Market economies as ultimately embarked consumer sovereignty as the cornerstone of capitalism; further, bearing moral compasses in a pluralistic society of ethical behaviour. Hence, dictating the normative enactment of corporate social responsibility subsequently undertaken via individual businesses. Consumers under capitalism are, accordingly to ideology, the decision makers on the allocation of society’s resources (N. Smith, 1990). Echoing, mere imperatives for companies to articulate their role, scope & purpose in order to maintain their validity, reputation & self worth depends on their ability to understand their place in society (W. Visser, D. Mallen, M. Pohl, N. Tolhurst, page 101). As such, meriting thorough analysis of FirstGroup plc rather compulsion of fulfilling both ethical and corporate social responsibility in an ever evolving societal landscape will be undertaken. FirstGroup plc operates a transportation business model with a wholesome revenue stream of over £6 billion & employs 130 000 staff throughout the UK & North America with a testimonial annual total passenger calculus of 2.5 billion and a justifiable 23% market share (UK bus and rail division). Griseri et al (2010) points out such core stakeholders of the company which are reluctantly vital for the existence and success of the company. These stakeholders form the principal resource base for the company. As FirstGroup maintain and improve their ability to on the resources held via their core stakeholders. In contrast, the second group (depicted above) relates to the company’s competitive position within the company’s particular industry and market. The main challenge for the company with this group of stakeholders is to establish and sustain relati... ... middle of paper ... ...ivil society: emerging embedded relational governance beyond the (neo) liberal and welfare state models’, Journal of Corporate Governance, 5 (3), 159–74 Robert W. Kolb (2008), Encyclopedia Of Business Ethics And Society, Vol. 5, page 71 John Henry (2004), Between Enterprise and Ethics-Business and Management in a Bimoral Society, page 111 FirstGroup plc., 2010. Section 3 – Employment, . [online] FirstGroup plc Available at: [Accessed 16 December 2010]. Ghoul, S. et al, 2010. Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Cost of Capital?, [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 December 2010]. Heinkel, R., A. Kraus and J. Zechner, 2001, The Effect of Green Investment on Corporate Behavior, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 36, 431-449.
Flammer, C. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder Reaction: The Environmental Awareness of Investors. Academy Of Management Journal, 56(3), 758-781. doi:10.5465/amj.2011.0744
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.... ...
Do you agree with Schmeltekopf that business schools are not preparing students well for the for the ethical challenges they will face in the workplace? Why or why not?
An increasing large number of firms are developing mission statements that also attempt to define the social and ethical boundaries of their strategic domain. Some firms are actively pursuing social programs they believe to be intertwined with their economic objectives, while others simply seek to manage their businesses according to the principles of sustainability – meeting humanity’s needs without harming future generations. For example, Unilever has launched a variety of programs to help developing nations wrestle with poverty, water scarcity, and the effects of climate change. The firm’s motives are at least as much economic as moral. As environmental regulations grow stricter around the world, the firm must invest in green technologies or its leadership
Seawell, Buie 2010, ‘The Content and Practice of Business Ethics’, Good Business, pp. 2-18, viewed 22 October 2013, .
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the way a corporation achieves a balance between its economic, social, and environmental responsibilities in its operations so as to address shareholder and other stakeholder expectations. In general, when firms hold this wider encouraging role on the public by being engaged with stakeholders, a variety of profit can be produced for both company and the stakeholders. A key inclination is the combination of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the organization strategy, culture, mission and communications. By incorporating corporate citizenship into the company it is no longer an additional “nice thing to do” or something made to obey laws or regulations. Instead, corporate responsibility has become something business leaders and workforce want to engage in, frequently because executives who believe in the long-term see business profit. The four types of social responsibilities a...
- The two ethical justifications for the economic model are the utilitarian and individual rights or private property defenses. The most significant challenges facing the utilitarian justifications are: those that focus on the adequacy of free markets as a means to the ends of maximally satisfying consumer demand, and those that focus on the appropriateness of these ends as legitimate ethical goals. Of these, market failure is a popular challenge that is raised when considering situations in which the pursuit of profit will not result in a net increase in consumer satisfaction. The two significant challenges to the private property defense are: recognizing that property rights are not absolute, and understanding that historically, corporate property rights differ from personal property, questioning the understanding of stockholders implied by this defense.
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.
In today’s fast paced business world many managers face tough decisions when walking the thin line between what’s legal and what’s socially unacceptable. It is becoming more and more important for organisations to consider many more factors, especially ethically, other than maximising profits in order to be more competitive or even survive in today’s business arena. The first part of this essay will discuss managerial ethics[1] and the relevant concepts and theories that affect ethical decision making, such as the Utilitarian, Individualism, Moral rights approach theories, the social responsibility of organisations to stakeholders and their responses to social demands, with specific reference to a case study presenting an ethical dilemma[2], where Mobil halts product sales to a garage, forcing the garage owner to stop selling solvents to young people. The second section of this essay will focus on advice that should be given to any manager in a similar position to the garage owner with relevance to the organisational strategic management, the corporate objective and the evaluation of corporate social performance by measuring economic, legal, ethical and discretionary responsibilities. It will address whom to think of as stakeholders and why the different aspect could cost more than a manager or an organisation could have imagined.
Stakeholders are those groups or individual in society that have a direct interest in the performance and activities of business. The main stakeholders are employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, financiers and the local community. Stakeholders may not hold any formal authority over the organization, but theorists such as Professor Charles Handy believe that a firm’s best long-term interests are served by paying close attention to the needs of each of these stakeholders. The modern view is that a firm has responsibilities to all its stakeholders i.e. everyone with a legitimate interest in the company. These include shareholders, competitors, government, employees, directors, distributors, customers, sub-contractors, pressure groups and local community. Although a company’s directors owes a legal duty to the shareholders, they also have moral responsibilities to other stakeholder group’s objectives in their entirely. As a firm can’t meet all stakeholders’ objectives in their entirety, they have to compromise. A company should try to serve the needs of these groups or individuals, but whilst some needs are common, other needs conflict. By the development of this second runway, the public and stakeholders are affected in one or other way and it can be positive and negative.
Companies with CSR initiatives have better access to finance in capital markets that is essential for firms to produce goods and generate profits. Earlier study by Mcguire, Sundgren and Schneeweis (1988) reports that contributions to the environment and society are an important factor when banks and institutional investors are evaluating investment opportunities. Moreover, enterprises pursuing CSR practices tend to widely publicize their socially responsible behavior and thus become more transparent and understandable. Higher levels of transparency minimize the asymmetric information between the company and investors so investors become less aware of the risks associated with the investment projects (Cheng, Ioannou, & Serafeim, 2014). Consequently, more s...
European Commission: 2001, Green Paper Promoting aEuropean Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility C OM(2001) 366 (Commission of the European Communities, Brussels). Retrieved from http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/com2001_0366en01.pdf
It has been said that laws are not enough to help corporations to fulfill their social responsibilities . The main reason this is so is because the legal system makes most policies that are in the category of ‘Thou shalt not’ without necessarily explaining what should actually be done. However, corporate social responsibility demands that an organization make structures that cater for the welfare of the society. For example, in this case study, the Essex Fire Authority has designed its approach in such a way that since from its inception, the customers have always been at the center of the operation . It has been argued that there are two commonly used approaches as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. The first is an organization that treats all its customers in an equal manner such that all customers feel valued at the same level regardless of their social status . Being a fire and emergency response department, the Essex Fire Authority does not prioritize where to go in case of multiple emergencies but rather gives equa...
Shaw, W. H., & Barry, V. (2011). Moral Issues in Business (Eleventh ed., pp. 230-244).
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...