the CSR skills required by a
range of relevant standards.
• Four expert reference workshops involving group discussions
with CSR practitioners, representatives of professional
institutions, training providers, government representatives and
non-governmental organisations (a list of those invited the
workshops is included in Appendix 1).
• A questionnaire survey circulated to over 250 CSR experts and
wider stakeholders.
2.4 Identifying CSR Skills and Competencies

The first phase of the research set out to understand how CSR is
defined and applied – and what this means in terms of the skills and
competencies for those in UK organisations today.
From the outset it is important to recognise that the aim of this inquiry
was to collect information on the skills and abilities practitioners need to
undertake their work in a professional way, however these were
described. As such, the research considered a wide range of skills,
competencies, behaviours, attitudes, knowledge-sets, attributes and
personal qualities. In the limited time available to this inquiry it was not
possible to define precise distinctions between these different aspects of
the role, as there is considerable overlap.
Information gathered from the interviews and discussion groups was

supplemented with a review of job descriptions and company
frameworks to generate a number of skills and competencies considered
important for CSR practitioners. The research confirms that there is no
existing competency framework for the CSR role. A few examples were
found of companies that have mapped CSR skills against competency
frameworks. However, the striking feature of the job descriptions

considered by this research is the huge variety of different skills
required3.
The research gathered considerable data about the skills and attributes
people believe are important for CSR practitioners. The dialogue
process generated an initial list of around 50 to 60 CSR skills and
competencies. The research team eliminated repetition and overlap
between these to produce a revised list of 27 competencies considered
important for CSR practitioners. At this initial stage, it became clear that
the required skills and competencies could be described in a framework
that comprised three discrete areas (see Figure 14):
• Business skills
• Technical skills (or knowledge sets)
• People skills (including personal attributes or behaviours).
Figure 1 – CSR Skills and Competencies5
© Ashridge/DTI/CRG
BUSINESS
Building insight
Co mmunicatio n skills
Decisio n making
Co mmercial awareness
Building internal partnerships
I.T.
Inno vatio n
Strategic awareness
Leadership
Handling co mplexity
Pro blem so lving
TECHNICAL PEOPLE
Technical expertise Adaptability and empathy
U nderstanding impacts Develo ping o thers
Stakeho lder dialo gue Influencing witho ut po wer
Internal co nsultancy Building external partnerships
Licence to o perate Open minded
Selling the business case Integrity
U nderstanding human rights Po litical savvy
U nderstanding sustainability Self-develo pment and learning
Teamwo rking
Questio ning business as usual
3
Some organisations – such as Diageo and Royal Bank of Scotland – have
gone further in formalising CSR skills beyond the individual level. The Royal
Bank of Scotland’s research identified competencies gained by staff involved in
volunteering. Diageo has developed a framework of Corporate Citizenship
Capabilities for use with its CSR teams around the world.
4
The purpose of copyright is to ensure this work is acknowledged.
5
The full description of these skills and competencies are included in
Appendix 2.
The competency framework tried to capture the key aspects of CSR

decision-making. In order for CSR strategy to be successful, it must be
closely linked to the company’s culture, values and strategy – hence the
importance of business skills. Technical expertise (or subject
knowledge) is also an extremely important element, but is insufficient in
itself. People skills are also required to influence and communicate the
message of CSR among internal and external audiences.
Feedback at the workshops indicated that there was relatively close

alignment between the skills and competencies identified through the
research and those identified by participants in the discussions.
However, there were a number of discussions about the nature of the
framework and how the three areas overlapped and inter-acted with
each other.
In addition, there was great debate on how the competencies would

apply in practice. For instance, was the framework equally well suited to
decision-makers in the public and private sectors? Similarly, discussions
focussed on whether the competencies were relevant to managers in
small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Although it was widely agreed that there is a need to address the issues
from an SME perspective, it was felt wrong to offer a simplified version of
a framework that is designed for use in large organisations. Few
companies that employ less than 250 people have a CSR specialist,
although very often they do operate in a way that accords to the
definition of responsible behaviour cited earlier.
As such, it was felt that further research was needed to develop a

competency framework that includes the needs of:
• Decision-makers in organisations other than companies.

• Managers in SMEs.
• Functional managers that have some responsibility for CSR issues.
Beyond these considerations, there was much discussion about whether

this relatively long list of skills and competencies could be distilled down
into the critical or core CSR skills. It is interesting to note that
respondents to the questionnaire survey identified three particular skills
as paramount to integrating CSR into an organisation. These were:
• Communication skills (identified by 53% of respondents)

• Influencing skills (51%)
• The skill to sell the business case (49%).
However, the results of the in-depth consultation suggested that many

felt these three skills were of relevance to all managers in all disciplines.
Beyond these three areas, discussions centred on whether there is a
distinction between the skills of CSR specialists and those of managers
working in other functions. A key finding of the questionnaire survey was
that 64% of respondents felt that there is “a particular dimension to the
CSR function that sets it apart from other management disciplines”.
In particular, it was observed that several of the attributes identified by

the research do appear to be qualities or innate behaviours rather than
competencies - such as questioning business as usual. This distinction
was not simply semantics. Participants in the group discussions felt that
there were a core set of attitudes and behaviours (characteristics) that
are essential in describing the way in which CSR is integrated into
responsible decision-making processes.
2.5 Core CSR Characteristics

Building on these discussions, the research team sought to consider the
competencies required to integrate CSR into an organisation. An in-
depth analysis of the results of the consultation process produced a new
model that identifies the core characteristics that describe the way in
which all managers need to act if they are to integrate responsible
business decision-making into day-to-day operations. These core
characteristics are a mixture of skills, behaviours and knowledge sets.
In broad terms, they centre on the following themes:
• Understanding the role of each player in society (government,

business, non-governmental organisations and civil society) and how
they interact with each other.
• Building internal and external partnerships by taking a multi-
disciplinary approach and creating strategic networks and alliances.
• Questioning business as usual by being open to new ideas and
challenging others to adopt new ways of working.
• Identifying stakeholders, building relations with internal and external
stakeholders, engaging in dialogue and balancing competing
demands.
• Taking a strategic view of the business environment.
• Understanding difference, respecting diversity and adjusting one’s
approach to different situations.
Figure 2 – Core CSR Characteristics
HR
OPERATIONS MARKETING
CSR Characteristics
Understanding society
Building partnerships
Questioning business as usual
Stakeholder relationships
Strategic vision
Respecting diversity
COMMUNICATIONS FINANCE
© Ashridge/DTI/CRG
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
This model attempts to capture the core characteristics at the centre of

management decision-making processes that are required to integrate
CSR within organisations – whether this is undertaken by CSR
practitioners or other managers within the organisation. There are four
features of the model that need to be made explicit.
1. At this stage in its development the model describes the ‘high-level’

