| Abstract | The American chemical industry is sponsoring over 300 community advisory panels (CAPs) at plants across the country to repair lost trust and credibility. CAPs are an innovation in community?corporate relations and are increasingly being adopted by other industrial sectors. This paper reports on a national survey of CAP community members and the company representatives that collaborate with them. The survey suggests that CAPs alert companies to community concerns and promote trust between members and sponsoring companies. CAPs are less effective in stimulating changes in environmental performance and, like many citizen advisory groups, have difficulties serving as systematic links back to the community. While business and industry organizations are well represented on CAPs, environmental and community organizations are not and neither are medical or other health or safety professionals. Significantly, these latter groups are most likely to feel that one of a CAP's main functions is to influence a plant's health, safety, and environmental performance. A CAP is perceived to be more effective by members when it has a significant commitment by the plant manager, a professional facilitator, and a diverse membership. A majority of community members, but not of company representatives, feel that access to independent technical experts and members with technical background contribute to a CAP's effectiveness. While new to corporations, CAPs raise many of the same issues as governmental citizen advisory committees, including representativeness, intentions of the institution being advised, and availability of independent technical expertise so that participation is fair and competent.
The American chemical industry is sponsoring over 300 community advisory panels (CAPs) at plants across the country to repair lost trust and credibility. CAPs are an innovation in community?corporate relations and are increasingly being adopted by other industrial sectors. This paper reports on a national survey of CAP community members and the company representatives that collaborate with them. The survey suggests that CAPs alert companies to community concerns and promote trust between members and sponsoring companies. CAPs are less effective in stimulating changes in environmental performance and, like many citizen advisory groups, have difficulties serving as systematic links back to the community. While business and industry organizations are well represented on CAPs, environmental and community organizations are not and neither are medical or other health or safety professionals. Significantly, these latter groups are most likely to feel that one of a CAP's main functions is to influence a plant's health, safety, and environmental performance. A CAP is perceived to be more effective by members when it has a significant commitment by the plant manager, a professional facilitator, and a diverse membership. A majority of community members, but not of company representatives, feel that access to independent technical experts and members with technical background contribute to a CAP's effectiveness. While new to corporations, CAPs raise many of the same issues as governmental citizen advisory committees, including representativeness, intentions of the institution being advised, and availability of independent technical expertise so that participation is fair and competent. |
