Corperate social responsibility

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Introduction:

Corporate Social Responsibility, abbreviated as CSR, has gained much importance since the world encountered several breakthroughs in the field of business and entrepreneurship. The debate on CSR is never-ending and it there is no concrete definition which is compact and mature enough to envelope every aspect of CSR.

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility found its roots in business reporting in which every organization, big or small, has to generate a report annually.Corperate social responsibility

The contents of this report comprise a detailed description of corporate activities which are either classified as socially responsible activities or socially irresponsible activities.Corperate social responsibility

Currently, the CSR itself is in formative period and that is why, its measured and parameterized relatively.

            Howard Bowen, in 1953 made a promising contribution by publishing a book titled as “The Social Responsibilities of a Businessman”. He tried to encapsulate the scope of CSR in his own words.Corperate social responsibility

The obligations of business to pursue those policies, to make those decisions or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society (Bowen, 1953).

This is however, a definition which is providing a general yet complete overview of the scope of CSR. CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm ethically or in a socially responsible manner (Macmillan, UK, 1998). Michael Hopkins: A Planetary Bargain: CSR Comes of Age.

Since there are several views about CSR, the studies and analysis has led to the following points so far:

• Corporate Social Responsibility is a code of such practices, which are directly linked with the stakeholders of a certain firm.
• The concept of CSR promulgates an environment of sustainable development and emphasizes on exploiting the intellectual prowess to extricate the best and socially responsible plans.

 

Major Components of CSR:

The major components of Corporate Social Responsibility are as follows:

1. Environmental Protection:

The primal goal which is put forth by the environmental advocates is to devise such plans which are profitable, given they don’t pose a threat to the environment.

1. Labor Security:

The main purpose of incorporating labor security in CSR is to make such a regulatory framework, which protects the labor by enforcing the rights to collective bargaining and putting an end to every kind of child labor.

1. Human Rights:

In order to protect the rights of the employees, a full-fledged regulatory regime is needed in every organization which as the right to speak impartially and openly about any client who files a complaint regarding any activity which is unacceptable for the employees.

1. Community Involvement:

The factor of community involvement puts forth a system of organization which includes community partnership, philanthropy, employee giving and a variety of such policies which maximizes the impact of efforts, workers employ in order to elevate the company standards.

Apart from those discussed above, several other CSR components include: Business Standards, Marketplace, Enterprise and Economic Development, Health Promotion, Education and Leadership Development and Human Disaster Relief. These components of CSR guarantee sustainability of any organization whatsoever.

The million dollar questions, why don’t companies follow these rules? Why they are reluctant to enforce the values of CSR? Indifference of the company leader, Egoism, and Inadequate CSR culture are three significant difference items (Shu-Ling Yeh, 2014).

The managers of the company are the upholders of stakeholders’ benefits which bounds them to follow the rules and regulation which results in increasing the revenues of stakeholders. Before implementing any policy, the top management needs to take the stakeholders into confidence.

Their appreciation is mandatory for a policy to pass through the general meeting otherwise it gets rejected. For many stakeholders, the CSR seems to be a policy which may disturb the overall influx of the revenues as some points of the CSR talk about protecting rights of the workers and giving away to those who deserve. They judge every policy with the following parameters:

• Is it morally or ethically appropriate to pass any policy on the desk?
• If it is to pass, would it benefit the stakeholders? Is it profit-oriented?
• Does it portray the mechanism of corporation the way it actually operates?…