strategic characteristics required by all managers seeking to
implement CSR within organisations. These characteristics could in
time be supplemented with a more comprehensive list of business
skills, knowledge sets and behaviours. As such, while the core CSR
characteristics identified in this analysis represent the overarching
principles, each of these principles could be supplemented with more
detailed statements explaining how the principles translate into
management actions.
2. A related issue is that the model can allow for differences to emerge
at different managerial levels, according to the depth of knowledge
required and the management function. For example, although the
model identifies core CSR characteristics that would apply to all
decision-makers, the knowledge and skills required by an operations
engineer or a communications manager are very different to those
required by a director of finance. By the same token, these would be
different again to those required by board members. Further
development will be required to demonstrate how the core CSR
characteristics translate into displayed behaviour at board level,
among senior managers, and for those charged with implementing
business decisions across the different business functions.
3. Building on this point, the model does recognise and allow for
different ‘levels’ of understanding of the core CSR characteristics
relevant to different managers in different circumstances. The
research team proposes five such levels, as described below:
I. Awareness – a broad appreciation of the core CSR

characteristics and how they might impinge on business
decision-making.
II. Basic knowledge – a basic knowledge of some of the key issues
underlying the core CSR characteristics and an understanding of
their implications for business.
III. Competence – the ability to supplement this basic knowledge of
the issues with the competence to apply this to specific activities
(e.g. conducting stakeholder consultations or building
partnerships with external organisations).
IV. In-depth understanding – an in-depth understanding of the issues
and an expertise in applying this to business decision-making
processes.
V. Change agent – the ability to help managers across the
organisation operate in a way that fully integrates CSR into the
business decision-making processes.
4. The fourth feature of the model is that to be successful in managing

its approach to CSR, these identified characteristics need to
permeate the whole organisation – they do not simply reside in the
CSR specialist function. All decision-makers need to be alert to how

these characteristics pertain to their own particular management
responsibilities. As such, the model places CSR characteristics at
the centre of other management functions.
Participants in the consultation process argued the need for CSR

skills, knowledge sets and behaviours to be integrated in all
management practice. The following quotes illustrate this point.
“There is a danger that expertise on CSR resides only in the

specialist manager – there needs to be a way of sharing these skills
across all disciplines.”
“The CSR profession needs help with skills and competencies, but
in so doing it should not become a ghetto. CSR is everyone’s
business.”
So, for example, within any organisation it is important that the HR

function is aware of the importance of understanding difference,
respecting diversity and building relations with internal stakeholders.
In the marketing function, managers should appreciate the need to
engage with wider group of stakeholders in order to understand
better the way in which the organisation is perceived. All
management functions need to be able to question business as
usual.
2.6 Implications for CSR Practitioners

While the model set out in Figure 2 applies to managers in a range of
functional areas, it does also point to the way in which CSR practitioners
need to operate in order to integrate responsible business decision-
making into the organisation. Because the CSR practitioner has no
traditional functional ‘home’ they occupy a boundary spanning position at
the centre of cross-functional teamwork. The findings of the research
reinforce the message that a typical CSR practitioner will be constantly
liaising with colleagues in a range of other functions.
The CSR specialist has to be capable of thinking strategically and

understanding the impact of a wide range of social, political and
economic issues on the business. They are expected to have the ability
to understand and interpret the external operating environment for others
within the organisation. At the same time, they need to act as a bridge
between the business and the outside world by being aware of emerging
issues that are likely to influence any number of interested parties that
feel they have a stake in the business.
In parallel to this external sensitivity, CSR specialists have to apply this

holistic way of thinking to their own organisations. They have to be able
to see the whole organisation and understand the interactions between
the various parts of the business. They are often required to co-ordinate
and facilitate the integration of CSR, rather than manage and control it
directly.
A further important aspect of their role is the ability to encourage and

persuade others. It is becoming increasingly clear that the CSR
specialist can have an enormous influence on the way the organisation
behaves. This influence derives from the growing power of consumers,
employees, investors and the media who are vociferous in their
reactions to business behaviour. For the successful CSR specialist, the
skill lies in using this influence acquired from external and internal
pressures to get others in the company to act.
The model generated from the results of the process of consultation

attempts to capture all of these elements of the role of the CSR
specialist. Beyond these important lessons for CSR specialists, it is clear
there will also be implications for general managers. The CSR Academy
will need to work with other professional institutions, helping to map the
CSR competency framework into existing models of continuous
professional development. While the core CSR characteristics are
clearly most applicable to large organisations in the private sector, there
are lessons here for smaller business and organisations in other sectors.
In the future, it is hoped to develop the model further to respect the
differences of organisations operating in different circumstances.
2.7 Conclusions and Recommendations for

Building CSR Skills and Competencies
The DTI/CRG Working Group recognises the wealth of data available
concerning the way the CSR profession is developing. However, the
research undertaken for this inquiry has shown that much of this
knowledge is fragmented and there is little clarity about a common set of
CSR skills, competencies or behaviours. In the light of this, the Working
Group supports and endorses the core CSR characteristics derived from
the results of the extensive consultation process. In addition, the
Working Group makes the following recommendations based on the
findings of the research.
Recommendation 1
There is little evidence of any formal skills and competency frameworks
either within individual organisations, or among professional bodies and
institutions that seek to serve CSR practitioners. This stands in stark
contrast to other professions. Participants in the consultation process
argued there is a need for further work to extend current thinking on
CSR skills and competencies. This is reinforced by the results of the
survey that found 67% of respondents feel there is a need for a
professional institution (or similar body) to help develop and maintain
practitioner skills for CSR.
Recommendation 2
The research has identified the core characteristics that are at the centre
of management decision-making processes required to integrate CSR
within organisations. These core characteristics are relevant to CSR
practitioners and managers in a range of different functions. The
Working Group strongly recommends the further refinement and testing
of this model with CSR practitioners, across other management
disciplines and among internal and external stakeholder groups. In
particular, there is a real need to understand the perspective of smaller
businesses and organisations outside the private sector.
Recommendation 3
The Working Group recommends that the core CSR characteristics
should be amplified to encompass more detailed statements describing
how each of these principles translates into the range of management
actions.
Recommendation 4
The Working Group believes that the core CSR characteristics
developed by this research can help companies integrate CSR into their
business practice. For example, the core CSR characteristics can be
mapped against existing competency frameworks to help managers
develop their thinking in relation to CSR issues. In addition, companies
should reflect on how the core CSR characteristics can influence the on-
going development of managers. The Working Group believes that the
core CSR characteristics represent behaviours that “can be learned, but
are difficult to be taught.” It recommends that organisations consider a
wide range of development interventions (mentoring, job shadowing,
learning through experience, etc.) in order to better understand how to
equip managers to integrate CSR practice into the decision-making
processes.
Section Three: CSR Training and Development

