Intro: This report will aim to define responsible business, in relation to the vast range of topics such as Corporate social Responsibility/Corporate Citizenship, sustainability, whilst comparing these through academia and their different meanings relating to Responsible Business. Furthermore, this report will also aim to critically analyse climate change and its effect in relation to making Business more responsible as well as the drawbacks/opportunities this holds for business. Finally, this report will exploit the relation between government and Business; identify possible barriers for businesses through government via academic views and evidential impacts on businesses and how government supports business to create a more sustainable world, through incentives such as the climate change Act 2008.
According to Dahlsrud`s model which focuses on the five identified dimensions, which were concluded from the analysis of 37 defintions relating to CSR which are namely, environmental, social, economic, stakeholder and voluntariness. The PDF article titled, “How Corporate Social Responsibility is Defined: an Analysis of 37 Definitions”, Dahlsrud concluded that “the confusion is not so much about how CSR is defined, as about how CSR is socially constructed in a specific context.” (Dahlsrud, 2006) . Thus, Dahslrud suggests CSR is based on the five dimensions in his model which must be applied and carried out by companies for a business to act responsibly and ethically in a social
The purpose of this essay is to research the notion of CSR and uncover its true framework and outline what social responsibility truly means to corporate organisations, and whether it should be seriously considered to be a legitimate addition to the corporate framework of an organisation.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism that has business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere who may also be considered stakeholders. CSR is titled to aid an organization's mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its consumers. Development business ethics is one of the forms of applied ethics that examines
Based on my interpretation of CSR, I see it as a voluntary obligation that companies have promised to their stakeholders to fulfill by improving, or at least not harm, the environmental and social wellbeing. When companies engage in CSR, they voluntarily promise to, for example, carry the responsibility to protect the environment and take actions against bribe or other corruptive activities related to their business. It certainly has some positive influences to specific areas based on my knowledge gained from other classes; nevertheless, when judge CSR in the context of total impacts on our society and environment, it is obvious that CSR has failed its mission to lessen the negative impacts of business based on the evidences that provided by the author. Also, since there is a strong positive relationship between CSR behaviors and consumers’ reactions to a firm’s products and services, it seems to me, now, that CSR for the most companies is just a fancy cover that helps them to create or promote a good image and reputation. The recent case that shows the failure of CSR of Volkswagen even make me believe that CSR programs may be just a marketing or public relation exercise for many
In this article, “The Truth About CSR,” authors Rangan, Chase and Karim stress the importance in aligning a company’s social and environmental activities with its business purpose and values (Rangan, Chase, & Karim, 2015, 41). Outcomes of CSR programs should be a “spillover” and not a primary focus of a business, expressing concern towards social responsibility and corporations failing to contribute to society accordingly (Rangan, Chase, Karim, 2015, 42). There is a great deal of importance in companies refocusing their CSR activities on a primary goal and in providing an organized process for bringing consistency and discipline to CSR strategies (42). Rangan, Chase and Karim want corporations to understand why it is important for them to evaluate their CSR activities and refocus them towards the goal of reinforcing the firm’s societal and environmental actions, while also ensuring their actions add to the overall purpose and values of the corporation. According to the authors, even though
For much of the past, most businesses have acted with little regard or concern for the negative impact they have on the environment. Many large and small organisations are guilty of significantly polluting the environment and engaging in practices that are simply not sustainable. However, there are now an increasing number of businesses that are committed to reducing their damaging impact and even working towards having a positive influence on environmental sustainability.
A business plays a heavy and critical role in the contribution to global climate change. Suzanne Goldberg (2013) reports that only 90 companies worldwide caused two-thirds of the man-made global warming emissions. Oil, coal and gas companies are the major players in the global climate change crisis of the 21st century (Goldberg 2013). Companies such as Chevron, Exxon and BP are three of the highest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. A staggering statistic from Suzanne Goldberg (2013) states that half of the total global emissions were produced in the past twenty-five years; which is a long time before governments and corporations became aware that the burning of coal and oil were causing dangerous green house gas emissions. Businesses can now choose to run their companies sustainably and this in turn, will help reduce the effects of climate change.
