Chapter 4: Building the Responsible Company from the Inside Out: A New Role for Human Resources and Organizational Development

Corporate responsibility. Corporate goodwill. Global citizenship. These three interrelated business topics will increasingly shape the role of human resources (HR) and organizational development (OD) consulting in the decades to come. Are today’s organizations prepared to internalize these values and issues as part of their strategic focus and in their day-today operations? Is human resources prepared to step into a leadership role that would help organizations respond to these issues? From a consulting perspective, what do these concepts mean to the industries we support and the companies with which we work? What changes must we, as a profession, make to take an active and strategic place at the business table? And, most importantly, how do we implement these strategic issues to build a responsible company from the inside out?