Convention roles of corporate reps
Corporate representatives who attend the convention come in two flavors, says commentator Robert Reich. He also discovered that sometimes reps from the same company play contradictory roles.
Robert Reich (Marketplace)
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TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Renita Jablonski: It's no surprise Corporate America made sure to have representatives at this week's Republican National Convention and last week's DNC. What surprises commentator Robert Reich, though, is the sometimes contradictory roles those representatives have.
Robert Reich: At the Democratic convention last week, I kept bumping into two different kinds of corporate professionals. Most have headed over to the Republican convention this week.
One type says its job is "public affairs;" the other, "government affairs." They sound similar but the jobs are quite different.
The "public affairs" types are at the conventions to bring attention to their companies' commitments to social responsibility. Many of them have hand-outs and fancy brochures touting all the good things their firms do.
The "government affairs" types are at the conventions to build their companies' political influence. They're the ones in the sky boxes with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.
The two types often work for the same big companies but they seem to operate at cross purposes. For example, I met a public affairs person who talked about the great strides his company was making in green technologies. But the government-affairs people from the same company have been actively lobbying against environmental laws and regulations.
Another public affairs person was touting her company's dedication to its communities -- gifts to local schools and playgrounds, for example. But in the sky boxes were lobbyists from the same firm that have been demanding tax abatements from those same communities, as a condition for keeping jobs there. And those tax abatements have meant less revenues for local schools and playgrounds.
Other public affairs people told me how much their firms value their employees, giving them more flexible work schedules and extra days off. But the same firms have been lobbying against paid family leave.
I'm not suggesting hypocrisy. I mean, it's entirely possible these companies have voluntarily taken on corporate social responsibilities and don't want the government to force them to do any of it. Or maybe the left hand of corporate public affairs doesn't know what the right hand of government affairs is up to.
But I can't help thinking that if these companies took social responsibility seriously, they'd put a break on their lobbying and influence-peddling. Maybe they'd even avoid spending so much on political conventions.
Jablonski: Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Comments
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From San Pedro, CA, 09/03/2008
Thank you!
I wrote the following letter to my paper about our local activists fighting corporate "cost externalizing."
Dear Letters,
I read with great interest ANDREW MARDESICH’s letter “Port funds due to lawsuit” on Sunday’s Editorial page. The public should be aware of the unsung heroes in the Pt. Fermin Residents' Association and the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, who volunteer their time fighting corporate and private interests that seek to dump the environmental costs of their businesses onto Harbor area residents. Corporate and private interests such as China Shipping or Bisno Development Corporation are out to maximize their profits at our expense by making sure that we, the taxpayers, bear the high costs to society they cause.
This is how Big Tobacco and Big Oil make their huge profits. On a smaller scale, does San Pedro need another 7-11, Taco Bell, or MacDonald’s? Not unless those giant corporations help pay for the trash I see everywhere that their businesses generate.
Whether it’s China Shipping or Bisno Development Corporation or the Cruise Lines or junk food outlets, it’s called externalizing costs. According to Wikipedia, “by externalizing to the community or the environment, many true costs become lost in analysis because the true cost is non-quantifiable and neither the community nor the environment have effective advocates to recoup the damages. A major modern theme in the relationship of business to society is the society's ability (or inability) to resist cost externalization.”
It’s only by this kind of neighborhood-based, grass-roots activism that the American middle class will be saved. Hats off to our own Harbor area Residents Associations, Neighborhood Councils, and the selfless volunteers who make them so effective. I urge the Daily Breeze to keep us all up to date on their activities. And to the rest of us, all I can say is “Wake up America!”
From Little Rock, AR, 09/03/2008
I just wanted to say that I always enjoy Robert Reich's insightful comments. He's a keeper!
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