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Ethics and corporate governance
Ethics and corporate governance
The relation between business and society
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Introduction In an atmosphere where the number one priority is to make as much money as possible, many question rather or not corporate responsibility is possible. Corporate responsibility represents “a corporation’s social and environmental obligations to its constituencies and greater society (Argenti 2013).” In a profit driven environment, there are several factors that can influence or encourage corporations to also consider greater society in the course of their decision making and subsequently in their priorities as well. The process in which corporations make these decision or the deterring elements that show corporations effect on the community that it serves or the community surrounding it, is a viable realm of analysis in the discussion of corporate responsibility. An article perfectly explicates the Corporate responsibility as, “The notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not new in our society. It was born when corporations were born and societies to accommodate them. The ‘soul’ of corporate social responsibility is what the French philosopher Rousseau understood to be ‘the social contract’ between business and society (Bichta 2003).” Rosseau conceptualizes corporate social responsibility as a relationship between business and society. Therefore, iterating that the emphasizing the relationship as a contractual social agreement or as he puts it “the social contract understands men (Social members) as being able to act freely in a civil society that is unity by a general will.” Furthermore, a relationship between the two that pledges to do good in order to benefit both. Within the course of study there are main tenants that must be recognized and analyzed in order to fully grasp the ramifications of ... ... middle of paper ... ... have a tendency to advantage of other countries economy. This presents another causative factor that can have a negative impact on the global economy or the economy of other countries. For instance, many corporations number one priority is to gather a profit, the highest possible profit. The idea is the company must act in the interest of itself by making decisions using this foundation priority of accumulating wealth. As a result, they expand into countries with fewer standards to increase the profit. Countries with low labor wages, benefits, and standards represent huge profitability for corporations who take advantage. However, these options that increase profitability also decrease social responsibility. Although, companies stand to gain a profit from this practice the long term communal effects of exploiting economic failure is long-lasting for the country.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a movement that aims to promote a greater awareness of how business activities and decisions influence corporate environment, stakeholders, and society in general. Adam Lindgreen and Valerie Swaen’s article “Corporate Social Responsibility” addresses this broad topic in a more narrow direction of CSR implementation as it discusses the most important stages of this process. While this article relies only on the previous research, it provides unique insights into CSR and even challenges the common views of this concept as the authors thoroughly analyze their secondary sources.
The earliest impressions that the book makes on the mind of the reader is that “Corporate Social Responsibility” is not just about some kind of vague theories but supports all that it preaches with practical applications. Labelling the book as “a Bible for today’s corporate citizen”- as the publisher does on the flap of the book- may be stretching it a bit too far, but “Corporate Social Responsibility”, does provide thoughtful answers to a number of vital questions on how a corporation could do most good for itself and its
To supply the wants and needs of a consumer, society entrusts wealth-producing resources to the business enterprise.” (Santayana, George. Is The Tyranny Of Shareholder Value Finally Ending? So before we go into greater detail on the different perspectives related to social responsibility, one might question the meaning of social responsibility. It is generally agreed that social responsibility is defined as the business obligation to make decisions that benefit society.... ...
An organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drives them to look out for the different interests of society. Most business corporations undertake responsibility for the impact of their organizational pursuits and various activities on their customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment. With the high volume of general competition between different companies and organizations in varied fields, CSR has become a morally imperative commitment, more than one enforced by the law. Most organizations in the modern world willingly try to improve the general well-being of not only their employees, but also their families and the society as a whole.
