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Beers Social Responsibility

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The De Beers Group, the dominant agent in the diamond mining, industrial diamond manufacturing and diamond trading sectors, has a significant mining presence in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Africa’s recent history is characterised by the West’s inexorable exploitation of African natural resources, resulting in a continent plagued by corruption, violence and slow development. Through committing to the ‘Living up to Diamonds’ initiative, De Beers aims to create lasting contribution to the communities in which the family of companies operate in (ENP Newswire, 14 June 2011). In a continent notorious for placing profits and monetary returns over human development, the De Beers management of Botswana’s diamonds goes against the trend of …show more content…

The desire for companies to record high profits may sometimes compete with their desire to make ethically or morally sound decisions.

The concept of corporate social responsibility is similar to ethics in that it is concerned with distinguishing right from wrong, ‘social responsibility’ refers to the obligation of leaders and managers within an organisation to make decisions and take actions that enhance the welfare and interests of both society and the organisation (Samson & Daft, 2009). Organisations now face pressure to perform well on three disparate aspects – the “triple bottom line” of “people, planet, profit” – three indicators that describe corporate aims to address social concerns such as environmental pollution and natural-resource depletion, taking the needs of disadvantaged people and future generations into account, as well as companies’ productive output.

The ‘classical view’ and the ‘socio-economic view’ are two opposing perspectives related to the concept of corporate social responsibility. Proponents of the classical view believe that “managements’ only social responsibility is to maximise profits by operating the business in the best interests of the stakeholders of the corporation” (Maragos, Lecture 12), and that

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