Culture by Committee – the pros and cons
A survey of sustainability and ethics committees
The Institute of Business Ethics (” IBE “) recently performed a survey in the UK which shows that corporate boards are increasingly taking a systematic approach to ethics and values.
This report “Culture by Committee – the pros and cons” considers the role of board committees of UK companies in delivering corporate responsibility and embedding values. The idea of having committees dedicated to this task is relatively new, but a significant number of companies – 30 in the FTSE 100 and 25 in the FTSE 250 – have formed such a committee. The research looks at their mandates to analyse what they contribute, and also considered how the issues are handled by companies that choose not to have a committee.
Around FTSE 350 boards have formed committees to focus on ethics and values as well as corporate responsibility and sustainability. The survey explores the nature and role of these board-level committees, and also the way companies that choose not to have such committees handle this growing range of non-financial risks. This survey is intended to benchmark what is happening in the UK, providing a valuable insight into how companies are approaching the task, and helping companies decide on the right approach for them in an increasingly complex world.
This might be of interest to us here in the Netherlands. You can download the survey here and take a look at the interesting work which the IBE performs in the UK.