Provision
3.1 Objectives of the Research

The second strand of the Working Group's enquiry was an examination
of existing CSR training provision in the UK. This was undertaken
through desk research supplemented by workshop discussions and
specific questions in the practitioner questionnaire. The Working Group
had two principal objectives for this work:
• To understand the extent to which existing providers of management

training and development are meeting the needs of CSR specialists
and functional managers in relation to CSR issues;
• To inform the research project on how the training and development
needs of CSR practitioners (both specialists and those in other
relevant functions) can be more effectively met.
The research focused on training courses based in the UK; its scope
was limited to web-based research and stakeholder discussions with
known training providers who offered further detail.
The research identifies a selection of prominent providers of CSR

training and development, but is not a complete and comprehensive list.
The findings do not exhaust the development opportunities open to UK
managers, but it was felt that UK courses offered an adequate survey of
the sorts of training that are available world-wide and the way in which
these types of courses are marketed.
3.2 What Training Exists?
CSR training in the UK has grown rapidly in the last five years as interest
in professional development has broadened in the business and
advisory communities and as the understanding and management of
CSR issues has matured.
However, this growth has been from a low base and the overall picture
of provision remains patchy and unstructured; courses are difficult to
access and evaluate (individually and in comparison) by potential user
groups, and their long-term value to users is not always clear.6
6
The perception of long term value is of course influenced by market conditions
in the CSR field, but also reflects concerns over quality of training and the
professional recognition and ‘branding’ that is gained whilst training and
certification are fragmented and at low-scale.
There are three main types of training providers of CSR. These are:
i. Business Schools;
ii. Universities;
iii. Independent Training Providers (including professional bodies).
(i) Business Schools

The business school radar is increasingly picking up on the importance
of CSR issues for its students. Typically, no formal structure has been
generated for this CSR training, but issues such as business ethics,
socially responsible investment, governance, sustainability and
corporate citizenship are introduced into existing modules. A small
number of schools, however, such as Warwick Business School, have
recognised the value of CSR in a growing market and incorporated CSR
modules into their traditional business-oriented and MBA programmes.
This was commended by a participant in the DTI/CRG Working Group,

identifying CSR skills and competencies: “[One should] integrate CSR
into curriculum at business schools, so that anyone taking a
management or business course/degree will also undertake an element
in CSR.”
More research needs to be done in order to evaluate where European

Universities, and other training institutions, are in the CSR training
market in comparison to the UK. INSEAD is one example where a
number of CSR related electives have been integrated in their MBA
course. It would be instructive to evaluate how widespread this is.
(ii) Universities
University strategy also follows this integration/separation split. The
Imperial College Masters in Environmental Management includes a
regular session on stakeholder engagement and social audit, whilst
Glasgow University has introduced modules on business ethics and
social, ethical and environmental reporting into its accountancy degrees.
In addition, a number of universities have developed CSR courses as
separate independent programmes that integrate learning from a variety
of departments. Examples of specialist degrees in CSR in the UK
include the MSc at Bath and the MBA at Nottingham; the growing market
is indicated by the introduction of a new MBA programme based on
Sustainability at Royal Holloway University that will be available as of
September, 20037.
7
The development of the Royal Holloway MBA programme has been based on
Professor Stephen Hill’s report (funded by the Aspen Institute) on ‘Dilemmas in
Competitiveness, Community and Citizenship’. The Dilemmas discussions draw
on “the argument that the CSR business agenda requires a set of management
skills that are not currently being developed by mainstream business
management education programmes.”
(iii) Independent Training Providers

A significant cluster of CSR training providers stand outside of the
university and business schools, providing a wide range of specialist and
introductory courses.
Given the longer history of environmental management, it is no surprise

that the most numerous types of courses are focused on environmental
and quality standards. A key provider is the Institute of Environmental
Management and Assessment (IEMA), which partners with 40
organisations to offer courses from an introductory to advanced levels on
internal EMS auditing and Environmental management systems. In this
case, training is also linked to professional certification for individuals.
The certification company, SGS, extends the environmental focus to
quality systems such as ISO9000 and EFQM, and has also delivered
courses covering the labour standard, SA8000.
COURSE PROVIDERS COURSE FOCUS

Business Schools MBA Programmes with CSR content
MBA Programmes integrating CSR
modules
Long-term programmes
Universities Specialist postgraduate degrees in CSR

and Sustainable business
Modules within other programmes
Related degrees with CSR content
Medium- to Long-term programmes
Independent Training Providers Executive programmes

Specialist courses
Short-term programmes
A second category of CSR training has emerged in the last five years
and covers the broad issues of accountability and sustainability and the
business case for corporate responsibility. As with the environmental
and quality courses, training is practitioner-focused, but is typically not
linked to professional certification, except through the accountability-
based professional qualification hosted by the Institute of Social and
Ethical AccountAbility.
Given the extensive subject area, most courses are general in scope
and based on topics such as “understanding sustainable concepts and
their business benefits”, a good example of which is the British
Standards Institution which offers a course called “Making Sustainability
Work.” However, other courses are beginning to address specialist CSR
techniques, such as social auditing, accounting and reporting (offered by
SGS and The National Centre for Business and Sustainability) and
assurance and stakeholder engagement (offered by AccountAbility).
3.3 Course Format

The youth and associated fragmentation of the CSR training market
makes it a complex process for CSR manager to identify and assess
courses to meet their needs. Different models of training and learning
cater to different audiences.
Executive Workshops are targeted at mid- to high-level managers, whilst

distance learning courses and e-learning (New Academy) have also
been introduced. E-learning modules (such as that offered by the New
Academy of Business) give participants an overview of the topic being
covered and its application to business. This type of learning can be a
good way to provide a general introduction, but is necessarily limited in
scope in terms of the in-depth learning of CSR issues, and in particular
the learning of competencies such as “Adaptability and Empathy” or
“Building Insight”. Indeed, the learning of competencies may be better
suited to direct experience discussed in 3.7 below.
Modular courses have the advantage of providing busy executives with

the flexibility of taking short one-day courses when times and schedules
permit, while part-time University courses (such as the Bath MSc) offer
the dedicated CSR manager the possibility to work and study
simultaneously and indeed to base their research on on-going work.
Another important issue is that course formats vary to cater to different

levels of individual work experience. Forum for the Future identified that
“The training requirements of people currently in employment are vastly
different to those yet to enter the workplace. Likewise, the training
requirements of senior management are likely to be different to those in
other grades in the organisation. The table below suggests different
types of training and education needs for each group.”8
8
Forum for the Future “Feedback to the CRG”, March 12, 2003
Table 1: Training and Education Needs
Training and Education Needs
Current Senior Management Function Specialists/ Middle Managers

(now) (now)
To develop core skills and visionary thinking To develop core, technical and behavioural skills as well as an
understanding of how that function contributes to sustainable
• Short courses/wake-up calls business model
• Networking or close partnership initiatives
• Function specific courses touching on all of the
competencies
Senior Management Function Specialists/ Middle Managers

