Corporate Social Responsibility In Business

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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) Corporate social responsibility is in many ways is tied to the values and ethics that a business believes in. While CSR encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary responsibilities of organizations, business ethics usually focus on the moral judgments and behavior of individuals and groups within organizations. In their text, BUSINESS AND SOCIETY: ETHICS, SUSTAINABILITY, AND STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT, Carroll and Buchholtz's give a four-part definition of CSR that incorporates the multi-faceted nature of social responsibility. The expectation that businesses will produce goods and services that are needed and desired by customers and sell those goods and services at a reasonable price, is the key to the economic responsibilities that are cited in their definition. Organizations are expected to be efficient, profitable, and creative to keep shareholders welfare in mind. In the western corporate structure, fair competition in the marketplace is not only the leg... ... middle of paper ... ...'s after-tax profits to charitable causes, contributing more than $1.5 million in cash and in-kind donations to community organizations. In 2013 Outerwall also succeeded in mobilizing 28 percent of employees to participate in company-sponsored volunteer events, continuing to build momentum toward its goal of engaging one-third of the workforce in volunteerism by 2015. "At Outerwall we believe in cultivating an inclusive work environment where employees are empowered to take an active role in CSR initiatives," said Nicole Trimble, Outerwall's senior director of corporate responsibility. "We work to help provide employees with access to opportunities that will support their personal and professional development while enriching our communities and protecting the environment. In doing so, we're also able to advance our business objectives." (Wall Street Journal, 2014)

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