Corporate Digital Responsability Report 2022

Corporate Digital Responsibility Report 2022

Corporate Digital Responsibility Report 2022

Commonly Asked Questions

Howis thisdifferent fromCSR (corporatesocial responsibility)?

Howdo I getmyorganizationonboardwhenthere is nosenseof urgency? The reality is that theexternal landscape ischanging due to legislation andchangingcustomer needs. Helpingyour organization anticipate these rapid changes isoneway toget peopleonboard.While product ownersembraced theprinciplesof ethical AI, the topicalsogeneratedmuchdiscussion about its perceivedburdenon thebusiness in termsof resources andprocesses. “Wefirst encouraged themtouse the ethical AI principles as a kindofmental heuristic that helps themwith theirwork. Andnowwith theEUAI Act coming, there iswidespreadacknowledgement that the impending legislation is nothing toworry about aswe havealready implementedmost of the requirements,” explainsMaikeScholz , Senior Expert, Group Compliance-Business Ethics at DeutscheTelekom. Whatmakes for agoodCDRleader? As in anychangemanagement initiative, effective digital leaders are thoseable tobalance tensions between theexistingandemergingwaysofdoing things. Digital roles areusuallycross-functional and multi-competency bydesign. Implementation,whether it is adigital initiativeordigital responsibility initiative, requiresend-to-endcoordination andcollaboration. Given thatmanyof theorganizationswespoke to hadnot set upadistinct unit, or function, fordigital responsibility, enablementwas a keycompetency stressedbymany interviewees. “AgoodCDRmanager isonewhoworks in an integrativeway. They facilitateand support the process for others,without being inchargeof thedecision,”explainsWeleda’s JakobWoessner, Manager of Organizational Development andDigital Transformation.Woessner is not part ofWeleda’sCDR council butorganizes theworkingsof thecouncil so that it can fulfill its function. “I [have] a neutral rolewithout any voting rights so I canensure that all perspectives arebrought to the table. I think this isone factor in its success,”heexplains.

Isahigh levelofdigitalmaturity requiredtostart? Manyorganizationswespoke todidnot havesignificant digital or AI-relateddevelopments inplacebefore starting theirdigital responsibility journey. This indicates that theexistingdigitalmaturityof anorganization is not a keydeterminant for startingyour journey. What ismore important is an awarenessof thepotential risks andopportunities arounddigital responsibility. For DieMobiliar, the futureof thebusiness and sustaining long-termtrustwithcustomerswas top- of-mind. “Havingcooperative roots, our organization thinks about the long-term,”explainsKatrinLange, CorporateForesightManager. “Wehaveearneda solid reputation amongst our customerswhoentrust their datawithus as an insurancecompany.We recognized that ifwespoiled that reputationbydoing something untrustworthywithdataor AI,wemay block all future opportunities,whatever theymay be.” ShouldwesetupupaCDRdepartment/employa CDRofficer? Not necessarily.Manyorganizationschoosea hybrid model consistingof a small central teamof experts that guides and supportsmanagerswithinbusiness lines to operationalizedigital responsibility. Thebenefits include distributingaccountability and raisingawareness ofdigital ethics throughout theorganization, in a guidedmanner. Thereareexamplesof organizationswith adedicated CDR function (e.g., DeutscheTelekom) but others have not followed this approach. For example, SwissRe does not haveaCDRoffice, butwhenever there is a new initiativewith adigital angle, the initiativeowner is responsible for ensuring that it is alignedwith its coreprinciples.

Doregulationsexist relatedtodigital responsibility? Thereareseveral efforts underway around theworld toenforcedifferent aspectsof topics related todigital responsibility. Todate,manyof thesehaveconcentrated on the issuesofdataprivacy andprotection. For example, roughly 71%of countries havepassed legislation focusedondataprotection andprivacy xii . Nowthere is interest in topics related to regulating artificial intelligence (e.g., EUAI Act) andenforcingnew rules related tocybersecurity.

CDRandCSRarebothvoluntary and self-governed approaches to responsiblebusiness practices and share acorporatecitizenshipethos. They both alsomaintain that implementing thesevoluntary practiceswill provideabusiness advantage for firms (Mihale-Wilson et al., 2022). Despite thesesimilarities, there is an argument for CDR tobeconceptuallydistinct fromCSR. Thosewhoargue for a separationpoint toCDR’sexplicit focuson thecreation anduseofdigital technologies anddata, andhowthecharacteristicsofdigital technologies (malleable, open, andpervasive) generate uniqueethical issues. Others argue that theCSR concept is toobroad todo justice to the importanceand complexitiesofdigital technologies that can reshape andextend traditional corporate responsibilities unprecedently. Finally, somescholars argue that CDR shouldbedistinct toavoid failing in thesameway that CSR failed tobeaneffectivemechanism in the realmof environmental andclimateprotection (Merwe&Achkar, 2022). Whatdoes“digital responsibility”mean? There is nosingledefinitionofwhat being responsible means toall organizations, andnot all organizations have thesameset of values. But therearesome best practices fromwhichorganizationscandraw from. For instance,Weleda identified 15CDR-related principles under the themesof goodhandlingofdata andalgorithms, human-centereddigitalwork, and thepositive impact on theenvironment and society. MerckdevelopedaCodeof Digital Ethics that includes 20principles applicable to itsmainbusiness lines. Thevaluesof justice, autonomy, beneficence, non- maleficence, and transparencywere identifiedas the firm’scoreprinciples,withfifteen subsidiary values fallingunder thesefivecorevalues.

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