(<5 years) (<5 years)
To develop core skills and visionary thinking with an To develop core, technical and behavioural skills as well as an
understanding how technical, functional and understanding of how that function contributes to sustainable
behavioural competencies can work together to business model
promote an integrated approach to sustainable
business • Under- and post-graduate courses
• Professional qualifications e.g. accounting
• Short courses/wake up calls qualifications, engineering qualification etc.
• Business schools e.g. MBA courses
• Professional qualifications e.g. accounting
examinations, investment qualifications
Senior Management
(5-10 years)
To develop core skills and visionary thinking with an
understanding how technical, functional and
behavioural competencies interact to promote an
integrated approach to sustainable business
• Business schools
• Professional qualifications
• Under- and post-graduate university courses
The survey responses further reflected the variety of ways in which CSR
specialists have developed their skills and knowledge in the field. The
most popular way of learning is involvement in peer network learning
groups involved with CSR like the Corporate Responsibility Group, as
well as working with best practice companies, learning from stakeholder
research and dialogue and completing Masters courses at University.
The general feeling of variety and an unstructured market is reflected in
one respondent’s remark:
“There needs to be a strategic programme of investment in those few

organisations innovating in this area to help more programmes get off
the ground. A web portal identifying existing training and other provision
would also be very useful.”
3.4 On-going Research in Training and

Development
A number of on-going and in-depth research programmes have been set
up to analyse current CSR education and training in the UK and
internationally. The most notable work has been done by the Aspen
Institute in “Beyond Grey Pinstripes”, CSR Europe and the European
Academy for Business in Society and on-going survey work by
Nottingham University in “Corporate Social Responsibility Education,
Training and Research in Europe”.
3.5 Training for Skills and Competencies

Here, the term ‘skills’ refers to the technical skills identified in Figure 1
(Section 2.4) of this report. The technical skills include knowledge and
understanding of sustainability issues, human rights, the ability to
manage stakeholder dialogue, and so on.
Overall, most CSR training concentrates on building specific technical

skill sets rather than on building the people skills identified in Figure 1 as
important to CSR Management such as “Adaptability and Empathy” and
“Influencing without Power”.
However, discussions with training providers reveal that they believe

certain business and people competencies are taught as 'natural fallout'
of training even though they are neither the main focus of the course nor
a specified learning objective or outcome. Whilst providers believe these
skills are a natural learning outcome, they have no way of knowing
whether or not this belief is justified because relevant CSR business and
people competencies of the kind identified in section 2 are not made
explicit in course design or evaluated as learning outcomes.
Training providers in particular felt that all good managers should

possess the majority of the competencies identified, such as “building
external partnerships” and “handling complexity” and that these should
not be remits only for the CSR specialist. As a consequence, we should
not be surprised that CSR training providers focus on only developing
some of the CSR skill sets.
However, the current approach appears to the Working Group to lead to

a lack of transparency about what skills students will acquire as a result
of participating in courses. In turn this may create confusion that proves
to be a barrier to employers who might want to invest in employees
gaining CSR skills but will also want demonstrated value for money. It is
certainly confusing for potential students themselves to understand what
courses best meet their learning needs. The Working Group concludes
that managers seeking to develop their CSR skills need better
information and advice on which courses are best able to develop those
core CSR competencies and skills identified in this report.
3.6 Training and Standards

It is also clear that the skills and competencies demanded by the various
existing and emerging CSR standards and guidelines are not covered
adequately by training provision within the UK. Key technical skills
implicitly required by standards include: stakeholder engagement,
company guidelines, codes of conduct and key reporting initiatives,
awareness of new developments in the CSR field, legal and other
specialist knowledge related to environmental and labour issues.
Furthermore, the key business and people skills essential for the
implementation of these standards include decision making, leadership,
handling complexity, stakeholder dialogue, open minded and strategic
awareness, adaptability and empathy, communications skills, building
insight, innovation, strategic awareness, legal expertise, commercial
awareness and technical expertise. Although specific skills like
stakeholder dialogue and leadership are addressed by some
programmes, it is less obvious which courses will develop competencies
such as strategic awareness, innovation, adaptability and empathy.
3.7 Training and Learning
The research workshops highlighted that training is only one tool of

learning and is certainly too narrow a field to capture all CSR learning.
Other preferred methods of learning were proposed including mentoring,
secondments, partnering and networking with companies to share best
practice. Practitioners felt that businesses were a lot further ahead in
learning and implementing CSR practice than current training course
providers and that these other avenues for learning should be explored.
One member of the Working Group noted the following:
“Many companies such as AWG, Boots, Cadbury Schweppes, and

Marks & Spencer use interaction with their local community as part of
their HR training and development tool-kit. Also, in view of the fact that
many of the competencies or qualities identified are about developing
partnerships, stakeholder dialogue and respecting diversity, some of the
most interesting experiential learning comes from training in, and
secondments into community-based organisations. Business in the
Community broker different types of community assignments including
Partners in Leadership (business leaders and school head teachers
sharing experience and issues with each other) 100-hour community
assignments and team challenges for employees. Other organisations
such as Common Purpose bring together business people with the
public sector and community organisations in a town or city in a powerful
learning network”.
The majority of stakeholders in the workshops concluded that CSR

training is particularly useful as an introduction to learning the issues and
skills around corporate responsibility and that training would be
particularly useful to company directors.
For the CSR manager, secondments and sharing knowledge and best
practice will often be better means to fill the experiential gap that training
cannot provide as well as the competencies that one needs to build. One
such venture set up by Forum for the Future in partnership with
Cambridge University’s Programme for Industry aims to do just that. The
‘Sustainability Learning Networks,’ is a work-based cross-sector
collaborative learning network that also offers expert seminars for mid-
to-senior level management to tap into experiential learning and best
practice.
3.8 Conclusions and Recommendations CSR

