Lockheed Martin and Merck not only rank as two of the biggest companies in the world but also two of the most global employing over 150,000 people between both in nearly half the world’s countries. Understanding the potential and risks of doing business globally, each has developed extensive corporate social responsibility programs as a way of showing that they are fulfilling their duties to be good citizens of the world.
A review of each company’s corporate social responsibly reports; however, reveal that while they may share some similarities by the fact that they are multinational corporations, their approach to social responsibility are vastly different. For Lockheed Martin, corporate social responsibility, or sustainability as they refer to it, seems to mean using their power and leverage to help the communities in which they work in, are a part of or affect. Accordingly, the focus of their sustainability program is business governance and best practices, information security, sustainable energy, climate control, and talent creation. Within each area, Lockheed Martin has substantial influence to bring about a positive outcome. For example, as one of the largest defense contractor, it: requires partners to abide by its code of professional responsibility, uses its technology to help others obtain information security, invest in sustainable energy that helps its products run, as well as facilitate a cleaner environment, and it can pressure schools and colleges to focus of areas important to its work as well as the world at large, such as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). It is important to note, that perhaps because one of their main products lines are weapons, and the corruption and bribery that are often a part of that business, Lockheed Martin programs especially focuses on ethics.
Merck, on the other hand, seem to view its role in corporate responsibility as actively solving problems it has the power and expertise to do. Consequently, its corporate responsibility program focuses on increasing access to health, improving environmental sustainability, ensuring that its employees are healthy and enjoy a positive workplace environment, and advance ethics, human rights and transparency wherever they work. As with Lockheed Martin, Merck’s programs are powered by its authority in the industry that it works in. Accordingly, it donates drugs to underserved communities, it works with healthcare providers to fight HIV in Africa and China, it demands that its suppliers use sustainable operating procedures, it requires its labs and offices to put employee wellness first and it demands that its employees comply with all relevant ethical regulations. Perhaps because Merck is a pharmaceutical company, its programs seem to emphasis those areas that a related to wellness including healthcare, work-life balance, human right in terms of labor rights, and the environment.
It seems that each company’s corporate responsibility programs are intimately ties to their specific industries as well as the locations in which they operate. For example, one of Lockheed Martin’s strengths is its information security products; it makes sense that they would also use that know-how to help others solve their security issues. Merck operates in many Third World countries, so it makes sense that they want to do what they can to at least have their workers enjoy a First World work environment.
The reports provide evidence of a number of areas where both have gone beyond their legal responsibilities to create shared values. In the case of Merck, this is illustrated in programs to reduce or eradicate illness such as diabetes, HIV, asthma and mothers who die in childbirth. This not only creates shared values but also helps Merck’s perception as a socially responsible company that is attacking issues of life and death for many of the employees in the communities and countries they work in. For Lockheed Martin, this is illustrated in its efforts to provide funding for local, national, and international organization dedicated to science and technology. Like Merck, this helps Lockheed Martin’s perception as a company that is working to help develop essential and marketable skills of the youth in the countries they operate in.
References
Lockheed Martin (2015). The science of citizenship: 2014 sustainability report. Retrieved from http://static.globalreporting.org/report-pdfs/2015/ebfa2735dcd51d7a811c8efca91134e7.pdf
Merck (2014). Corporate responsibility - 2013 report. Retrieved from http://www.merckresponsibility.com
