Corporate Social Responsibility

The term Corporate Social Responsibility refers to a company’s responsibility to provide a benefit to the society the company affects. Corporate social responsibility incorporates dimensions of corporate responsibility, and corporate policy which include a company’s policy to hire minority or disabled workers, or taking a stance on social and political issues that benefit the community. The social portion of corporate social responsibility includes corporate charitable business contributions and expands on this common social business practice by invoking corporate social initiatives. For example, as a policy, Wal-Mart grocery store managers purchase as much produce and goods from local farmers and distributors they can as opposed to relying on national food distributors. This example of a corporate social initiative provides a greater benefit to the economy of the society surrounding Wal-Mart stores than if Wal-Mart made only charitable contributions to a food bank within the local area. Environmental responsibility is a business’s responsibility to decrease its carbon footprint and produce green products. The trend to produce green products has come into effect since global warming has become a greater concern in the world over the past decade. Reducing the carbon footprint and making green products may increase a company’s cost, but the company can charge more for its products and services to offset the increased cost. Nickels, J. McHugh, and S. McHugh give an example of the Ciba Specialty Chemicals Company, a Swiss textile dye manufacturer who charges more for its dyes than other dye companies because Ciba’s dyes “require less salt than traditional dyes”, and are therefore more expensive to produce (Nickels, J McHugh, S...

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...on financial return to survive. Businesses must be responsible to the larger community of stakeholders they are responsible to, utilize a strong set of ethics codes, and practice corporate social responsibility. According to experts, “studies show that companies with good ethical reputations attract and retain better employees, draw more customers, and enjoy greater employee loyalty” (Nickels et al, 2010, p. 99). Because corporate social responsibility stems from a strong set of ethics, companies that practice corporate social responsibility will reap these same benefits.

References

Nickels,W., McHugh, J., McHugh,S., (2010), Understanding business (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill- Irwin.

Savitz, A., Weber, K., (2006), The triple bottom line: How today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social, and environmental success--and how you can too. Jossey-Bass.