"Did You Really Mean To Say That?"
Current Reviews & Book Notes

CSR is, and always has been, a work in progress—constantly evolving, now advancing, then falling back, never at rest, always generating new insights and possibilities.  A never-ending stream of ideas, concepts, theories, research methods, and practices flow from the minds of scholars and practitioners and into books, journals, media, blogs, conferences, workshops, casual everyday conversations, and—most importantly—the workplace.

Here you will find my comments and reactions to some of this CSR-speak.  Expect brevity, occasional irreverence—but general goodwill . . . well, at least that’s my intent.  If you think I’m entirely off-the-wall, out-in-space, off-my-rocker, in-need-of-help, sound off at billfred@katz.pitt.edu   Cool comments are also welcome.


“Profiting from Prophets? Or Propheting from Profits?”

Prophets, Profits, and Peace:
The Positive Role of Business in Promoting Religious Tolerance

Timothy L. Fort

(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)

A Review by William C. Frederick, October 2008


“CSR’s Midas Touch”

Buried Treasure:
Discovering and Implementing the Value of Corporate Social Responsibility

By
Caleb Wall

(Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing, 2008)

A review by William C. Frederick, November 2008


©2008 www.williamcfrederick.com

Archive Index
"Big CSR Wisdom in a Small Package"
Sandra Waddock & Charles Bodwell,
Total Responsibility Management:  A Manual

“More CSR Leadership from Germany, Japan, et al.”
Judith Hennigfeld, Manfred Pohl, Nick Tolhurst (eds.),
The ICCA Handbook on Corporate Social Responsibility

“Et tu, Government?”
Frank Wijen, Kees Zoeteman, Jan Pieters (eds.),
A Handbook of Globalisation and Environmental Policy

“Oh, Canada, Show Us the Way”
Wesley Cragg (ed.),
Ethics Codes, Corporations, and the Challenge of Globalization

" . . . And He Hewed A Mighty Stone."
Kenneth Goodpaster,
Conscience and Corporate Culture

"Hey, America, Europe is Eating Your CSR Lunch!"
Andre Habisch, Jan Jonker, Martina Wegner, Rene Schmidpeter (eds.)
Corporate Social Responsibility Across Europe

"Vogel and Frederick, Together At Last . . . Well, Almost!"
David Vogel,
The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility

“Corporate Social Climbers, CSR Deadbeats, and Groucho’s Dilemma”
Aseem Prakash and Matthew Potoski, The Voluntary Environmentalists: Green Clubs, ISO 14001, and Voluntary Environmental Regulations

“Talking the CSR Walk—Tower of Babel? or Strategic Vision?”
Frank den Hond, Frank G. A. de Bakker, Peter Neergaard (eds.).  Managing Corporate Social Responsibility in Action: Talking, Doing, Measuring

“Giving Workplace Spirituality
a Bad Name?”

Peter Pruzan and Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen.  Leading with Wisdom: Spiritual-based Leadership in Business.

Paul Seabright.  The Company of
Strangers: A Natural History of
Economic Life
.

David and Goliath Meet in the CSR Super Bowl
The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Complete Reference Guide to Concepts, Codes, and Organisations.
Wayne Visser, Dirk Matten, Manfred Pohl, & Nick Tolhurst (eds.)
and
Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society, Vol. 1-5, Robert W. Kolb (ed.)

“You Really Should Get To Know Tim Fort”
Timothy L. Fort, Business, Integrity, and Peace: Beyond Geopolitical and Disciplinary Boundaries

“Let’s Hear It For These Accountants and Business Ethicists!”
Advancing Business Ethics Education, Diane L. Swanson & Dann G. Fisher (eds.)

“If You Are Looking for a First Class CSR Reader . . .”
The Corporate Social Responsibility Reader
Jon Burchell (ed.)

“Waddock, Inc. and the Responsibility Thing”Sandra Waddock, 
The Difference Makers:  How Social and Institutional Entrepreneurs Created the Corporate Responsibility Movement

“The Pathfinders for the Difference Makers” A Post-Review Commentary on The Difference Makers

“A Moan for the Misbegotten” (Apologies to Eugene O’Neill)