Training and Development Provision
The CSR competencies are central to the development of CSR

managers and should be highlighted as a key aspect of learning. The
description (and subsequent understanding by potential trainees) of
these competencies will however be facilitated by the generation of
common definitions and their widespread promotion by significant CSR
networks.
Recommendation 5
The Working Group recommends that CSR training and development
providers map their course provision against the CSR competencies
against the elements to demonstrate to potential students and employers
alike how these learning outcomes are built by their courses.
Recommendation 6
When discussing the proliferation of CSR Standards such as GRI,
AA1000 and others, participants in the consultation agreed that some
standardisation of what thing is “vital” rather than “nice to have” could be
helpful.
The Working Group believes that the current confusion on the part of
practitioners about which CSR standards to adopt will be resolved over
time by convergence as more organisations use them and discover
those that are most useful to them.
In the meantime the Working Group recommends that training

organisations should offer information about how their courses relate to
various CSR standards, how the learning opportunities offered increase
understanding of them and how this can be related back to the
participants’ organisation.
Recommendation 7
Training and development currently reflects the diverse needs of a new
and growing market, offering a variety of courses whose variety in
structure and format can be confusing. The training market has not
developed a clear structure and is still part of a fragmented market.
Participants in the consultation identified the need for a dedicated
website where all providers could post details of courses, conferences
and other learning opportunities. The Working Group believes this would
work best under the auspices of the CSR Academy (see
Recommendation 25).
The Working Group recommends that training organisations should

collaborate to offer information on their courses for distribution through a
dedicated website to encourage awareness, understanding and where
relevant, take up of recognised qualifications.
Recommendation 8
The Working Group recommends further research be undertaken to
understand the full range of learning opportunities, including training,
experiential and peer network learning available to managers and in
what way these would be useful at each level of development identified
in section 2 of the report. For example, basic training might cover the
core knowledge needs of a manager; a secondment would further build
that individual’s competence against specific elements from the range of
skills that lie behind the competence framework; and refresher courses
would update and build upon that individual’s specialist skills. This
research could then map out the best ways for continuous professional
development of CSR competencies and skills.
Section Four: Is There a Role for a CSR Academy?
4.1 Introduction
The third strand of the Working Group's enquiry was to examine whether
the establishment of a CSR Academy would be a valuable way to
promote the development of Corporate Social Responsibility (‘CSR’) in
the UK.
In order to get to grips with this issue the working group examined 3
models of what a CSR Academy might look like. The first was a
theoretical model proposed by the think-tank Demos9. The Demos model
was designed to promote a much higher impact form of CSR where
companies would proactively make bigger and more replicable
contributions to tackling tough social issues. Moreover it sought to bring
together leading CSR bodies and help create a “quality” culture of raised
expectation, coupled with methods to maximise the spread of ideas.
Amongst existing initiatives the group looked at the European Academy

of Business in Society and The New Academy for Business. The former
is a pan-European alliance that see its role as a strategic move to link
CSR into the agendas and curricula of European business schools, to
bring CSR into the formal training of today’s and tomorrow’s managers.
Its purpose is to galvanise the academic community at large. It aims to
undertake quite large-scale research into the relationship of CSR and
business, within six research domains - just one of which is “Learning
and Innovation”
After two years of incubation, the European Academy was launched at

INSEAD in July this year. Its initial members are Ashridge, Cranfield,
INSEAD, ESADE, the Copenhagen Business School, Warwick, the
College of Europe and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. This
group is being widened. The European Academy has EU backing and is
currently seeking substantial Commission funding for an ambitious
programme of work.
The third model, The New Academy for Business functions as an

independent business school with a strong advocacy element. It has
been prominent in running a joint MSc with Bath University in
Responsibility and Business Practice (part-time, two years) and MBA
modules at other universities. In addition it undertakes research and
organisational learning, with an emphasis on action research.
9
“Getting down to business: an agenda for corporate social innovation” Rachel
Jupp, Demos 2002
The Working Group saw value in each of the models proposed.

However, on balance it decided that if an Academy were to play a
valuable role it should not seek to duplicate the work of organisations
already in existence or produce yet another range of CSR initiatives that
would complicate the existing accessibility for business and stakeholders
alike.
The Working Group believes that a CSR Academy could play a critical
role in making a 'leap forward' in the development of CSR in the UK and
internationally if it develops its own unique contribution and seeks to add
value to the many bodies busily engaged in pushing forward different
aspects of the CSR agenda, working alongside and in partnership with
them where relevant.
Stakeholders welcomed the idea of a CSR Academy both directly in

consultations and through the survey questionnaire. The majority of
respondents, 67%, agree on the need for a professional institution or
similar body to help develop and maintain practitioner skills for CSR.
However, stakeholders in the consultations disliked the name CSR

Academy, believing that it suggests either an academic or somewhat
ossified institution. What stakeholders want to see is the creation of a
dynamic organisation operating as a learning network to share and give
focus and shape to work in progress in developing competency
frameworks and in education and training provision.
The Working Group wishes to record stakeholder dissatisfaction with the

name ‘CSR Academy’ and suggest further consideration of this issue as
part of brand development, but for simplicity within this report the
Working Group has continued to use the working title of the CSR
Academy.
4.2 Purpose of CSR Academy

The Working Group believes the CSR Academy needs to be a powerful
agent for change: developing and supporting the people who will make
change happen. The Academy should encourage change in corporate
and organisational behaviour, leading to embedding responsible
behaviour in organisations, to the benefit of those organisations, their
stakeholders and wider society. The work of the Academy should
encourage the development of qualities of integrity, transparency and
accountability within organisations and their managers, giving learning
opportunities and support and advice to them as they embed these
qualities into their own practice and the structures and processes of their
organisations.
The key tool to use in its work is the CSR competency framework
outlined in Figure 2 in Section 2. To carry out its mission the CSR
Academy will need to make strategic use of the competency framework
to explore and support the embedding of principles of responsible
corporate operation in management and professional standards, in peer
group and experiential learning methods and in all forms of management

education and training and the qualifications to which they lead.
In order to win legitimacy the competency framework itself must be
relevant and accessible to all sizes and types of organisation and to both
specialist and generalist managers. To enhance and underpin public
trust the competency framework must be credible with stakeholders. It
will only achieve this if the Academy works with the full range of relevant
practitioners, employers, and the diverse range of internal and external
stakeholders.
The Working Group concludes that the CSR Academy should work to
change the manager mindset through utilising and developing the
competency framework, combining theoretical approaches to functional
management with experiential learning and development. The Working
Group believes that this should be viewed as a ten to fifteen year
mission.
Recommendation 9
The Working Group recommends the setting up of a CSR Academy to
support the growth of CSR competencies at the heart of education,
training and on-going development of both specialist and general
managers.
4.3 Conclusions and Recommendations on the

