Globethics is hosting a special institutional collection of documents related to Prof. Michale Hopkins works on Corportate Social Responsibility (CSR) in various sectors. (This collection is currently in development). Michael Hopkins is Chair and Partner of MHC International. He has worked in the Corporate sector (IBM, cheap BAT, ITT/STC, Addax, UEFA, BP), the United Nations (ILO, UNDP, WFP, UNIDO, UNITAR), The World Bank and in Academia (IDS Sussex, QEH Oxford, Middlesex, Geneva Universities), and has held a number of Professorships (Middlesex, Brunel, George Mason University). He is a PhD economist with a strong focus upon measurement, employment issues and executive education especially in emerging market economies. Since leaving the UN where he was a staff member for 13 years (ILO) he founded, and is CEO of MHC International and its subsidiary the CSR and Financial Institute (CSRFI). He also initiated the Arabia CSR Awards, as well as the University of Geneva's CSR Executive Training Programme, which he directed until 2013.

Recent Submissions

  • Some reflections on human and social indicators for development

    Ghai, Dharam; Hopkins, Michael; McGranahan, Donald (UNRISD, 1988-10)
    "Some reflections on Human and Social indicators for Development."
  • Corporate Social Responsibility and Some Labour Issues

    Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2003-01)
    Labour issues are much wider than purely human resource concerns as they step into global development issues. This feature looks at the ILO’s Core Labour Standards and how they have been used as a foundation for CSR application by the Global Reporting Initiative, by the Ethical Trading Initiative, by the EU and by the UN Global Compact. Following a brief examination of each, one can ask whether companies should really bother about any of these. And should you?
  • The Measurement of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

    Hopkins, Michael; Roche, Julian; Rambaut, Tom; Straughan, Alton (MHC International, 2011-04)
    There is much interest and a growing literature on the measurement of what is meant by corporate social responsibility. MHCinternational has used a framework of measurement, prescription first developed in the USA by Prof. Donna Wood, and applied this framework to dozens of companies.
  • Measurement of Corporate Social Responsibility

    Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2004-04)
    'Lies, damned lies and statistics' stated Benjamin Disraeli. In fact, the measurement of CSR has improved since we wrote the first article on the subject some years ago. It is even possible to use some of the available data that companies now make available to hazard a guess at whether CSR is getting better or worse. Yet, see the power of the 'average' hides a variety of sins. But first, let's have a look at the evidence.
  • Socially Responsible Restructuring: Is CSR the Answer to Unemployment?

    Hopkins, Michael (CSR Wire, 2012-01)
    As unemployment levels remain high and will probably stay that way for the next year or so, should corporations be doing more to create employment? And is this part of their social responsibility?
  • Socially Responsible Enterprise Restructuring

    Starcher, George (MHC International, 2002-10)
    Can companies downsize in a socially responsible manner? Restructuring is necessary and, unfortunately, management too often turns first to reduction of labor costs. As a result, restructuring has become almost synonymous with downsizing. But, does restructuring have to result in downsizing? Why do many downsizing projects not result in improvement in profits? Are there hidden costs in downsizing that have escaped managementís attention? or impacts on human and social capital that are ignored? And when downsizing is essential to remain competitive, how can it be achieved without layoffs?
  • Corporate Social Responsibility in Small and Medium Sized Businesses

    Hopkins, Ivor (MHC International, 2001-02)
    Corporate Social Responsibility is primarily regarded as the province of large corporations who not only have deep pockets and legions of staff, but who also have the collective guts to do something. Companies like Shell, BT and The Body Shop have famously burnished their corporate reputations and gained marketing kudos whilst doing their bit for our planet: they have the size, depth and reach to make a difference. But what about the large number of small or medium sized enterprises, whose depth is measured by a multi tasking MD and whose reach is more likely to be local than national?
  • Alternative View of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Dialogue with the Financial Times

    Hopkins, Michael; Henderson, David (MHC International, 2001-05)
    On May 16th,2001,Martin Wolf of the Financial Times wrote a provocative article criticising CSR since he argued, based on a pamphlet by David Henderson former Chief Economist of the OECD, that social responsibility distorts the market by deflecting business from its primary role of profit generation (see Martin Wolf in www.ft.com). What follows is a summary of a dialogue between Wolf and Hopkins that followed publication of Wolf's article "Sleepwalking with the enemy: Corporate social responsibility distorts the market by deflecting business from its primary role of profit generation". Needless to say, as the dialogue shows, MHCi disagrees.
  • Happy Holidays Forever - Responsibility on the move

    Hopkins, Ivor (MHC International, 2004-11)
    At this increasingly gray time of year, buy as winter deepens over the north, many of us turn our thoughts to a warm and sunny vacation, and begin to prepare our next flight of fancy and check out those 'realms of gold' in brochures or on holiday web-sites. Travel for travel's sake is no longer seen as the preserve of the rich, as a luxury, as it was in Keats' day (quoted above): indeed, travel for pleasure and tourism is seen as a necessity, as an antidote to the pressures of increasingly stressed lives.
  • CSR in Recessionary Times

    Hopkins, Ivor; Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2002-01)
    Whether the world is hurrying towards recession, is currently in a recession or is perceived to be in recession following the cataclysmic events of recent history, is a moot point. What is certain is that the profits of major companies will be much lower in 2002 than they were in the year before. So, when corporate leaders reach for the axe in their tool chest, what does this imply for the fledgling area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? Should CSR also be cut until the good times roll back in again?
  • WILL SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY BURN UP THE BOTTOM LINE?

    Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2000-08)
    In the UK the Government has asked investment and pension funds to report on how their investments contribute to social and ethical responsibility. The impact of this ruling has already made leading insurers and pension funds to put pressure on companies to improve social and environmental standards. This issue will directly affect corporate and brand reputations, no rx commercial success and their share price, according to Roger Cowe of 'The Guardian'.
  • Corporate Social Responsibility and Finance: Forging a path ahead?

    Roche, Julian; Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2004-01)
    If there is any sector of the economy more in need of a proper sense of corporate social responsibility than financial services, for sale it's hard to imagine. A succession of governance scandals has followed successive poor financial service advice, store repeated concerns about pay levels and agency problems in private equity companies, the usual short-term thinking from stockbrokers, obsession with shareholder value in companies at the expense of wider stakeholder concerns by fund managers and a host of other CSR issues particularly relevant to the financial services industry. Quietly lurking in the background is the unsaid supposition that financial services companies are not playing as prominent a role in the development of corporate social responsibility as they might. Governments worldwide are concerned, even the overly business friendly Bush administration is making some halting steps.
  • Does Corporate Social Responsibility Have a Role in Sport?

    Hopkins, Ivor (MHC International, 2003-07)
    We all need/want heroes and heroines and sport delivers them, indeed thrives on them, as the recent brouhaha over David Beckham's transfer from Manchester Utd shows. The late Mark McCormack, founder of IMG (and indeed the sports management industry), wrote "Business situations always come down to people situations"[2] and from a CSR perspective - although this was not his concern - he was absolutely right because all businesses are about the interaction of their stakeholders[3].
  • Corporate Social Responsibility and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Revisited

    Hopkins, Ivor (MHC International, 2004-02)
    In this article I comment upon a huge inflow of articles that stemmed from a recent three week e-conference organised by the World Bank Institute (WBI) where the author was one of the moderators. I am brought up in an enterprising family and our factory closed down because we tried to be responsible and ethical. In my view the small enterprises are too small to be able to effect the larger environment and have to take it as it is
  • CSR and the Property Market - Urgent Changes Required

    Roche, Julian (MHC International, 2009-06)
    Companies that are primarily engaged in real estate activities - principally developing and owning commercial and residential property - have just as many corporate responsibilities as manufacturers or retailers. While construction and maintenance should certainly be seen as the corporate responsibility of the construction company, the consumer (renter or owner) should not ignore the workplace conditions of products they buy.
  • CSR and the Beautiful Game

    Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2003-10)
    As well as providing its clients with an overall approach to CSR, MHCi has shown how the CSR concept can be applied in many disciplines. To this end MHCi runs a series of CSR Masterclasses where participants interact closely with CSR and the discipline specialists. Recently, in London, MHCi ran a masterclass linking CSR to the wider issue of sport and this is what we report on in this article.
  • CSR and the world cup

    Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2002-04)
    Scandal after scandal seem to chase after major sporting events and it appears that little is being done to reduce these. FIFA is embroiled in a scandal at the top with accusations flying about payoffs and loose accounting practices.
  • CSR Investment in the next 'dot.com' boom but without the crash?

    Hopkins, Michael; Hopkins, Ivor; Roche, Julian (MHC International, 2001-11)
    Could social investment be the next boom in investment by individuals, online financial institutions including pension funds? It is certainly more than 'fashion' as can be seen by the fact that the public is increasingly aware of environmental and social issues as well as SRI legislation being introduced in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Germany, France and Sweden.
  • Sovereign Wealth Funds and CSR

    Roche, Julian; Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2008-07)
    Sovereign Wealth Funds are growing in importance, medicine yet the world of CSR both passes them by and is passed by, by the SWFs themselves. Does this matter? In this article, some of the issues and options are explored.
  • Socially Responsible Investment or Corporate Social Responsibility

    Roche, Julian; Hopkins, Michael (MHC International, 2012-05)
    Within the ‘CSR world’ it is almost taken as axiomatic that there is no contradiction between Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)[1]. The vision is this. Investors will act responsibly looking at responsible and impact investment to make their money count for a better world as well as just obtain a financial return. Meanwhile enlightened companies will recognise that an increasing number of investors will look at not just their raw financial numbers but also their CSR engagement and scores, and act to improve their CSR performance to attract more investment and lower their cost of capital. There is already suggested evidence[2] that companies are able to attract investment less expensively if they perform well in certain CSR indicators. A virtuous circle is almost inevitable, as progressively more investment is directed on a socially responsible basis and the pressure on companies to perform better in CSR mounts accordingly.

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