Introduction and the TRIGOS Rating
A recent study published by Ernst and Young (2011) stated that 80% of top companies in Austria do not report their performance in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility. Reports that are published are not well integrated in the annual financial statements and are often not verified by external auditors. However, more and more companies adopt standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and become more and more aware of the importance of these issues.
In identifying businesses that embrace a CSR concept, the TRIGOS award for companies with good CSR offers a well known and reliable source of information. Although Porter and Kramer (2006) criticize Ratings for having widely differing rankings and
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The reason for the unavailability of explicit statements might be the rather small size of the business or the fact that this is not required by law in Austria. Credibility for CSR activities is achieved by having products assessed by various agencies such as FAIRTRADE and the Swiss Institute for Market Ecology (IMO). (Whole Trading Company, 2012) In addition to these core principles, the company is also supporting local initiatives in supplying countries (detailed information can be found on the company‟s webpage, but will not be laid out in detail here). Finally, on the one hand, it seems that the company is performing well in doing business in a socially responsible way, but on the other hand, the business lacks an open disclosure of documents as well as more explicit statements about their activities. Moreover, there is a high degree of subjectivity applied within the company, since decisions about CSR activities are taken by the founder only. Applying the work of Porter and Kramer (2006), it can be said that the company achieves a competitive advantage through strategic CSR despite its shortcomings and areas for improvement in terms of disclosure and external evaluation.
Responsive Corporate Social Responsibility and the Case of OMV
Another Austrian company follows a more responsive approach to CSR. OMV, operating in
Marks and Spencer is also active in this community through the building of a trade network with the community - guaranteeing regular fair-trade purchases. Often alternative approaches to this are the establishment of education facilities for adults, as well as HIV/AIDS education programmers. The majority of these CSR projects are established in Africa. A more common approach of CSR is through the giving of aid to local organizations and impoverished communities in developing countries. Some organizations do not like this approach as it does not help build on the skills of the local people, whereas community-based development generally leads to more sustainable development. Some nations require CSR reporting, though agreement on meaningful measurements of social and environmental performance is difficult. Many companies now produce externally audited annual reports that cover Sustainable Development and CSR issues, but the reports vary widely in format, style, and evaluation methodology. Critics dismiss these reports as lip service, citing examples such as Enron 's yearly "Corporate Responsibility Annual Report" and tobacco corporations ' social reports.
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.
Rangan, K., Chase, L., & Karim, S. (2015, January 1). The Truth About CSR. Harvard Business Review, 40-49.
Current approaches to CSR are fragmented and/or disconnected from business goals. Many firms still consider CSR as another generic public relations problem in which media campaigns and CSR reports are used to paint the company as a positive ethical, social and or environmental advocator and supporter. For example, the annual reports discuss a firm’s sensitivities to CSR issues, but completely lack the entire story and offer no further forward commitments from the firm. Further, the ratings and rankings measurements are self-appointed by the firm, not always accurate to validate the work and direct impact to what they are measuring, and the criteria base varies widely and weighed differently in the final scoring. Worst of all the data lacks impartial auditors for validating the data to ensure the ratings have been accurately met, and data is statistically significant and a good proxy for what it is supposed to reflect. This has resulted in reactive initiatives designed to appease vocal
On the other hand companies are pressured from governments ,competitors, and employees to address the environmental, social, and issues such as climate change, obesity and human rights (Bonini, Timothy & Mirvis, 2009).
Company X is a plastic injection molding manufacturer located in Highland, Michigan. The company had started in 2005 and survived the hard economic times. Company X started out by first doing applique and added 6 months ago injection molding. There are two owners, and there are less than 75 employees. Every company small or large should take social responsibility.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) is a term describing a company’s obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholder in all its operation and activities. Socially responsible companies consider the full scope of their impact on communities and the environment when making decisions, balancing the needs of stakeholder with their need to make profit.
Corporate responsibility is a form of self-regulatory mechanism given that organizations are required to comply with the ethical standards or the so-called international norms voluntarily. In this respect, companies are expected to monitor their day-to-day operations in addition to engaging in actions that go beyond the interest of the organization. In particular, companies operating with a CSR perspective often witness a positive impact on their financial outcomes as revealed from the case study of Axel Springer. Therefore, this analysis highlights the firm’s sense of responsibility through its waste reduction processes as well as its drive towards promoting social programs in support of the same course. Apart from analyzing
* Organizational Culture is the behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people attach to their actions. Culture includes the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling. Organizational culture affects the way people and groups
The recent fifteen years saw a dramatic increase of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. There were more than 3300 CSR reports in 2008 while the number of 2002 was less than 100. More and more companies especially some multinational corporations among the world are keen to proving the sustainability, in order to improve their corporate image and credibility (Adams, 2002). This essay will explain why there are an increasing number of companies are willing to make CSR report annually, and discuss whether reporting on social and environmental activities is equal to good social and environmental performance in reality.
Its not a secret that the fish population is in dramatic decline for the last 10 years. So as an international company Lidl really cares about following the international policies regarding ethic method of fishing, illigal fisheries, dolphin-friendly tuna. It also ensure that all the fish they offer to the customer, is caught under socially acceptable conditions.
Competition is becoming more and more fierce while the market is becoming globalization. With higher consumer sovereignty, customers are no longer satisfied with qualify products and good services. The society concerned more about the business ethic and environmental issues. Companies are expected to act virtuously nowadays. The ideas of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship are spreading faster than ever before and become one of the hottest business models in the recent decades.
During the 1970s, the Business world became aware of damages engendered by the human activity, in particular environmental damages. For this reason appeared the notion of « sustainable development » in the Brundland report (1987). This notion can be defined as the mean to assure the development of the current generation without compromising the development of future generations. The Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) are in a sense the contribution of companies to respect the stakes of the sustainable development. According to Carroll (1983), “corporate social responsibility involves the conduct of a business so that it is economically profitable, law abiding, ethical and socially supportive”. The Corporate Social Responsibilities of companies is a sort of self-regulation based on social, environmental and economic concerns. This match the “triple bottom line” theory: “People, Planet, Profit”. Over the years, Corporate Social Responsibility expanded and became very important in the Business organisation and a large number of companies take part in CSR initiatives. In 2004, approximately 90% of the 500 best performing companies according to Fortune magazine had invested in CSR efforts.
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
According to this theory, stakeholder management, or corporate social responsibility, is not an end in itself but is simply seen as a means for improving economic performance.