The Social Licence. How To Keep Your Organisation Legitimate

Oct. 14, 2014 - PRLog -- In today’s business world, business is much more than the bottom line. From ethical business to fair trade, to rainforest certified to freedom food, consumers demand to know about the provenance of their products and the real social and economic costs behind their production. To ignore the importance of these factors is perilous to businesses of all sizes.

The word ‘social licence’ is, as author John Morrison, acknowledges a new slant on an old idea. In fact, as he explores, a very old idea indeed. Many readers will think this is the new sexy term for ‘corporate social responsibility’, but in fact it is drawn from the much older idea of the ‘social contract’ and the author is quite obviously indebted to his predecessors, the early thinkers of democracy like Thomas Paine.

So what is the Social Licence?

A social licence is much more than the legal or lawful business activities. Its focus is on power relationships and the very concept of the licence goes some way to explaining how organizations can acquire or lose the legitimacy in the eyes of society. The social licence gauges how businesses operate effectively- or not- in key spheres of human rights, social equality, and the environment.

The social licence is about the interactions of many factors. It cannot be self awarded or even directly managed by a company or say a government. Nor can it be measured; there is no legitimacy index. Instead Morrison considers what factors can be managed that contribute to a business’ legitimation, for instance, legitimacy, trust and consent. It is a difficult question, especially when the social licence is more apparent by its absence.

However, with examples ranging from the Gulf of Mexico to the Niger Delta, Morrison illustrates the social licence in action, demonstrating how the social license is dynamic, and why managers must start by focusing on the rights of those directly impacted by their activities.  This is a book concerned with ethics in action and so provides clear guidance on understanding, measuring and integrating legitimacy into a company’s strategy.

Morrison has worked for over  twenty five years in Human Rights and  has spent the last 15 working with business and human rights. The book is therefore personal and subjective, grounded in his own considerable experience. He takes the courageous step of recognising that sometimes the three major actors in society: business, government and NGOs don’t’ always step up for action, and surprisingly, sometimes  step up in other instance to press hard for change in sensitive, even unappealing situations. The book is nothing if not grounded in reality.

Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever plc says,

“Provocative and challenging The Social License makes a compelling case for why companies must look to increase their positive social impact as an integral part of their core business strategies.”

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change

“John Morrison has led significant initiatives on business and human rights over recent years. Now his book takes some of that collective experience and orders it conceptually in a way that is accessible and makes an important point about the social licence of corporations to operate.”

John G. Ruggie, Professor of Human Rights and International Affairs, Harvard University; former United Nations Special Representative for Business and Human Rights

“In this provocative book, John Morrison takes us beyond CSR into the realm of ‘the social license’ and how it is earned, and then all the way to the social contract on which any sustainable societal order ultimately must rest. The intellectual journey is well worth the while.”

“The Social License: How to Keep Your Organization Legitimate”  is  a great read for business managers, and students, human rights activists and theorists, economists and lay people. The author’s dialogic style, ‘ if we take for instance say, …’ means that readers can follow along with ease and alacrity regardless of their  familiarity with the subject matter. It is certainly not a management guide or audit, but a journey of consideration, towards a shift in perceptions  and values and hopefully how we do business, whatever our business.

The book “The Social License: How to Keep Your Organization Legitimate” (ISBN-10: 1137370718) by Palgrave MacMillan