Corporate Social Responsibility : Sony Corporation

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).

Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.

When an organization partakes in “proactive behavior…for the benefit of society,” it is deemed as socially responsible (P. 155). However, prior to labeling a organization as socially responsible, it is important that we first identify what specific elements of proactive behavior constitute a socially responsible business. To begin, for an organization to be considered socially responsible on the highest level, it must take a proactive approach to doing business. This is defined as “[taking a] approach to social responsibility in which an organization goes beyond industry norms to solve and prevent problems” (P.155). In addition, it is standard for a socially responsible organization to incorporate a larger scope of stakeholders, to include external stakeholders, in their business decisions to create positive externalities, and mitigate negative ones, to benefit society as a whole.

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.

Social responsibility is important in a company’s operations with companies being expected to be responsible to the society in their operations. However, the culture at

Corporate social responsibility can simply be identified as a duty, which is not a legal obligation lately, under very much consideration by every multinationals, as well as the growing firm. The ongoing concern is meant to increase the awareness between the business Individuals, to implement and draw line which should clearly indicates that what social obligation an organization has towards the society.(Caroll,1970) (Caroll, Archie, B.(1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility is towards the moral management of organization stakeholder.

I certify that the report entitled “A report on Corporate Social Responsibility of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)” submitted as a term paper of the course Introduction of Business is the result of my own research, except where otherwise acknowledged and this project report in whole or in part has not been submitted for an award including a higher degree, to any other

Sony Corporation was founded on the 7th of May 1946 in Tokyo, Japan as a joint stock company under Japanese law. To start it, the founders incurred a cost of 190,000 yen. The co-founder of Sony Corporation in May 1946 was Masaru Ibuka. The other co-founder who founded the Sony Corporation in America iin160 was called Akio Morita.

and corporate social responsibility (CSR)”. Business need to transform for sustainable development. “CSR” is not only an empty talk which is also become the determinate factor of a company. “Jacoson and Nelson(2004) take more of a how-to approach, offering a principle-based framework for mastering what they called ‘new rules of the game’.” (Alessia, 2009) CSR of business began to wake. “There is growing sense that looking after the people and the community as well as the environment are all relevant to long-term business survival.” (Alessia, 2009) As the CSR become a esthetic standard and sustainability standard for a business, companies focus more on triple bottom line-people, profit and planet-also could definite as environmental, societal and business arenas. CSR is a start to lead business to sustainability. It is more likely a principle to measure companies’ ethics and sustainability. Berkhout indentified some challenges for companies under the CSR principle. “How to balance its social and environmental responsibility with its economic responsibility to

With the recent corporate scandals involving such companies as Enron and Martha Stewart, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has once again made its way to the forefront of contemporary management ideologies. However, CSR itself is not a new concept. In fact, societies as far back as the Ancient Mesopotamians (circa 1700 BC) incorporated CSR in their businesses. "King Hammurabi introduced a code in which builders, innkeepers or farmers were put to death if their negligence caused the deaths of others, or major inconvenience to local citizens." With each new "Enron" managers of similar corporations are suddenly placed in the spotlight, causing plans to be put into action to create a more socially responsible company.

In the modern society, business entities are obliged by norms and ethics to be socially responsible while working towards increasing their positive societal effects and productivity whilst decreasing any negative implications onto the society and environment. In light of such a demand, many corporates seek for opportunities to prove their social responsibility worth besides creating wealth for its stakeholders. Any business that violates, in anyway, its social responsibility to the society, in addition to imparting detrimental effects to the society, dismantles its customer loyalty and hence bound to succumb to related consequences at later

Sony Corporation is a Japanese electronic manufacturing company. Sony is such a famous and historical brand in the world. After the World War II, year 1946, Sony has been founded by a Japanese gentleman named Mr. Ibuka. Under the Sony, there are various types of products such as LCD televisions, Digital imaging, home video and audio, mobile phones, accessories and others. Sony is the most successful company in the achievement of CSR awards which means that the company not only focus on earn money but also taking care to our society (CSR/Environment 2015). The purpose of this essay will examine two aspects of the company’s performance with regards to fulfill society’s expectations on how the company operates their businesses. Two aspects which will be focused on are the environmental and employment performance. I will discuss two cases with respect to environmental and employment performance. Firstly, it is the cases about the emissions of greenhouse gas caused global warming, the resources has been used up that cannot be recycled and the industrial waste while for the employment performance, first case is about the discrimination between the employees at the Sony’s work place.

Cohen, 2009 wrote in his article that Drucker defined social responsibility as the full responsibility of every organization to assume its impact on employees, the environment, customers, and whoever and whatever it touches. In essence, business organizations should care about the internal and external societal ecosystems where it exists. Other researchers such as (Halme, Roome, & Dobers, (2009)) consider Corporate Responsibility as activities implemented by a company that contributes to a better society including its environmental conditions. However, for the purpose of this paper, social responsibility, as defined by Drucker is adopted.

According to Min-Young and Fairhurst (2009), corporate social responsibility is becoming a typical issue as several organizations attempt to incorporate social and environmental issues into the day- to- day operations of their businesses. However, an organization being socially responsible is not considered fad or a discretionary addition. Instead, one might argue that an organization’s interest in being socially responsible is what is described as a “reflective of a deeper change in the relationship” (Min-Young & Fairhurst, 2009, p. 140) between an organization and its stakeholders. Furthermore, Min-Young and Fairhurst (2009) stated that a critical perspective of corporate social responsibility appears to be the responsibility to work for the betterment of society. Thus, a socially responsible organization might be seen as an organization simply being a “good corporate citizen” (Min-Young & Fairhurst, 2009, p. 141). Theorists such as Wood believed that the fundamental idea of corporate social responsibility is that an organization and society are interconnected rather than “distinct entities” (Min-Young & Fairhurst, 2009, p. 142). As a result, society might have an expectation for desirable actions and outcomes from today’s organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how a large progressive company operates in the corporate world as well as fulfills their corporate responsibility on a social level. While corporate responsibility is important, it is always viewed through the fiscal viability dimension of the maelstrom. The business case dominates the representation and operationalization of corporate responsibility. Due to the increased public sensitivity to corporate responsibility, the attitude has evolved from the unnecessary intrusion, through proactive operation focus, to compliance based; one residing within shareholder relations and legal. In this paper, I will continue to answer the question how a corporation respects the interests of its stakeholders and reflects those interests in its actions and accountability, as well as a summarization of their development towards corporate and social responsibility.