Corporate Social Responsibility
Executive Summary
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gain a considerable amount of attention in recent years. Much of this has been driven by the public's expectations of their products to be produced under ethical business models. With the aid of technology consumers are becoming more aware of the operations that are responsible for the products they buy. Therefore the pressure for maintaining a CSR program has come from multiple sources. This paper will provide a brief introduction to the history of CSR's development as well as of the current issues that are being developed in the field.
Growth of Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporations are becoming the target of the attention of individuals and groups across the world in regards to how they perform on social, environmental, and financial metrics. The growth of the interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been fueled by many unethical acts generated in the corporate world that have gained significant amounts of media coverage in the last decade. These transgressions have done much to illuminate some of the darker aspects of many larger companies. Not only have these unethical acts been exemplified frequently, but the effects that these acts have on the overall economy are becoming more well-known such as the sub-prime mortgage scandals that were partly responsible for the global recession. Technology has increased the amount of information that is
Corporations are encouraged to conduct their activities in an ethically responsible manner, however neither the corporate world nor academia has produced a single – all encompassing definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The basic problem is that there are too many self-serving definitions that often lean toward the specific interests of the entities involved (Van Marrewijk, 2003). There has even been a quantitative study conducted on the many definitions of the term (Dahlsrud, 2006).
Businesses, specifically larger corporations, play a major role in what occurs in society therefore, they are responsible to their stakeholders not only to pursue economic goals but the greater social good as well. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means that a corporation should act in a way that enhances society and its inhabitants and be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment. (Lawrence, 2010). Social responsibility is becoming the norm so much so that some businesses have incorporated it into their business model. There are three components of the bottom line of 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
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.
Examine Apple’s current position on the company’s ethical and social responsibilities, and determine whether or not the company has met these responsibilities. Provide two (2) examples that support your position.
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.
In today’s business world businesses face the challenge of doing the right thing over doing the profitable thing more than ever before. For many years the sole purpose of business was to be make profits for the shareholders. This view has now been changed. The propriety of business actions is being challenged by the modern day consumer. One of the major issues or opportunities (depending on which way one may see it) is the issue of ‘going-green’. Consumers in today’s society have access to a large archive of information and the consumer will take up the opportunity to look up the practices of a business. This can place a strain on business as they are constantly being watched by consumers. The role which business plays in its surrounding community is one that has been mistakenly avoided by many companies in the past.
Ethics, the search for ‘a good way of being’ for a wise course of action as it could be practiced by business firms is called business ethics. Ethics is business deals with the ethical path business firms ought to adopt. Afflicting the least suffering to humans and the nature in its entirety, achieving the greatest net benefit to the society and economy enriching the capability of the system in which it is functioning, being fair in all its dealings with its proximate and remote stakeholders, being prepared to correct its mal-habits and nurturing and enduring virtuous corporate character in totality, can be called business ethics. (Salehi & Saeidinia, 2012)
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
Business ethics can be understood as codes that define the actions and behavior of the employees in an institution. Standards are set by every company to define what is accepted as ‘Right’ and each employee is expected to abide by these standards. For a business to run successfully it is important to abide by the set of standards that are defined. Companies around the world observe these ethical principles strictly; ensuring that all of their employees follow the rules. When an employee is hired he has moral as well legal obligations. The employee is expected to work as per the requirements in his contract. He should treat others with legitimacy and dignity.
Company Q and Social Responsibility Social responsibility is a key attribute for businesses in the market today. When consumers look to spend their disposable income, they look for businesses that not only offer the right product, at the right price, but that also offer great service. Great service can include anything from friendly employees to community involvement. That is where social responsibility becomes apparent in a company’s ethics and values. If a company has a strong tie to the community and demonstrates social responsibility, their consumers will consider this a positive quality and it will separate them from the competition. In this case study with Company Q, they are
Corporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. The goal of CSR is 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. Furthermore, CSR-focused businesses would proactively promote the public interest (PI) by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public
Various authors have different definitions of what Corporate Social Responsibility. According to Lorde Holmes and Richard Watts, 1998 in their publication ‘Making Good Business Sense,’ they define CSR as “the continuing commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to
Recently, the expectations of society for companies have increased more than before (Craig, Bhattacharya, Vogel and Levine, 2010), so one significant issue that most firms have been actively involved in is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Some may debate that it decreases company’s profits by spending much money on CSR. However, according to Needle (2004), ‘good’ CSR is also good for business, a firm could benefit from doing CSR. Thus, this paper aims to explain its importance. It begins with the definition of CSR and its four responsibilities, then presents how it influences a business and benefits it can bring. Finally, I am going to describe strategic CSR and discuss why firms have social responsibility.