Tasks of a CSR Academy
The Working Group believes there is a range of tasks a CSR Academy
should perform if it is to be successful in embedding responsible
corporate and organisational behaviour. Primarily the Academy should
be a change agency, creating a learning space and acting as facilitator
to encourage wider adoption of CSR within management education at all
levels. Its tasks should include:
Recommendation 10
In its role as the custodian of the competence framework, the Academy
should keep the competency framework under periodic review through
further research. It should base its work firmly within developing best
practice at the cutting edge of large and small business and must secure
its legitimacy by keeping professional practitioner standards current
Recommendation 11
Given its principle of not duplicating work that is being well done
elsewhere, the Working Group did not believe the Academy should be a
primary provider of education and training, although it might define an
unmet need and either design provision itself or, work with partners to
ensure provision be made. However, the Academy should 'licence' use
of the competency framework and standards to ensure the production of
appropriate courses and qualifications, working in partnership with
suppliers in market based solutions for course provisions. However the
Working Group do see a role for the CSR Academy in working with
partners to give practitioners access to a range of experiential learning
opportunities, such as secondments, peer group learning circles,
learning exchanges and visits and best practice workshops.
Recommendation 12
The Academy should have an active advice and support role to enable
other organisations, whether in business, public or voluntary sectors and
professional disciplines to develop their education and training
programmes to underpin the embedding of CSR practice. Its advice and
support service should also include referral to other organisations. The
Academy might also support organisations to interpret and make use of
best practice standards and benchmarks that are appropriate to their
continuous improvement in their journey to embedding CSR practice
within organisational functions and performance management. It also
seems likely that the Academy will find itself responding to request for
advice from individual managers on courses to meet their specific needs.
Recommendation 13
Any 'leap forward' for experiential learning, CPD (Continuous
Professional Development) and qualifications require assessment and
verification. The Working Group believes the Academy should be
responsible for devising strategies for the provision of assessors and
verification in partnership with providing and examination bodies.
Recommendation 14
The Working Group does not believe that a prime role for the Academy
should be the provision of CSR case studies as these are often supplied
through reward and recognition schemes run by existing organisations
such as Accountability/ACCA Awards and Business in the Community.
However the Academy will undoubtedly throw up a range of useful case
studies and could clearly have a role in assessing case studies against
the criteria and standards, and in the dissemination and strategies for
replication.
Recommendation 15
The Academy should work through alliances with all relevant
professional institutes by using the competency framework to support
these professional bodies in their exploration of what CSR practice
means for their own discipline. In doing so it should assist professional
institutes to embed CSR principles within the profession and the on-
going education and training of professionals and the qualifications to
which this leads.
Recommendation 16
The Academy should have an active marketing role to promote the take
up of the competency framework and any qualifications it sponsors.
Recommendation 17
The Academy should contribute to policy development in all relevant
partner and stakeholder organisations. It should help inform the
Government's strategy for the promotion of CSR in the UK and Europe
and for UK companies operating in a global environment.
Recommendation 18
The Academy should map the inter-connection between core standards
and relevant disciplines in co-operation with partner organisations.
Recommendation 19
The Academy should have a special brief for devising tools and support
for intermediate organisations working with small and medium sized
enterprises, including Business Link, trade associations, Regional
Development Agencies, and the “Small Business Consortium”.
4.4 Conclusions and Recommendations on the

Organisational Structure of the CSR Academy
The Working Group considered whether the Academy should have a
physical presence or be virtual and, if physical, whether it needed to be a
new organisation or could sit within an existing organisation. The
Working Group believes that a major part of the CSR learning space
itself will be supported by and disseminated through virtual networks.
There will also be real added value in bringing people together to share
best practice and encourage innovation and that this can only be done
effectively if there is an organisation to manage the process. A number
of potential existing 'homes' were considered for the location of the CSR
Academy, but the Working Group concluded that given the multi-
stakeholder nature of the Academy's remit and the trust it must develop
it would not be appropriate for it to be sited within an existing body.
Recommendation 20
The Working Group recommends that in order for the Academy to be
effective and fleet of foot it needs to be an organisation with an
appropriate governance structure and a small core staff.
Recommendation 21
The Working Group recommends that the CSR academy should be a
new and independent organisation able to develop trust with multi-
stakeholder groups. The CSR Academy must be a CSR values based
organisation. This should be embedded in its organisational structure
and operational goals.
It was recognised that the CSR Academy would need legitimacy both
within the business community and also with wider stakeholders. In
particular it needs to win the confidence and active support of CSR
practitioners. It needs to be seen by the business community as an
organisation that works in harmony with it and understands the role of
business and the range of its concerns.
Recommendation 22
The Working Group recommends a fair balance of the board
membership that reflects the need to win the confidence of large and
small employers and the specialist and general managers they employ
and the wider stakeholder community without becoming too large and
over bureaucratic.
Recommendation 23
The Working Group recommends that the CSR Academy should employ
the methodologies of responsible corporate practice itself by being
transparent and accountable and working through open consultation. In
addition it should have a consultation infrastructure broadly accessible to
wider stakeholder interests and the relevant linked managerial and
professional disciplines. This might mean that the organisation should
have a broader advisory council structure beneath its governing board. It
should certainly facilitate learning circles as necessary to further the
work.
Recommendation 24
The Working Group recommends that the CSR Academy should have
an open membership policy initially based upon organisational
membership but should give consideration to an associate membership
for interested individuals.
Recommendation 25
The Working Group recommends that the Academy should initially have
4-5 staff members to manage administration, consultation infrastructure,
membership building, the development of partnerships and alliances and
the development of support and advice. These staff will also be
responsible for creating and managing database and new technology
functions, including the CSR Academy website (see Recommendation
7).
Recommendation 26
Given the medium to longer-term nature of the CSR Academy's mission,
the Working Group believes that it will take some time before it could be
expected to be financially self-sufficient. The Working Group therefore
recommends that government invest in the start up and maintenance
costs of the CSR Academy, but that the Academy should seek to earn
some of its income and develop its income streams over time, including
through membership fees. The working group believes it may also be
possible to achieve sponsorship funding from forward thinking
organisations and businesses that recognise the need for the Academy
and its work.
APPENDIX 1: Contributors to Consultations and

Discussions
Alan Bretherton, Director of Social Inclusion Strategy, South East

England Development Agency
Alan Roberts, Ethical Trading Initiative
Alistair Townley, Ethical Performance
Andrew Currie, Community Relations Director, BAA
Beth Egan, Deputy Director, Social Market Foundation
Campbell Robb, IPPR
Chris Staples, Community Affairs Director, Zurich Financial Services
Chris Tuppen, Head of Sustainable Development and Corporate
Accountability, BT plc
Coralie Abbott, Corporate Programmes Manager, Earthwatch
Corrine O'Brien
Craig MacKenzie, Head of Investor Responsibility, Insight Investment
Management Limited
David Ratcliffe, Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Trade and industry
Debra Massey, Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Marketing
Dominique Be, Deputy Head of Unit, EU Commission
Dominique Gangneux, Deloitte and Touche
Ed Metcalfe, South East England Development Agency
Emma Hunt, Head of Sustainable Finance Education, Forum for the
Future
Frieda Line, Employer Relation and Strategy Manager, Employers
Forum on Age
Graham Leigh, Charities Aid Foundation
Helen Lo, Head of UK Social and Environmental Affairs, Unilever plc
Ian Wylie, Principal Advisor, Rio Tinto
Jan Walsh, Crescent Consultant Services Ltd
Jennifer Woodward, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Jill Manistre, Corporate Responsibility Adviser, BSkyB
John Butlin, Royal Holloway
Jonathan Baume, General Secretary, Association of First Division Civil
Servants (FDA)
Judith Barnard, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Leonard Cheshire
Judith Rutherford, Chief Executive, Business Link London
Julie Haney, Head of Marketing, Chelsfield plc
Kate Cavelle, Manager DB Citizenship UK, Deutsche Bank
Ken Peattie, Director, University of Cardiff
Leonie Smith, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Tesco
Linda Minnis, Head of Community Affairs, Littlewoods
Mark Barthel, Head of Environment, Sustainability and CSR, British
Standards Institution
Mike Emmott, Adviser, Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development
Mike Morley Fletcher, Head of Risk Assessment & Group Insurance

