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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a hot topic. In the opinion of Total Identity, CSR is not the opportunistic, marketing driven, seemingly socially committed communication, but a truly company wide and company deep rooted belief that all decisions need to be influenced by ethics en responsibility. The awareness of CSR gives companies a new perspective on questions about long-term, responsible management of resources and an open, honest, transparant communication about those issues. CSR applies to all aspects and all levels of an organization and will have impact on identity and communication.

Actually, the rhetoric in management thinking follows a significant change. If in the last decade the predominant paradigm was creating shareholder value, today the ethical discussion is at the heart of nearly every conference and journal. The claim of CSR that corporations have to fulfill a social function that is not only limited to provide for final goods and service, makes clear that the enormous influence of international corporation should be transferred also to political issues. In this context, the development of CSR should be followed by a critical discussion not only in academics, but also in management consulting.

During the last international network meeting of Total Identity senior management decided to introduce CSR in the research agenda. Finally, there is an interesting linkage between identity management and CSR. “According to our preliminary analysis” Manuel Demetz stated, “identity management can provide for valuable codes that fulfill an important role in creating life-patterns in society”. Out from this perspective, the corporation can be interpreted as a producer of valuable ‘codes’ that are communicated to the market.

The Total Identity Network consists of the three offices in The Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague, Landgraaf) and partners in Bremen (Germany), Antwerp (Belgium), Bolzano (Italy), Dubai (UAE), Taipei (Taiwan) and Seoul (South Korea). Currently, expansion is discussed with candidate partners in Lisbon (Portugal), Zürich (Switzerland) and Cape Town (South Africa).

For more information about the Total Identity Network go to www.totalidentitynetwork.com