Corporate Social Responsibility Is A Hard Edged Business Decision

In (Cohen, 2008), the author quotes (Drucker, 1946) in noting that “Every organization must assume full responsibility for its impact on its employees, the environment, customers, and whomever and whatever it touches”. According to (Cohen, 2008; Drucker, 1946), that is the very definition of social responsibility. There are many ambiguities surrounding the concept of social responsibility; everything from definition to terminology, even what actions constitute responsible behavior is unsettled (Vogel, 2005). For purposes of this paper we will use the term corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that affects all companies and should be an active factor in the company’s decision making. It is something all corporations need to care about. CSR is when business’ or corporations take part in an initiative or campaign for a cause that will benefit society and/or in some way make the world a better place (Taylor, 2015). Initially, Corporate Social Responsibility started to take shape around the 1950’s, but some say that it dates all the way back to the 1800s, the idea of CSR was seen (Carroll, 2007). One may think that because it is dated so long ago, it doesn’t have an important impact today nevertheless, it is proven that Corporate Social Responsibility is a pathway for entities to self benefit as they are in the process of benefitting society.

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

Even though customers are a major key to success of any business, limiting CSR practices to an external group of stakeholder is insufficient. From the customers’ side, the focus is “on the corporate brand and its societal relationships with external constituencies.” (Lacey, Hensel 316). It is undeniable that implementation of CSR can attract the customers and lead them to be a significant are source of a financial gain. That is because CSR changes the way consumers behave in the market and alter their beliefs toward the company standards.” (Lacey, Hensel 316). Nevertheless, extensive focus on the social gains may cause the business to suffer financially. If that happened, the case is considered to be a failure of executing CSR. Again, this is a result of shifting all the business gears to benefit a sole group the stakeholders.

“Economic, social, ethical and environmental responsibilities, some of which require compliance with the law others requiring discretionary action to ensure that the company does not knowingly operate to the detriment of society” – McIntosh et al, 1998, Pg. 284

Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) is often described as the measures taken by companies to manage environmental, social and economic impacts of their business activities. Since the globalisation of economic and labour markets, CSR has become an argumentative topic. For companies to be considered as good in terms of CSR, they are required to go above and beyond of their legal requirements and take into consideration what is in the best interests of its stakeholders.

CSR is the obligations of the business to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society. According to (Carroll and Shabana, 2010), CSR has also become one of the most orthodox and widely accepted concepts in the business world during recent years. According to (Sweeney and Coughlan 2008) and (Maignan and Ralston 2002; Wanderley et al. 2008), Organizations increasingly use CSR activities to position their corporate brand in the eyes of consumers and other stakeholders, such as through their annual reporting . communicating about social activities does not always benefit the communicating organization, notably because CSR communication may trigger stakeholders' scepticism and cynicism (Mohr et al. 2001; Schlegelmilch and Pollach 2005).Many organizations engage in CSR because they believe that it is in the organization’s best

Social responsibility is an idea that has been of concern to mankind for many years. Over the last two decades, however, it has become of increasing concern to the business world. This has resulted in growing interaction between governments, businesses and society as a whole. In the past, businesses primarily concerned themselves with the economic results of their decisions. “Today, however, businesses must also reflect on the legal, ethical, moral and social consequences of their decisions” (Anderson 15). This paper will discuss the concept of corporate social responsibility. It will give the definition of the phrase, and identify some of the global factors that necessitate corporate social responsibility. It will discuss the importance of corporations setting up corporate social responsibility projects, and the impact these have on society. Social corporate responsibility and the maintenance of high ethical standards is not an option but an obligation for all business.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the pledge a business makes where it promises to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of workforce and their family as well as the local community (Pride, Hughes, Kapoor 42). This practice helps to form or improve the positive image of the company. Businesses that follow the socially responsible model consider the impact of the company’s actions on society. This also includes promoting and supporting local, national and global causes, which is a part of CSR called corporate philanthropy, where businesses donate some of their profits or resources to charities (Taylor). Companies that show social responsibility this way must be devoted to doing so on a regular basis, because if don’t follow through with it, your organization may be viewed by the public as dishonest. Many critics of CSR believe that this model reduces the main goal of business, restricts the free market goal of maximizing profit, and also limits the ability to compete in a global marketplace (Pride, Hughes, Kapoor 47). Though critics may believe they are right, CSR gives companies a chance to address social issues caused by business’ and other factors and allows them to be a part

As a result, CSR has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country. Many companies have already done much to improve the social and environmental consequences of their activities, yet these efforts have not been nearly as productive as they could be—for two reasons. First, they pit business against society, when clearly the two are interdependent. Second, they pressure companies to think of corporate social responsibility in generic ways instead of in the way most appropriate to each firm’s strategy. The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so fragmented and so disconnected from business and strategy as to obscure many of the greatest opportunities for companies to benefit

Archie Carroll defines corporate social responsibility (CSR) as “the social responsibility of business encompassing the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of these organizations at a given point in time.” (Crane, 5) Interesting enough, there has been an abrupt growth of firm’s engagement in CSR within all industries. This is the result of growing requests from the civil society demanding firms, of all sizes, to legitimize their practices. (Crane, 4)

In this essay, I am going to prove that a business organization should be socially responsible in a successful or an effective manner which will eventually benefit the company’s owners or shareholders. I will do so through illustrating the different potential effects of a business organization engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”). The effects that will be shown in this essay would be an increase and decrease in the company’s expenses, sustaining and harming the environment, increase and decrease in sales and customers, improve the lives of people inside and outside the company, and the practice of social irresponsibility. I will also be providing actual companies engage in CSR, and its effects on each company. I

The theory is if they are in good standings, it can benefit them in many ways. One way is that consumers are more willing to purchase from a company after information of their CSR is out and can see that it is an ethical company (Mcguire, Sundgren, Schneeweis, 1988). Low social responsibility, on the other hand, may encourage some stakeholders to doubt the ability of a firm to honor implicit claims and may increase the number of a firm’s more costly explicit claims. Moreover, Bowman and Haire suggest that stakeholders and stock and bondholders see CSR as correlating to management skill. The theory is that reputation is an investment and through positive CSR, financial performance will increase accordingly. However, there have been various arguments regarding the relationship between a firm’s social responsibility and its performance outcome (Sankar, 2001).

The importance of corporate social responsibility to companies has been widely debated. Companies eager for maximizing the profit with limited cost. Facing the complexity economic environment and growing competition, as well as the short-term performance pressures from shareholders, companies have no idea but force to restructure the business, reduce the labor force and relocate the business to lower-cost regions. However, are they really helpful to maintain the competitive advantages and gain the sustainable profit? Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, in their January/ February 2011 Harvard Business Review article - Creating Shared Value (CSV) explains what a growing companies have come to recognize - companies can derive a

But, there are some evidences to counter argue to this premises. We argue that firms often engage in CSR “precisely because it enhances shareholder value” and, more specifically, that some CSR activities “create goodwill among consumers in excess of their price tag. Margolis and Walsh (2001) reviewed the studies that investigated the relationship between CSR and the corporate financial performance in past 30 years. They found that more than 50% of the studies shown that CSR performance of the company is positively related with the corporate financial performance.