DIFFICULTIES OF MANAGING CSR ACROSS BORDERS

A Model developed by two Dutch CSR expert , Rob van Tulder and Alex van der Zwart . Their approach suggest three main actors in the policy formulation process:

• State - which passes and enforce laws

• Market - which through the process of competition and pricing mechanism utilizes input  and allocates outputs to members of the society

• Civil Society - which includes churches, charitable organization , labor unions, NGOs etc.

The interplay among three actors establishes public policy and the norms of social interaction , including , of course, accepted business behaviors. As is the case with culture , however, these social norms vary from country to country . Van Tulder and vander Zwart's model develop stereotypical behaviors in three regions of the world.

• The Ango-Saxon Approach
• The Asian Approach
• The Continental Approach

The Anglo-Saxon Approach

In  van Tulder and van der Zwart's  analysis, Anglo-Saxon countries view the state , the market  and civil society as separate,competitive and antagonistic.

Eg: when the government must contract with private sector to purchase goods or services such as contracting should be done through an open and competitive bidding process. When business and government fail to maintain sufficient separation, Anglo-saxons deem that failure as corruption.



The Asian Approach

The relationship between these three actors is very different in Asia. Many Asian countries like Japan, China  and Indonesia come to mind-rely on close cooperation between the private sector and the government. Indeed, the economic clout of Japan's keiretsu and Korea's chaebol rest on their willingness to the government's bidding and vice-versa. Many Asian leaders view this cooperation as the linchpin of their successful development strategies -the so -called "Asian Way" Note two thing :
1)   from the perspective of the Anglo-Saxon approach, this symbiotic relationship between business and government is      viewed as "crony capitalism" a polite term for corruption
2)   Civil society plays a minor role in this process
The Continental European Approach

Australia, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
The three actors have much more cooperative ways of working with one another . Example in Germany , large employer associations bargin with umbrella labor organizations under the watchful supervision of the government. similarly Germany's codetermination policy gives workers a well defined role in the governance of large German business and  in general , the policy process is based upon creating consensus among the three actors

Cooperation , not competition , is the hallmark of this approach.