CONVERTING CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY'S MIDDLE MANAGEMENT BLACK-HOLE

I am frequently told by operational managers - "what's Corporate Responsibility got to do with me? It's the board and top management that deals with those things. There's very little that I can do about it!"

Conversely, conversations with CR professionals and with CEOs and senior directors frequently touch on the perceived middle-management black-hole. When it comes to sustainability and corporate responsibility, increasingly, top management "gets it" because they have the overview of the multiple pressures now bearing down on businesses; and front-line staff are enthusiastic about making a positive difference on things like climate change or the inclusive society. But often, it is the hard-pressed middle-managers who feel the pressure of sales targets, headcount pressures, cost-control drives and don't see how to reconcile these with rhetoric about sustainability and being a responsible business. This new article from Cranfield's Management Focus magazine is aimed at busy, operational managers.