Wirtschaft und Menschenrechte - Jahrbuch Global Compact Deutschland 2018

DIGITALISIERUNG
diligence for human rights impacts and extend it to all major
areas of business ethics, according to Professor John G. Ruggie,
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Business
and Human Rights.
In addition, the OECD Guidelines are the most comprehensive
set of government-backed recommendations on responsible
business conduct in existence today. The governments that
adhere to these Guidelines aim to encourage the positive contributions
that multinationals can make toward sustainable
development and to minimize the difficulties their operations
may produce.
Multinational enterprises operating in or from compliant
countries need to comply with this set of recommendations
on responsible business conduct. Representatives of business,
trade unions, and nongovernmental organizations participate
in this process through the OECD Business Industry and
Advisory Committee, the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee,
and OECD Watch. In other words, the Guidelines are
implemented by the signatory governments with support
from the representatives of three main stakeholders in the
economy and society, namely, governments, business associations,
and labor unions.
The Guidelines are part of the 1976 OECD Declaration on International
Investment and Multinational Enterprises, a policy
commitment from compliant governments to provide an open
and transparent environment for international investment, as
well as an environment to encourage positive contributions
from multinationals to further economic and social progress.
The Guidelines aim at balancing an open investment climate
coupled with responsible conduct by enterprises.
Compliant countries are obliged to set up National Contact
Points to further the effectiveness of the Guidelines by undertaking
promotional activities, handling inquiries, and
providing mediation and conciliation platforms for resolving
issues. This makes the Guidelines the only international
corporate responsibility instrument with a built-in grievance
mechanism. 34 OECD countries and 12 non-OECD countries
now subscribe to the Guidelines, and more are planning to join
and align their enterprises with basic sustainable principles
of good corporate conduct.
Like the SDGs, the OECD Guidelines are non-binding and
voluntary, but they carry the power of conviction and scope,
which makes them uniquely important for the future of our
economies and societies.
GLOBAL TREND 3: Business diplomacy management
Implementing the 17 SDGs and the 11 articles of the OECD
Guidelines cannot be achieved through a “business as usual”
approach. How to implement such broad and deep commitments
requires the ability to engage external counterparts
constructively and – equally importantly – the ability to
convince actors within enterprises to agree to implement such
a code of conduct and form partnerships with non-business
counterparts.
Business diplomats are best qualified to meet these complex
and important business challenges and relationships and to
nurture a business culture that supports, leads, and inspires
multinationals to orient their business policies and activities
toward an overall balance of diverse business objectives,
while at the same time respecting codes of conduct such as
the OECD Guidelines and contributing – to the best of their
abilities – toward helping society achieve the SDGs, particularly
SDG 17. These objectives and obligations are sometimes in
opposition with each other, and at other times they coalesce
toward achieving a sustained business that is based on publicly
agreed criteria of good conduct.
Multinational enterprises have to ensure a delicate balance
between wealth creation and social engagement – in other
words, moving from “business as usual” to “business with
ethics,” and from being a corporate “raider” to becoming
a corporate “resident.” This is the operational space within
which business diplomats can play an important strategic role
in establishing a collaborative relationship with the communities
where multinational operations are being conducted.
Business diplomats will need to help their multinationals to
navigate between defending their legitimate interests while
also helping them to address the legitimate concerns of nonbusiness
stakeholders. Discovering how to facilitate this new
model of conducting international business that is based on a
form of social contract will be crucial for social sustainability,
and eventually for the bottom line. However, this needs to be
designed and implemented without jeopardizing the multinationals’
business fundamentals or disregarding the equally
legitimate expectations of a return on investment. This balancing
act requires a new set of competences that are normally
not part of the toolbox of a traditional business executive.
Business diplomacy management (BDM) pertains to the strategic
management of interfaces between an enterprise and its
external non-business counterparts (NGOs, CSOs, international
organizations, and national and local governments) that have
an impact on its reputational capital and license to operate.
BDM functions to strengthen an enterprise’s ability to shape
and influence its operational environment and to foster an
internal narrative supportive of constructive interchange with
that environment. BDM is particularly suited to deal with the
compliance and also complaints concerning the OECD Guideline.
The General Policies are the core guiding principles of
the Guidelines and are listed in the box.
In total, there are 17 General Policies that multinationals should
take fully into account in the countries in which they operate
and in the areas where they should consider the views of other
stakeholders. Of the 17 General Polices, there are 15 “should”
(mandatory) and 2 “encouraged” (optional) policies. Seen from
the BDM perspective, 11 of the 17 policies fall very much
within the domain of business diplomacy competence. >>
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