Climate change is an environmental and business issue that has gained more and more attention from society nowadays. The meaning of it seems to be not as easy as its name indicates which is merely a difference in climate. NASA (2011) reports, “Climate change, therefore, is a change in the typical or average weather of a region or city… Climate change is also a change in Earth 's overall climate. This could be a change in Earth 's average temperature, for example.” Therefore, climate change in our world has various effects in our life, which, for example, like extreme weather, global warming, higher sea-level and etc., do really affect our daily life and production process. Understanding what the climate change is, and why these changes
Steve Pollak says that responsible business “refers to the practice of conducting business with consideration for ethical, environmental and community goals in addition to being a good employer and attempting to make a profit” (Pollak, 2010). This essay will be discussing what is meant by the term ‘Responsible business’ and what it encompasses. Looking into drivers that affect business and consumerism, they will be explained through looking at how it has developed over time and looking at where it is now in relation to business. Considering the different acts and legislation that the government has put in place, further discussion will continue into how consumerism and government affect business. Estimations about the future of business and consumerism will be discussed in detail. For this essay a broad range of literature and websites have been used to gain relevant facts and information about this topic.
As mentioned earlier, ethical approaches toward the concept of CSR emphasize the point that the corporation has an moral responsibility toward its stakeholders. As total opposite toward the more profit oriented theories, the ethical perspectives toward the concept of CSR emphasizes the fact that the corporation should have responsibility towards its stakeholders, not with the overall aim of making profit but rather with the purpose of creating a better society. Therefore the relationship between the corporation and society should be based according to the ethical responsibility the corporations has as its overall aim.
The idea of a perfectly clear and all-encompassing definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been much deliberated and remains controversial. The research of Marrewijk (2013, p.95) elaborated on the significance of this ongoing debate among academics, consultants and corporate executives which results in creating, supporting and criticising of different concepts. This essay will illuminate CSR principles, consider different definitions and concepts and relate it to my definition. Furthermore, it supports the argument of companies’ interest in CSR only for profit maximisation.
During the workshop, I learnt how to define CSR. CSR can be defined using the CSR pyramid by Carroll in 1979. “Corporate social responsibility encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary (philanthropic) expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time” (Carroll, 1979). Those include economic responsibility, legal responsibility, ethical responsibility and philanthropic responsibility which make up the levels of analysis. Economic sustainability is the foundation of the CSR pyramid; it suggests that business require to make profit but also satisfy the needs of the customers and consumers. (Carroll A. , 1911) The second responsibility is legal responsibility; it suggests that the business should follow the law and regulation by the government (Carroll A. , 1911). The third responsibility is ethical responsibility; this suggests that businesses should not only imposed by law but what is expected from the society as a whole. For example, the oil company Shell “the decision of the government was reversed for disposing of oil platform after a campaign and disagreement by the society and public.” (Dudovskiy, 2012). The last
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept companies utilize to decide voluntarily in contributing to a better and cleaner environment. Growing concerns by leaders has realized the importance of CSR to maximize optimal profits of their firms. Companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations as well as with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. Labbai, (2007) defines CSR as a continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society.
Corporate Social Responsibility can be defined as a company’s responsibility to ensure ethical business behavior, contribution to the economic development of a country, improve the lifestyle of its own workforce and their family members, betterment of local community and overall society. It is some small amount of cost done by the company which effect can’t be seen in the present but in long term it promotes positive image for the company. Successful CSR program can take a company beyond government regulation and legislation. It is a sustainable program which a company can easily run with its other activities. It mainly defines areas of concerns and initiatives which can improve the relationship of customers, shareholders, suppliers, competitors and other stakeholders with the company.CSR helps to achieve organization’s objectives and guide a company toward what the company stands for and how it satisfy its consumers. CSR can also define in three words that are People, Planet and Profit. People represent fair labor practice and betterment of the community where it operates. Planet represent environment friendly business practice and last of all Profit refers to organization’s economic value created after deduction of all the costs from the revenue including capital costs. Now a day CSR is regarded as a tool for building brand equity through customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values. CSR is also criticized by some critics. According to their
The (Commission, 2015) defines CSR as “companies taking responsibility for their impact on society”. It adds that CSR should be initiated by companies, with public authorities playing a supporting role through policy and regulation. Companies the commission would consider as socially responsible would have to comply with the law, integrate social, environmental, ethical, consumer and human rights concerns into their business and strategy operations. This recent definition of CSR covers most if not all of the angles of the different definitions and models of CSR put forth by writers in the CSR space. However as written by many authors, this is a dynamic field that continues to evolve (Carroll and Shabana, 2010, Geva, 2008, Carroll, 1999, Lee, 2008, Pirnea et al., 2011, Waddock, 2008). According to (Spector, 2008) its roots can be traced to the pre- World War II era (early years of the cold war), but for the sake of this paper we shall not go that far back. We
It is commonsense that understanding correct the concept, definition of things is the most essential, first priority work to do to extract further. While doing the research, I found out corporate social responsibility have such a lot of definitions. Such as ‘CSR can be roughly defined as the integration of social and environmental concerns in business operations, including dealings with stakeholders’ (Lea, 2002) or ‘CSR is the degree of moral obligation that may be ascribed to