Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Corporate Social Responsibility” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Over the past decades, there have been increasing concerns from the public that many businesses have little concern for the consumer, care nothing about the deteriorating social order, and are indifferent to the problems of the environment and minorities. What do business and ethics have in common? Is ethical behavior expected and rewarded in the business world? Is it sufficient as a businessman to manage business as long as he complies with government regulations? Or basically, what is the purpose of the big business organization? These concerns are often related as what social responsibilities have. Is there a social responsibility of business? This question is asked many times in a variety of ways, with just as many answers. Most of the debates focused on the two extreme classical and socioeconomic views of social responsibility. The classical view holds that corporate social responsibility is to maximize profit (Friedman, 1970). Opposing to such view is the socioeconomic view of social responsibility. Theorists such as R. Edward Freeman (1984) supporting such view believe that business owes something back to the society that supports it, and that this debt is greater than the debt of the individual members of society.

Argument against Corporate Social Responsibility

In the past, the concept of business responsibility was mostly based on the classical, economic model. Over the decades, there have been numerous controversial reports of social and ethical issues business organizations faced. Many of these corporate issues are situations in which public feel that an organization has done wrong or treated some individuals or group unfairly. Today there  are numerous areas in which government interfere with an expensive, elaborate regulation to fill in a void caused by business firms’ inaction.

Friedman is not ignoring ethical responsibility in his analysis; he is merely suggesting that decision makers are acting ethically if they follow their firms self-interest. The classical view feels that managers do not have the expertise (social skills) to make social decision, as they are more financial and operational orientated. In dealing with the concerns raised by supporters of corporate social responsibility, he calls for more measures to strengthen competition, particularly the enforcement of anti-trust laws against price fixing by cartels, but also urges business people to reassert their responsibilities, as agents of their shareholders, in the single-minded pursuit of profits within the law. More narrowly conceived, stakeholders are individuals or groups of individuals who have defined role relationships with the corporation in question. He further stated that each corporate executive is entirely free to spend his own money on worthy causes in the community but when his social responsibility contributions reduce returns to stockholders, he is spending their money, raise the price to customers, he is spending the customers money, lower the wages of some employees, he is spending their money. The above critics do not recognize the distinction between corporate social responsibility and corporate governance. In short, they may reject what was regarded as unwarranted attack on business activity, but end up by calling for more rigorous corporate governance by imposing more controls over the activities of corporate executives and directors. Another argument against corporate social responsibility is that business is not equipped to handle social responsibilities

Argument for Corporate Social Responsibility

One of the most practical reasons for business to be socially responsible is to ward off future government intervention and regulation.

Because of their scale and visibility, large organizations are always in the eye of the media, whether it be in the newspapers or even on T.V, which takes an interest in the way that organizations do business and the broad social outcomes of their activities. This is true of both government departments and private-sector organizations.

Modern management of the large organization is keen to show itself to be socially responsible. In many cases, positive outcomes for society at large are included in an organization’s objectives. For example, Coles Myer has a Code of Conduct and a corporate social responsibility policy. The company is a signatory to the National Retailers/TCFUA Ethical Clothing Code of Practice which aims to protect Australian clothing outworkers from exploitation. The company has also stated in the past that it will not buy carpets and rugs from manufacturers who use child labor. However, given the significant proportion of clothing and other goods the company sources from countries such as China, it would be reasonable to expect the company to have gone further in ensuring that all the offshore workers producing its goods are not subject to human rights abuses.

In 2001 Woolworths was awarded the Business in the Community Big Tick in recognition of the excellence of its corporate social responsibility programme with Woolworths Kids First. A Group recycling programme has been established for waste cardboard, plastic and other packaging to comply with the growing regulation in this area. In 1996, Kmart contributed to or raised $8.5 million in cash for charitable causes nationwide, in addition to their generous support of United Way. These vary from energy efficiency, dealing responsibly with packaging and other waste products to maximizing efficiency in its transport fleet. Through their support of Gifts In Kind International and similar partnerships, Kmart also donated more than $9 million in goods to charities last year alone. It enables them to build better relationships with suppliers and customers and can encourage positive associations towards the products and services that they offer. As an active member of Business in the Community and latterly the Corporate Responsibility Group, it is their intention to build on the good work already in place to ensure that they meet the high standards and expectations of all of their stakeholders. In addition all the stores are targeted with energy saving initiatives by the Groups energy saving manager. Thus K-Mart is good example of a large organization that expresses great social responsibility. Kmart expresses their social responsibility in many ways. It gave 6 million for March of Dimes that encourages welfare for children and reinforced the message that “Kmart Loves Kids.

In India the concept of corporate social responsibility is fast catching up, with companies like Wipro, Videocon, Infosys etc., Chipping in their bit for the welfare of society.