Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR].

Authors Avatar
University Degree Business and Administrative studies

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY [CSR]

1.        Introduction

  1. The divisions between East and West are soon disappearing.  On the political front the fall of the Berlin Wall has brought massive changes in the world that led to rapid economic reforms.  Coupled with the ever-increasing developments in the information and technology sectors, the world has become smaller and smaller.  Globalisation, the inter-dependency of the states, has brought new challenges in world trade, investment patterns and economic co-operation.

  1. The era of the dot.com has led to the mushroom of new entrepreneurial spirit:  some still going strong and others had to face the doom route.  Thousands of persons made millions out of the booming dot.com business while others where not so lucky.  Whatever the financial cost, the intellectual benefit that has been created is unprecedented and will continue to be for the benefit of society through the wider use of the Internet.

  1. In the last few years, the world financial markets have witnessed a new negative era.  The downfall of large corporations due to financial irregularities and unethical use of funds by the leading officers of these financial conglomerates.  This has led to a downfall in the financial markets as well as new impetus for more government regulation on transparency and accountability in private governance.

  1. While these global events were going on, anti-business lobby groups took a more active and militant position on the common good and have challenged governments and enterprises alike to create a new social order.  Meetings of the Heads of State of the most industrialized countries, and other world economic forums, started to be a Mecca for anti-globalisation demonstrators.  These violent demonstrations took centre stage in the international media and shifted the information exchange from the agenda of the meetings.

  1. On the enterprise level, and the sectoral level, businesses started to develop policies that would make their businesses more accountable to the social and common expectations of the many stakeholders:  whether at the enterprise, the community, national or international level.  Although there are cases that go quite back in history, the notion of corporate social responsibility has taking much of its importance during the last few decades that has brought enterprise to realize that it is in their own interest to invest in making the enterprise socially responsible.

  1. Definition

2.1.        Corporate Social Responsibility may be defined “as the values of a company:  without belief, the tree withers and dies.  A company must define this for themselves and it must be top to bottom.  It cannot work if this is delegated outside.” 1

  1. In a wider context, CSR also includes, issues, such as employee reports, ethical reporting, green reporting, and other matters that may be considered of interest to readers of the annual accounts of a company in addition to information that caters for the financial interests of the firm.  Firms with a complete CSR Strategy have also taken the responsibility to report the costs and benefits of social accounting issues by a business. This may be included in a separate report or as part of the annual accounts. The costs are the costs to the business, for example of equipment donated, of sponsorship a green project or a local community project, etc.
  2. Vyarkarnam (1992) found that current Corporate Social Responsibility concerns, encompass such areas as:
  • environmental protection (e.g. reduction of emissions and waste and the recycling of materials)
  • philanthropy (donating to charities etc)
  • involvement in social causes (involving anything from human rights to AIDS education)
  • urban investment (working with local government to regenerate small businesses and the inner city environment generally) and
  • employee schemes (higher standards of occupational health and safety, good standard of staff treatment, job sharing, flexi-time etc)’ (Balabanis et al, 1998) 2
  1. Importance of CSR

  1. For many firms, creating and maintaining corporate social responsibility is being seen as a good and trustworthy operation as a source of competitive advantage.  Carmell McConnell sites four reasons why CSR has become increasingly important in the corporate governance:

(1)        Mobility:   Both suppliers and consumers have greater mobility to move to other firms due to the level of competition in the market for products and services.  Businesses needs to win hearts as well as minds;

Join now!

(2)        The war for talent:   Employees are increasingly seeking to be employed with companies that can offer packages fit for the individual rather than the other way round.  Graduates are coming out of the university saying they want to work for a company that puts something back into the community and into the environment;

(3)        Global interdependency:   Due to the global role of investments, firms have become brokers of cultures, as well as products and services.  Firms are being required to understand the culture of the country they operate in, bringing such slogans as

(4)        The anti-globalisation lobby:  This lobby ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR].
Document Details
  • Word Count
    3370
  • Page Count
    10
  • Level
    University Degree
  • Subject
    Business and Administrative studies
Related Essays
CSR - Corporate social responsibility.
CSR - Corporate social responsibility.
Critical literature review investigating corporate social responsibility CSR
Critical literature review investigating corporate social responsibility CS...
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility