Many of us tend to believe that the main purpose of any business is to generate as much profit as possible. To operate on the market and be competitive, companies should make money in order to cover its fixed and variable costs. However, it is wrong to assume that profits should be the ultimate goal for the businesses. Recently, many corporations decided to transform their ways of doing business from a capitalistic approach towards more conscious and society-oriented way.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - the term that is used to explain the mechanism that helps companies control its compliance with law, ethics and certain norms. The main idea is that companies should minimize its negative impact on the environment and society they
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However, there is no right or wrong way to think about being ethical in the business world. While making important business decisions, the board of a company and its managers are required to consider what impact on a society their decisions will have. Different companies have a different understanding of what it means to act in an ethical way. Therefore, the directors of a company, its stakeholders and shareholders make their own definition of what it means to be a socially responsible organization. Businessmen and investors have more freedom while defining their goals for achieving the desired results and maintaining a certain reputation on the market since the government prefers not to interfere in this …show more content…
Instead, he suggests a new kind of capitalism that focuses on how a business can benefit through Corporate Social Responsibility. In the article “Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business”, Mackey openly criticizes Friedman’s statement that businesses should only focus on generating profit - “I'm a businessman and a free market libertarian, but I believe that the enlightened corporation should try to create value for all of its constituencies” (Friedman, et al). He believes that company should put the stakeholders (customers, suppliers, government, community) ahead of its investors and create more value for the customers rather than for the
Of the many possible ethical dilemmas that people could face in the business world, the article: “The ‘Do Whatever It Takes’ Attitude Gone Wrong” portrays particular ethical situations in todays business world that are very common: poor social responsibility and its negative effects. Social responsibility is considering what affects business decisions and products have on society. The article reveals what goes on behind the scenes at a business in terms of poor ethical decision making and how often it occurs. It mainly focuses on how business decisions are made without consideration
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) invaded the corporate world over the last few decades. This concept has become an essential need for competitive advantage unlike its original role as a nicety. The companies have seen the business benefit of the initiative and stakeholders have appreciated the initiative. This has led to the wide application in the firm’s operational agenda.
Mackey, J. (2005, October). Rethinking the social responsibility of business. Journal of Reason, 10, 15-17.
A: Mackey views are the most compelling as the philosophy in the mission statement of Whole Foods is to use high profits as the means to an end of improving the well-being of everyone on the planet. The values of Whole Foods are measured, and success is achieved as they cater to all the stakeholders: customers, team members, investors, vendors, communities and the environment. This philosophy resonates with me as the purpose of their organization is to use profits to have an impact on society. 2. What do you think of Friedman’s view in that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits”?
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.... ...
The concept of business ethics refers to a set of guiding principles that encourage individuals in an organization to make decisions based on the company’s stated beliefs and attitudes toward business practices within its industry (Lisa McQuerrey., 2016). Ethical and Unethical business decisions have long been a predicament encountered by organisations, these practices are concerned with how the companies interact with the global business world, and to their one-on-one dealings with individuals (Garry Crystal, 2016.) The concept of ethics and social responsibility emerged into the business world in the early 1970s after the end of World War I, saw these organisations become more profit driven resulting in negative impacts on society at large.
Corporate Social Responsibility is the obligation from corporations to utilize their resources to aid and benefit the larger society. The four components of CSR are economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. Social Responsibility is a fundamental force in the wealth creation process. If correctly demonstrated, CSR should heighten competitiveness and boost the value of wealth creation to society. A company's CSR Initiatives directly represent who the company is and what it believes it. The m...
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...
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the set of regulations that an organization makes to protect and increase the society in which it functions. There are three areas of social responsiblity: Organizational stakeholders, the natural environment and general social welfare.
There is a link between corporate social responsibility and the key principles of the stakeholders, which a company should follow to be responsible to its stakeholders. The first stakeholder is environment and the key principle used for it is not damage the environment for example, recycling, dealing correctly with their wastes and emissions. The second stakeholder is the employees. The key principle for the employees is companies providing safe and health working conditions for their staff. Moreover, the employees earn an appropriate salary for ...
According to Mike Peng, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the consideration and response to issues beyond the narrow economic, technical, and legal requirements of the firm to accomplish social benefits along with traditional economic gains the firm seeks. CSR is a way in which a company seeks to achieve a balance between profit, environmental concerns and social imperatives. This is known as the ‘Triple-Botto...
An organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drives them to look out for the different interests of society. Most business corporations undertake responsibility for the impact of their organizational pursuits and various activities on their customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment. With the high volume of general competition between different companies and organizations in varied fields, CSR has become a morally imperative commitment, more than one enforced by the law. Most organizations in the modern world willingly try to improve the general well-being of not only their employees, but also their families and the society as a whole.
A corporations CSR should be shaped in order to fit the goals of the corporation, although every corporation’s CSR should differ, since most have different goals and different communities behind them. The CSR should be molded into fitting the corporation’s goals in order to make it easier on the corporation in giving back to the community while achieving its goals. For example, a corporation located in a desert wishes to be more efficient, by reducing water usage it is not only creating lower costs, which result in higher revenue, but also helps the community by not taking up so much water. Taking this into consideration, it is critical that the corporation goals and values are established and clear throughout the corporation, they should be developed by the board or directors and CEO, and the highest managerial level should stress their importance to the rest of the corporation. By making the goals and values at the top branch of the corporate hierarchy, it will be simpler for the corporates community to develop in order to nurture those goals and values. Therefore, a corporation can reach the “shared-value,” a value for both its shareholders and community in a simpler manner that can result benefiting the corporation in the end as well. Throughout the article many examples are given of actual corporations that have benefited and changed their CSR in order to fit their goals, therefore, providing solid proof that these methods work. Nevertheless, as acknowledged by the author’s themselves, most of the corporations taken into consideration where one’s that Harvard CSR students were employed
The classical view of CSR is a prominent ideology which business organizations are seen merely as profit-driven organizations. Simply put, businesses work for the sole purpose of making a profit. Thus, this profit motive is the sufficient and unique social identifier that separates a business organization from other institutions in society. These business organizations have a limited, yet essential role in society. Social concerns are considered important, but businesses, in the classical view, are focused solely on the economic activities and are judged accordingly. By having a limited role in society (i.e.,...
Business ethics and social responsibility are two concepts many individuals believe go along together for corporations in the business environment. Business ethics are the moral values a company uses to ensure all employees action in a standard manner when completing business functions. Social responsibility is typically a conceptual theory that governments and the general public hold, believing that businesses should not conduct themselves in a manner counter to cultural or societal norms. The connubial of these concepts happens when companies introduce a written code of ethics to demonstrate that the company only acts in its greatest interest so long as it does not damage the company’s social responsibility.