Four Types of Social Licence to Operate

This chapter advances a new conceptual framework for SLO, arguing that there are four distinct approaches that companies may adopt with respect to community concerns about operations – and that these give rise to four distinct types of SLO. An Authentic SLO is achieved when the organisation genuinely intends to meet and exceed existing standards and social expectations. The Tick-Box SLO emerges when an organisation wants only to go through the motions of seeking community acceptance, performing the minimum required tasks. The Default SLO occurs when the organisation relies on a pre-existing presumptive acceptance and aims to avoid all public attention. The Deceptive SLO arises when the organisation approaches community concerns as a public relations and branding exercise and employs manipulative and misleading ethics-washing and greenwashing. While all four approaches can successfully lead to community acceptance (and therefore SLO), the four types of resulting SLO differ markedly in terms of ethical, legal, and operational risk.