The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is a relatively new in the management field and there is no single definition of it since everyone’s interpretation of the term is different. “Corporate Social Responsibility means something, but not always the same thing to everybody.” (Votaw, 1972, p.25) and from my understanding of the concept, CSR to me is “The voluntary business activities within the boundary of law that contributes to the wider community for a more sustainable environment”. Since everyone has a unique interpretation of CSR, the range of relevant CSR practices across businesses has been quite diverse as there is no such thing as features of CSR (Marcel van Marrewijk, 2003). Rising environmental and social concerns in …show more content…
Drawing from these debates, Archie Carroll has developed “the Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility”, one of the most significant concepts of CSR. There are four kinds of social responsibilities that contribute total CSR, he suggested, Economic, Legal, Ethical, and Philanthropic (1991). Therefore being socially responsible does not mean forgetting the fundamental aspect of business, to make profit. The obligation of Law restricts business activities and they are the rules of the game which businesses have to obey. Being ethical is to perform actions that are fair, morally good, and of stakeholders’ interests, even outside the boundary of law. Considering corporate citizenship, philanthropic responsibilities are responses to the rising society’s expectations to business (Carroll, 1991). The notion of discretionary and voluntary distinguishes philanthropic responsibilities to ethical responsibilities. A good CSR firm should “strive to make a profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a good corporate citizen” (Carroll, 1991, p.43) and without simultaneous fulfillment of the four responsibilities, the business should not be characterized as operating within CSR.
James Fieser disagreed with Carroll, he argued that law clearly set out what people or businesses are allowed to do and what they are not. Therefore businesses have no obligation to perform ethically beyond what the law requires. “By its nature, business is supposed to be unscrupulous
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
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.
Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, has been conceptualized rather broadly as the managerial obligation to take action to protect and improve both the welfare of society as a whole and the interest of organizations. In recent years, corporate social responsibility has been becoming increasingly important and is held
Businesses have a responsibility to give back to the customers they serve and the communities they operate in. Today, many organizations have realized the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in response to consumers and stakeholders becoming more mindful of social issues. Corporate social responsibility has continued to change and grow. It can be difficult to define CSR because it takes on a variety of social, economic, political and environmental formats depending on the business. Corporate social responsibility in the broadest sense is viewed as for-profit organizations becoming ‘good corporate citizens’ (Salton & Jones, 2015).
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), has been the centre of debate since the last decade, with the increase in technology and globalization, company policies have come under a lot of scrutiny. Although this issue is not relatively new but with the hype of increasing media coverage and in the wake of high profile corporate scandals (Enron, WorldCom) the emphasis has mounted (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2013). Organizations play a vital and ever so increasing role in the lives of people, other organizations and the wider community in general (Mullins, 2013). Hence it is the responsibility of these organizations to act in such a manner that accommodates the wider society. In 1970, economist Milton Friedman once argued “the business of business
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a relevant subject within businesses since the early 1980’s where the concept of managing an organisation with an ethical, trans-parent and humane framework, which is critical in the development and the sustainable growth of any company (Marrewijk, 2003).
We all have responsibilities. It begins with taking care of one’s favorite toys as a child and it grows to encompass more significant aspects of one’s life. The decisions we make, the steps we take and the words we speak are vital elements of our responsibilities. It is a matter of considering the interests of others besides your own. This is the core value of being responsible. The same concept is applicable to corporations and businesses. In other words, businesses are expected to make wise actions when providing services and promoting their company. Over a series of years, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been one of the most debated topics in the business world. That is because CSR has experienced a wide range of acceptability among businesses from denial to conformity in its significant goals. Hundreds of texts were published to draw attention to the major beneficial impacts of CSR to society. The text I chose addresses that businesses need to understand that they advance by lifting others. Businesses are not participating enough to give a helping hand to society. There should be an emphasis on how CSR is grounded in the reality of taking small but efficient steps to reach greater changes. CSR is the mission that equally combines three interconnected aspects of society to accomplish a successful transformation from local impacts to global changes. CSR is not an idea of extended responsibility in terms of attending social causes; rather, CSR is a step towards an
Corporate social responsibility has been defined, according to the European Commission, as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society. They should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical human right and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders”.
As the industrialization and globalization have become more intense for decades, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes more advocated and is employed by corporation globally (Smith, 2011). However, despite an urge for performing “good” social roles, there still be numerous of organizations showing their unwillingness to fulfill their expected responsibility due to the controversy of how the concept should be defined amongst academia, businesses, and society, in addition to the conflict of interests between a firm’s shareholders and stakeholders that accounts mostly for difficulties in implementing CSR practices. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to dig deeper into above problems by presenting the definition of
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.
The classic origin of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) came from the principle that the purpose of the corporation is to make profits for the stockholders. This view of Milton Friedman came to be referred to later as the classical theory of CSR (Bowie, 1991). Tom Donaldson argued that this theory derived from the concept of the social contract between the corporation and the society where it operates. This perspective, however, faced criticism over its inherently opportunistic and exploitative viewpoint. A corporate vision aimed only at upholding the shareholder’s right to profit for their investment logically will have to qualm of exploiting stakeholders to serve the end game of profit. It will have no qualms at paying
While corporate social responsibility (CSR) has existed for a long time, it has garnered attention only in the last two decades as an important aspect of doing business. Academic research on CSR has evolved over the years, indicating a change in how CSR is viewed as time goes by. In the earlier years of
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been developed for decades and it has been conceptualized in a number of ways. The business only can get success if there is interaction between all stakeholders in the company. The business organization of any form whether it is small or large, are seen as a creation of society and their survival is only dependent on the society. Socially responsible firms view CSR as a source of competitive advantage by attracting a higher quality and quantity of job applicants (Fombrun and Shanley 1990; turban and greening 1996). CSR can be defined as that strategy which manages the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. CSR is a concept in which the company decides how to interact with its stakeholders on a voluntary basis involving social as well as environmental concern. According to kotler and lee (2005) CSR is “ an obligation undertaken in order to improve the welfare of the society through on demand business application and contribution of corporate resources”
Second, the corporate appraisal system does not cover the content of social responsibility. The management focuses more on the outstanding achievement, how many is the profit of every branch. How is their situation of operation. But neglect the invisible benefits. The management cares less about the wellness and benefits of their employees. Only when they have earned lot of profits, they will think about doing some contribution back to the social.