TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose Public sector absorbs a sizeable part of each country’s GDP. Therefore, public organisations are not performing very well at the economic level of responsibility. Consequently, we argue that in order to build better and more responsible public organisations we need to improve their economic responsibility. This chapter presents a prospective action of social media for business to intervene in public administration reform. We envision a possible course of action that may introduce CSR in the public sector thanks to social media collective action.Methodology/approach The framework of this study will make a reference to the theory of socio-technological media de Kerckhove and Pierre Lévy, and on a survey of the literature of citizen activism through social media to answer the question: new media, new message?It is a new perspective action of social media for business-government relations. We identify a possible theory that leverages the ‘koinè’ of multinational brands to address government effectiveness. The names of multinational companies are the same all over the world, like the ‘Koine’ Greek, and are now a common element in all languages of the world. Citizens and consumers pay a great deal of attention to brands. Multinationals spend millions of dollars every year in public relations (PR) and marketing precisely in order to manage their reputations and images and respond to the requests that consumers have of big corporations. The greatest threat to the reputation of a company or a multinational brand comes, in fact, via the Internet, which has become the most powerful weapon in the hands of interest groups. The object of this research is to explore whether stakeholders can join forces with corporations and use global media to monitor governments in the same way.Findings The citizens of governments and the customers of global corporations – in different countries in the world – seem to be isolated islands: all endure their own battle without the possibility of drawing attention from other parts of the world through social media.The citizens can exercise pressure on the governments and public administrations the same way as what happens against the brands. It behoves us to ensure responsible behaviour from all. We propose an extension of the use of social media to monitor behaviour of governments as effectively as they are used to monitor behaviour of the corporations.Research limitations/implications The stakeholder approach to CSR action and reporting implies that the relevant stakeholders of the organisation be listened to, and this listening be accounted for in the CSR report. These groups are also called the ‘publics’ of the organisation. We contend that the stakeholder approach might be misused and end up in collusion with sections of the publics involved.The stakeholder approach leads an organisation to try to engage with the wrong counterparts. This is an over-rating of stakeholders.Therefore, everything that is not taken into account under the headline of the stakeholder approach we call ‘stewardship for the unknown stakeholder’. The theoretical bases of this value reside in the vast literature on non-maximising, non-efficient, non-effective behaviour by firms and by the employees especially.Thus, the first task in drawing up a CSR or sustainability report is to identify the possible unknown stakeholders; that is, those who do have a stake but don’t know they do; those who have a stake too small to care about but who are numerous.Practical implications If we complain about Apple, many in the world will join in; if we complain about the companies that manage the ‘garis’ (as the Portuguese call a garbage collector of Rio de Janeiro) nobody outside Brazil thinks it matters. But in fact, this is not true!To paraphrase Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina, ‘Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. Each local public administration will have its own problems, but all in the same way contribute to the well-being or mismanagement of a territory and its citizens. All, to some extent, ill-treated the citizens through their ineffectively.The CSR should be for everyone and a global movement of citizens asking for responsible governments around the world could be the solution for the well-being of the individual peoples. Let the people’s rights emerge vis-à-vis perceived needs and outrage about the ineffectiveness of public administration that too often lose the name of action.In summary, the proposal is the extension of the use of social media to monitor behaviour of governments as effectively as they are used to monitor behaviour of the corporations.Originality/value We propose a covenant between consumers/taxpayers in order to extend the CSR to governments and public administration. The citizens can exercise pressure on the governments and public administrations the same way as what happens against the brands. It behoves us to ensure responsible behaviour from all. We propose an extension of the use of social media to monitor behaviour of governments as effectively as they are used to monitor behaviour of the corporations, with the help of the same corporations.Companies would join consumers for two main reasons: because there are clear signs that their company’s reputation is being harmed by the conflict, and because their market performance dips, coinciding with pressure from stakeholders. Our proposal goes beyond this and proposes the concept of a novel social figure: the unknown stakeholder.
VL  - 7
SN  - 978-1-78441-582-2, 978-1-78441-581-5/2043-0523
DO  - 10.1108/S2043-052320150000007004
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S2043-052320150000007004
AU  - Di Bitetto Massimiliano
AU  - Pettineo Salvatore
AU  - D’Anselmi Paolo
PY  - 2015
Y1  - 2015/01/01
TI  - Dear Brands of the World: CSR and the Social Media
T2  - Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age
T3  - Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 39
EP  - 61
Y2  - 2024/04/20
ER  -