The Corporation is a Canadian documentary film written by Joe Bakan, a law professor from British Columbia University and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott in 2003. Many issues related to the corporate world were discussed in the film including corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR is generally quite a new concept being within the corporate industry where the recognition of the need to implement such theory within the business operations has only been widely practiced in recent times. Developed countries like France, Canada, United States and United Kingdom all have different interpretation of what’s CSR actually means due to their social and cultural differences while most of them seem to recognize the significance of triple-bottom
Milton Friedman presents a compelling argument in “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits” by arguing that businesses need to focus only on increasing their profits and integrating social responsibility will only hurt them as a company. Since “only people can have responsibilities” (Friedman 52), Friedman argues that businesses as a whole do not have any type of real responsibilities because there is not a singular person for these responsibilities to fall on. Corporate executives are people as well and may feel they have social responsibilities to society but these “are the social responsibilities of individuals, not of business” (51). In terms of corporations, the businessmen are the ones that hold the responsibility of the company. Friedman argues that the only responsibility these managers hold is to those who own the corporation, the shareholders. If the individuals themselves want to contribute to social responsibility they must do it with their own money in their personal lives, but they should not use social responsibility in
Fleming and Jones, in their book, The end of CSR, fundamentally question the existence of Corporate Social Responsibility because they think it ‘never really began’ (Fleming and Jones, 2013). The reason for the authors’ abovementioned stance is highlighted in the quote where they assert that ‘social value is subordinated to economic rationality’ in capitalism (Fleming and Jones, 2013). The current government provisions follow the same logic and try to outsource education, healthcare in order to implement business ontology and maximize profit. They agree with Friedman’s view on capitalism that businesses do not have social responsibilities. Therefore, every action of business is taken to fulfill its ‘sole purpose’ (Friedman). They consider that CSR evolved to pursue the same goal practices, including ‘marketing, branding, recruitment and employee motivation’.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the "economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time" (Buchholtz, 2014, p. 32) The basic principles of corporate social responsibility consists of organizations that has the moral, ethical, and philanthropic duties to not only to earn a profit for investors, but they must also comply with the laws and standards set for businesses as well. Today’s CSR requires organizations to assume a much broader spectrum of their responsibilities that includes not only the stockholders, but employees, suppliers, customers, the local community, state, and federal governments, special interest and a variety of environmental groups as well. (Sharma, 2014)
In recent years, companies are becoming socially responsible and now stakeholders almost expect a company to have CSR policies. Therefore, in twentieth century, corporate social responsibility (CSR) became an important development in public life (Barnett, ND).Corporate social responsibility is defined as “the ways in which an organisation exceeds the minimum obligations to stakeholders specified through regulation and corporate governance” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). Stakeholders can be defined as “those individuals or groups who depend on the organisation to fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). There are many purposes for this essay, the first purpose is to descried the key principles of corporate social responsibility and explain their importance for stakeholders. Secondly, is to show how far this company follows those principles in order to be accountable to at least three of its stakeholders. In this essay, three stakeholders, environment, customers and employees will be evaluated respectively and the key principles of the stakeholders will be examined.
I begin this essay by defining CSR, there are many definitions for this term by various different theorists, and EU says that CSR is "A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis." On the other hand, Sloman et al. define it as "The concept in which a firm takes into account is the interests and concerns of a community rather than just its shareholder". Davis and Blomstrom (1966), say it "Refers to a person’s obligation to consider the effects of his decisions and actions on the whole social system". These definitions differ from one another in many ways but they agree that CSR involves taking the environment into account and therefore, one must look take social responsibility.
Large corporations hold a key role in the development within society and the environment due to the high demand of marketing of products which they offer to meet certain service and product quality standards to their customers. Nevertheless, these corporations also have a responsibility to involve themselves in corporate social responsibility (CSR). The practice of CSR is ever changing and is now beginning a new period, obtaining supplies from developing countries and building supplier relationships in these countries are becoming increasingly important, some might say even an obligation in order to survive in the current market. There is increasing pressure from immediate environments for companies to act as a profitable organisation whilst also engaging themselves in social projects which benefit society and environment.
The arguments for and against corporate social responsibility have captured two points of view. Those who believe that organizations should not be concerned about social responsibility base many of their arguments on the costs involved and whether organizations should shoulder those costs on behalf of society. And those who are in favor feel that organizations benefit from society and, therefore, have an obligation to improve it. Although there is no universal agreement, surveys and other reports express that many organizations are, becoming increasingly active in addressing social
While the concept of an individual having responsibility is commonly recognized, modern views have lead to the emerging issue of corporate responsibility. Business Directory.com defines corporate social responsibility as, “A company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and environment (both ecological and social) in which it operates. Companies express this citizenship (1) through their waste and pollution reduction processes, (2) by contributing educational and social programs, and (3) by earning adequate returns on the employed resources.” But such a concept has been much disputed since at least the 1970’s.
Corporate Social Responsibility is an organisation’s obligation to serve the company’s own interest and the one’s of the society. Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility has a definition of a concept where the companies integrate social and the environmental concerns into their own business operation and also on a basis of voluntary with their interactions they have with the stakeholders. Corporate Social Resp...
In the current time of growth and progression, individuals should know that how a business not only flourish but sustain itself. Making profit is one of the main targets of every corporates but it must not be the only one. When an individual builds a company in order to do business, they should be well aware of their contribution towards the society as well as their business and employees in it. It is total strategy of all. We should be able to realize every increment contributes of it. One of the major factors that affect a business is how well it participates in Corporate Social Responsibility. According to (Werther & Chandler, 2006) corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to a business practice that involves participating in initiatives that benefits the society. In authenticity, there is a whole lot to argue about it. There are no major guidelines that decides either a business is participating in Corporate Social Responsibility; what might be considered a Business practicing CSR to some, can still not be accepted for it by others. CSR may be restrained a term which his highly flexible. This paper will discuss about Corporate Social Responsibility and its