Services, Marks and Spencer plc
Nick Bent, Policy Network
Nicky Bishop, Group Manager, Education and Professional
Development, Royal Bank of Scotland
Nicola Roberts, Director, British Bankers' Association
Nicole Lovett, Corporate Citizenship Manager, Diageo plc
Olivia Lankester, Senior Analyst Governance and Socially Responsible
Investment, ISIS Asset Management Plc
Patricia Peter, Corporate Governance Executive, Institute of Directors
Patrick Margaria, European Foundation for Quality Management
Paul Burke, Social Accountability Manager, Co-Operative Insurance
Society (CIS)
Peter Naude, Director of Postgraduate Programmes, Bath School of
Management
Peter Truesdale, The Corporate Citizenship Company
Philippa Foster-Black, Director, Institute of Business Ethics
Polly Courtice, Director, Cambridge Programme for Industry
Ray Baker, Director of Social Responsibility, B & Q
Richard Blakeley, UNIFI
Richard Jones, Director, Premier Oil
Sandra Rose, Head of Community Investment, The Boots Company plc
Sophi Tranchell, Chief Executive, Day Chocolate Company
Stephanie Draper, Principal Sustainability Adviser, Forum for the Future
Stephen Alambratis, Federation of Small Businesses
Stephen Hill, Principal, Royal Holloway
Stephen Serpell, Board Advisor, Corporate Responsibility Group
Steve Downing, Henley Management College
Tim Fisher, Group Environmental Manager, P&O
Tracy Smeathers, Public Relations Manager, Scott Bader
Trevor Dahl, Woolworths Group PLC
Yo Fung, Public Information and Advice Manager, Ethical Investment
Research Services
APPENDIX 2: CSR Skills and Competencies
Below is an extended statement on the CSR skills and competencies

identified in Figure 1 of this report:
Adaptability and Empathy

Having the flexibility to adjust your approach, language and views to
suite differing influencing situations, cultures and sectors
Business Insight
Understands the business, its customers and markets, the way it works,
its structure and culture and how it relates to CSR
Communication Skills
Conveys ideas and information clearly and in a manner appropriate to
the audience – in writing, presenting and public speaking
Decision Making
Evaluates the implications of various options before deciding on a
course of action and then showing commitment to and accountability for
that decision
Developing Others
Develops staff to their full potential, providing timely, constructive
feedback on performance, setting challenging work assignments and
objectives, and monitoring progress
Commercial Awareness
Understands the concepts of profit and loss, cash flow and managing
budgets and using financial information effectively
Building Internal Partnerships

Understands the significance of and is able to take a multi-functional
perspective on `strategic implementation’ issues
Technical Expertise
Understands trends in social and environmental issues and how they
impact on organisations
Influencing without Power

Adapts behaviour and communication style with others to persuade, gain
agreement and commitment to ideas and action
Information Technology
Understands how to use new technology in business and its value as a
source of information
Innovation
Demonstrates an enquiring mind, encourages new ideas and translates
ideas into action
Leadership
Takes charge and adapts own leadership style to suit the situation to
inspire, influence and motivate others to perform
Handling Complexity
Understands the implications of change in the social and political arena
and its impact on the organisation
Building External Partnerships

Builds networks and alliances with individuals and organisations
Stakeholder Dialogue
Identifies stakeholders, engages in dialogue and balances competing
demands
Open Minded
Listens to range of opinions and learns from the experience of others
Integrity
Has a genuine concern for social issues and acts as the conscience of
the business
Understanding Impacts
Knows how to manage, measure and report on social impacts of the
business
Licence to Operate
Understands the requirements of legislations, CSR standards and public
opinion
Questioning Business as Usual

Is prepared to move away from familiar ways of thinking and working
and challenges others to deal with uncertain situations comfortably
Selling the Business Case

Ability to communicate effectively how managing social and
environmental impacts contribute to the delivery of the organisation’s
strategy
Internal Consultancy
Personal effectiveness as a change agent and champion of CSR issues
Political Savvy
Understands agendas and perspectives of others, recognises and
balances needs of stakeholders and the organisation
Problem Solving
Identifies issues, gathers all relevant information, interprets the facts and
explores all possible solutions
Self Development and Learning

Takes responsibility and control for own development and learning;
plans for future direction
Strategic Awareness
Takes a strategic view of the business environment, clearly understands
the business strategy
Teamworking
Works well in cross-functional groups with peers, subordinates and
seniors; encourages participation and involvement by team members
through being open and approachable.
Appendix 3: Survey Results
Below are the results of the stakeholder consultation

questionnaire:
Skills and Competencies
For CSR specialists % Managers in other %

functions
Influencing without power 73 Leadership 49
Selling the business case 72 Commercial 48
awareness
Technical expertise 68 Decision making 47
Licence to operate 68 Developing others
Building internal partnerships 67 Communication skills 38

Communications skills 67
Respondents were asked to consider a list of 27 skills and competencies

and consider how important these were for CSR specialists and for
managers working in other functions (these skills and competencies are
listed in Appendix 2). The majority agreed that many of these skills were
important and the table above outlines the top 5.
Respondents were also invited to identify any additional skills and

competencies required to integrate CSR into organisations - 41% of
respondents made additional suggestions. Interestingly, many of these
provide more detail on certain aspects of the skills and competencies
identified by the research interviewees.
64% of respondents believe there is a particular dimension to the CSR

professional that sets it apart from other management disciplines.
External Standards
As shown below, there are a number of important external standards or
guidelines that are used by companies. Just over half the respondents
(51%) felt these external standards require the development of new
skills, competencies or knowledge. Many of the comments made refer
specifically to the need for “reporting skills” for social and environmental
impacts.
Are any of the following external standards or guidelines a key

part of your company’s approach to CSR?
%
London Benchmarking Group (LBG) 65
External awards, e.g. Business in the Community (BitC) 63
Business in the Environment – BiE Index 60

Global Report Initiative (GRI) 60
AccountAbility Principles – AA1000S 27
Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) 23
Supply Chain Standard – SA 8000 4
Training and Development

