Introduction

The UN Global Compact is an historic experiment in learning and action on corporate citizenship. By promoting the idea that corporations earn their licences to operate not only by being profitable but also by improving practice in line with globally determined core principles and engaging in meaningful dialogue on human rights principles, labour standards and environmental protection, the Global Compact redefines corporate citizenship. Learning to talk productively about these important issues, the framers of the Global Compact believe, will lead not just to talking but also to ‘walking the talk’. To be successful, the listening and talking inherent in the operating principles of the Global Compact must lead to real-and responsible-actions, actions that constructively engage stakeholders in all realms of the societies within which companies operate.