Deliberative Lobbying? : Toward a Noncontradiction of Corporate Political Activities and Corporate Social Responsibility?
/ Irina Lock and Peter Seele
- Journal of Management Inquiry 2016
- Journal of Management Inquiry, 25(4), 415-430. DOI: 10.1177/1056492616640379
Recently, researchers have claimed that food and beverage corporations should be excluded from the development of public health policy because their lobbying activities strategically undermine the promotion of public health. At the same time, recent political corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory holds that corporations have a responsibility to help solve global public issues. We address this described misalignment and show that corporations may fulfill this “new political role” if they turn to novel forms of corporate political activity (CPA) establishing a minimal standard for not contradicting their CSR. Therefore, we put forward a normative concept called deliberative lobbying based on discourse, transparency, and accountability, which aims to resolve public issues and advance CPA. In three lobbying cases, we show misalignments and contradictions that harm both society and the corporation. We position deliberative lobbing as an argument to maintain self-regulation against critics claiming that corporations should be excluded from all political processes.
1056-4926
Corporate political activity Social responsibility of business Food industry Beverage industry Public health