HR as the guardian of corporate values at Cadbury Schweppes
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Pages | 10-11 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390680000858 |
| Author | Mark Young |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
10 Volume 5 Issue 2 January/February 2006
HR at WORK
,
Short case studies that demonstrate best practice in HR
HR as the guardian of corporate
values at Cadbury Schweppes
I
n late 2003, Cadbury Schweppes, an
international confectionery and
beverages company, began working
with Future Considerations, a
management consultancy, to develop a
corporate and social responsibility (CSR)
learning tool.
The tool formed part of a larger
project with Cadbury Schweppes –
“Working Better Together,” (see Figure
1, right) a kit of 50 organizational
development tools. Its aim was to build
collaborative behavior in teams and
networks around the globe. The
company regards understanding its
principles and values around CSR as
integral to Working Better Together.
To help engage employees with CSR,
a team activity was used to create
debates around values-based decisions.
The Cadbury Schweppes CSR website1
says “while the nature of our value
chain and the new global economy
brings new issues and many challenges,
our CSR program provides the
framework to integrate our values into
everything we do.” The company felt
that every team leader should be aware
of this. In Cadbury Schweppes, there’s a
strong belief that CSR is intrinsic to the
values by which the company does
business. This is possibly why HR,
traditionally responsible for the
company’s values, made CSR a priority.
Closing the values gap
The CSR learning tool was designed to
take corporate values out of the
booklets and posters and into the hearts,
minds and actions of employees. The
prototype, originally developed in 2003,
was called “Ethical Risk,” inspired in part
by the strategy board game “Risk.” It
was developed in response to the
challenge facing CSR and learning and
development (L&D) professionals in
embedding CSR: the gap between
espoused values on one hand, and
deeply understood and enacted values
on the other.
In a typical company, most senior
managers can discuss their company’s
values and CSR principles, but are ill-
equipped to apply them in day-to-day
business decisions in their departments.
There’s a gap between the depth of CSR
understanding in a head office and, for
example, a local sales office or
manufacturing line in a far-flung country.
To address these issues, the game
moved teams into dialogue around real,
relevant business issues. Teams grappled
with dilemmas that a manager would
typically face in making decisions about
employee, product, marketing or
supplier issues, recommending a solution
from a list of options, explaining the
choice and which stakeholders they
might involve.
The dilemmas covered Cadbury
Schweppes’ core business principles and
five main pillars of CSR:
1. human rights and employment
standards;
2. ethical sourcing and procurement;
3. marketing, food and consumer issues;
4. environment, health and safety; and
5. community.
A facilitator (typically a manager with
CSR responsibilities) would explain why
certain answers scored more than others.
The top-scoring answer gave a team the
biggest increase in market-share points.
Although the game would be preceded
by some content input, this would be
brief – the bulk of the learning would
come from teams grappling with the
dilemmas and feedback from the
“expert” after each round.
Testing the concept
Cadbury Schweppes’ 50 most senior HR
managers piloted the game at its global
HR conference in early 2004. It sparked
lively engagement and healthy
differences of opinion about how CSR
should be implemented to achieve its
aims. The joint HR-CSR team recognized
Cadbury Schweppes is a major global
beverage and confectionery organization.
With a 200 year history, today Cadbury
Schweppes employs 55,000 people and
distributes to almost every country
around the world.
CADBURY SCHWEPPES
Introducing board games to the board room has helped Cadbury Schweppes educate its employees about
corporate and social responsibility, explains Mark Young, director of Future Considerations.
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