The survey asked respondents about how they had gained their CSR
skills. As shown in the next table the most likely approaches are keeping
up to date by reading, networking, and/or by doing the job (selected by
92% or more).
Which of the following have you used to develop the skills and
knowledge to integrate CSR into your work?
%
Keeping up to date by reading 95
Networking 92
Learning by doing the job 92
Attending conferences 89
Knowledge of the activities of other companies 85
Formal external training programmes/workshops 63
Corporate Responsibility Group 60
In-house programmes/workshops 42
Experience in the voluntary sector 40
“Seeing is believing” type programme 38
Coaching from line manager 29
Other trade or professional associations 28
Experience in the public sector 23
e-learning training 11
As the data below reveals a high proportion of respondents say it is not

easy to find out what CSR training is available, and a majority (61%) feel
that insufficient training is available in the UK.
Is it easy to find out what training and development is available in

CSR?
%
Yes 44
No 48
Don’t Know 8
In your view are there sufficient training and development

opportunities relevant to CSR issues?
Yes No Don’t know
% % %
Available in the UK 23 61 16
Available elsewhere in 2 29 70
Europe
Respondents were also asked “What could be done to improve the

provision of CSR training and development in the UK?” and 75% of the
sample commented on this issue. Many suggestions reinforce the
research findings of the report – for example, the need to move beyond
a “haphazard” set of skills and to establish a definitive source of
information on training. A number of questions were also raised about
the value of the proliferation of CSR conferences.
Most respondents (67%) believe there is a need for a professional

institution to develop and maintain practitioner CSR skills.
Respondents
The response rate of 25% represents 68 returned questionnaires, which
compares well with response rates of similar surveys.
The questionnaire was distributed to a group of 267 individuals. The

profile of respondents is reported below. The majority of respondents are
senior managers, directors or chief executives (62% of the sample);
have 3 years+ experience in a CSR related role (75%) of whom 19%
have 11 years+ experience; and nearly half describe themselves as
CSR specialists (46%)
How many years experience have you had in a CSR-related role?

%
Less than 1 year 5
1-2 years 20
3-5 years 42
6-10 years 15
11-15 years 8
16 years or more 11
What is your managerial level?

%
Chair/Chief Executive 9
Director/Partner 22
Senior Management 31
Middle Management 25
Junior Management 7
Other 6
What is your job function?

%
CSR specialist 46
Community Affairs 22
Public Affairs 0
HR 3
Marketing 1
Other 25
Within your organisation which function is primarily responsible

for CSR?
%
CSR Specialist Team 41
Public Affairs 3
HR 0
Marketing 5
External Affairs 2
Communications 5
Government Relations 0
Environmental Management 6
Cross-functional 25
Other 14
APPENDIX 4: Education and Training Provision
The research team conducted an initial analysis of current training and

development provision relevant to CSR in the UK. It is clear that this is a
fast moving and growing field with many institutions developing new
programmes, courses and conferences. Since a comprehensive
assessment of training provision was beyond the scope of this study the
list below illustrates some of the current providers.
Selected Training and Development Providers in the UK
AccountAbility – http://www.accountability.org.uk
Ashridge Centre for Business and Society - http://www.ashridge.org.uk/
British Standards Institution – http://www.bsi-global.com
Cambridge Programme for Industry (Prince of Wale’s Business and the

Environment Programme) - http://www.cpi.cam.ac.uk/home.html
Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School -

http://www.cf.ac.uk/carbs/index.html
CIRIA - http://www.ciria.org.uk/
IEMA - http://www.iema.net/
Institute of Business Ethics - http://www.ibe.org.uk/Events.htm
New Academy of Business - http://www.new-academy.ac.uk/
Nottingham University - http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/
SGS - http://www.sgs.co.uk/
The Environment Council – http://www.the-environment-council.org.uk
The National Centre for Business and Sustainability -

http://www.thencbs.co.uk/
University of Bath School of Management - http://www.bath.ac.uk/
University of Cambridge - http://www.cam.ac.uk/
Warwick Business School - http://users.wbs.warwick.ac.uk/ccu/


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“Changing Manager Mindsets”

Report of the Working Group on the Development of Professional

Department of Trade and Industry

Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 3

Section One: The Working Group and Its Task........................................................................... 11

Section Two: Identifying CSR Skills and Competencies ............................................................. 14

Section Three: CSR Training and Development Provision ......................................................... 25

Section Four: Is There a Role for a CSR Academy?................................................................... 34

APPENDIX 1: Contributors to Consultations and Discussions.................................................... 40

APPENDIX 2: CSR Skills and Competencies ............................................................................. 42

APPENDIX 3: Survey Results ..................................................................................................... 45

APPENDIX 4: Education and Training Provision ........................................................................ 49

Our task was to make recommendations on how to create the people

We believe the key task over the next 10 to 15 years is to change

Creating the people will require changes to what is offered in the

We believe that CSR is relevant to organisations of all sizes whether in

We hope that our recommendations will support a leap forward in

Our deliberations were based on the excellent research and analysis

The Working Group was chaired by Sue Slipman, Chair, Financial

The Working Group's Approach to CSR

The Working Group believes that CSR concerns the management of an

The Group believes that popularising CSR, getting more companies,

2. Conclusions and Recommendations for Building

© Ashridge/DTI/CRG STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

The Working Group makes the following recommendations based on the

3. Conclusions and Recommendations on CSR

The Working Group recommends that training organisations should

4. Is There a Role for a CSR Academy?

5. Conclusions and Recommendations on the Tasks

6. Conclusions and Recommendations on the

Section One: The Working Group and Its Task

The Working Group was chaired by Sue Slipman, Chair, Financial

Many stakeholders objected to the term 'CSR'. Some object on the

Several different terms were offered including 'sustainability', 'durability'

The operating environment facing business today is more demanding,

The Working Group sees CSR as the management of an organisation's

Government aims to stimulate business to assess their social impacts for

The Working Group concluded that the cornerstone of informing

Section Two: Identifying CSR Skills and

2.1 CSR – An Emerging Profession?

First, current practitioners are drawn from a number of diverse

A second factor that militates against the creation of a single

While this quote shows a variety of different demands on the CSR

• Changing legislative demands and industry standards

• Supply chain management

Hence, despite the growing interest in CSR as an emerging profession,

2.2 Does Embedding CSR Practice Require

As with most caricatures, these distort reality. The Working Group

General managers have an ethical dimension within their own

2.3 The Research Study

A number of organisations were invited to submit proposals to identify:

• The generic skills, competencies and knowledge required by CSR

The Working Group managed a competitive tender process and

The research project comprised five strands of inquiry carried out in

• Desk-based and Internet search of relevant research and

2.4 Identifying CSR Skills and Competencies

Information gathered from the interviews and discussion groups was

frameworks. However, the striking feature of the job descriptions

Figure 1 – CSR Skills and Competencies5

The competency framework tried to capture the key aspects of CSR

Feedback at the workshops indicated that there was relatively close

In addition, there was great debate on how the competencies would

As such, it was felt that further research was needed to develop a