Corporate Social Obligation (CSR) Programs - Essay Sample

For quite some time, social responsibility is a concept that merits great concerns in the modern day today. Over the last two decades, its concerns have been on the rise, especially in the business fraternity. For this reason, this has fostered developing communication between governments, organizations and society in general. Previously, organizations primarily fretted about the financial aftereffects of their choices. In the present day organizations should also ponder the social, moral, ethical and legal outcomes of their decisions. Thu, the primary intent of this essay is to analyze the idea of corporate social responsibility. It will give the meaning of the expression, and distinguish a portion of the worldwide elements that necessitate corporate social obligation. It will talk about the significance of organizations coming up with corporate social duty ventures, and the effects that these have on society. Thus, the Social Corporate Responsibility and the upkeep of high moral norms are supposed to be a commitment to all businesses and not an option.

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Corporate social obligation (CSR) can be characterized as the "financial, ethical, legal, and optional expectations that the general public has of associations at a given time (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2003). The idea of corporate social obligation implies that associations have ethical, moral, and philanthropic duties notwithstanding their obligations to procure a reasonable return for business investors and be compliant with the law. A customary perspective of the organization recommends that its essential, if not sole, duty is to its proprietors, or stakeholders. In any case, CSR obliges associations to embrace a more extensive perspective of its obligations that incorporates stockholders, as well as other different factions as well, including workers, suppliers, clients, the nearby communities, neighbourhood, state, and governments, environmentalists and other special vested parties. Altogether, the different gatherings influenced by the activities of a company are called "stakeholders."

The four section definition of corporate social Responsibility by Carroll and Buchholtz delineates the multi-faceted aspect of CSR. The financial obligations mentioned in the definition allude to the fact that the public expects that a company will produce services and goods that customers desire and require. They also assume that the organization sells the same to them at good prices that are not exploitative (Banerjee 2008). A corporation is expected to be profitable, efficient and always have the best interests of stakeholders at heart. The legal obligations aspect is concerned with the expectation that a corporation will respect the set down laws and policies that keep marketplace competition in check. All of the business operations have various legal obligations that govern them. Examples of such are environmental laws, product and consumer laws, and legislation that govern employment. Moral obligations are those that address the expectations of a society and which go beyond policy, for example, expecting that a corporation will carry out its operations in a just and fair manner. This is an implication that companies should go beyond being compliant with the law and meet the norms a society expects even when the same is not a formal enactment of law. Discretionary obligations on their side allude to the expectations of a society that a corporation is a great citizen. The organizations achieve this through philanthropic support of ventures that are of benefit to a community or the whole country. Donation of workers time and expertise for good causes is included here.

Several arguments advocate for corporate social responsibility. A view that critics of the business world hold is that because the huge corporations are the primary causes of the social problems, then it is their obligation to try and solve and address them. The holders of this view see the bad in the accounting, marketing, production and environmental management of organizations. They imply that the organizations can come up with better approaches to the production of safe, quality goods and be doing their operation in honest and open ways.

Then there comes the self-interest argument that also favours corporate social responsibility. This perspective is long term and alludes to the fact that organizations should present themselves today in such a manner that gives them a proper operation environment tomorrow. It is a perspective that suggests corporations should see beyond benefits that are short term and realize that investing in the general public in the present day will offer them more advantages in future. In addition to that, it is in the organizations good interests that they involve themselves in corporate social responsibilities due to the reason that such responsive activities forestall intervention by the government of new regulations and legislations (Carroll and Buchholtz 2003).Finally, it is the suggestion of others that a company should take up social obligations simply because they can afford them. Corporations are private establishment and in most cases have the resources to partake such endeavours. This business world owns very skillful and bright brains world-wide and with the financial muscle which implies need for distributive justice.

The Business and Sustainable Development or BSD organization puts the benefits that culminate from CSR activities into three. To begin with are the benefits to the company. These advantages are most relevant to the corporation itself, and such are client loyalty, heightened sales, low costs of operation, heightened productivity, and a greater ability to maintain and after that attract good employees. More positive effects include an increase in willing investors and therefore more capital, the products are safer hence less chance of liability and the regulatory oversight is lessened. Numerous corporations make their brand attractive and create a good reputation through CSR activities.

The second classification is inclusive of all the advantages accrued by the community through the corporations policies and products. This section includes even the charitable organizations. Social initiatives that a company can venture into include homeless care and education programs among others. Education is a very critical factor. All over, individuals have access to basic education. Despite that, education opportunities are still elusive for a great majority. More than a hundred million youngsters are not in educational facilities with the bigger percentage of this in the third world countries. In every five adults one is illiterate. This is a stunning figure, keeping in mind that there are numerous opportunities to get educated worldwide. Corporations take up the task of education promotion by constructing schools and giving money for educational development ventures. Learning can also be promoted by absorbing trainees and interns and therefore teaching them the loops in the jobs. They gain experience and are given the power to offer fair competition in the corporate world (Crowther & Bacchu 2004).

The last category involves all the benefits to the environment. Apart from the companies encouraging recycling of materials, they could also come up with products that are durable and with better functionality by using approaches that are thoughtful to the environment. They could also make use of more renewable resources at smaller costs. This aspect is of high concern due to the reason that conservation of the environment is very important for all in the society at the present time. The multinational corporations get profits in the millions, and it would only be fair that they thank the community. The indiscriminate destruction of the environment by several corporations during industrial waste disposal, recyclable paper utilization or just ignorance is a shocker and such are not fair in carrying out their operations.

Environmental protection has over the days taken the day for many non-governmental humanitarian organizations. A majority of these associations suggest that environmental protection should be of very high concern for every corporation. The reason being the environment is a natural resource that cannot have the value attached to by humans, and it is priceless. The companies also get their raw materials from the environment; therefore, mishandling of industrial waste by some corporations has irked these environmental organizations. An example such as the great Pacific garbage patch is enough evidence to show how numerous corporations do not practice safe waste disposal. The great Pacific garbage patch is a mix of human waste that flowed into the oceans after being dumped improperly. This consequently leads to other complications such as water contamination and killing of the organisms that inhabit the waters (Werther & Chandler 2010).

In conclusion, this essay has depicted clearly that corporate social responsibility is a vital aspect of corporation operations. It has made it clear that there are varying areas in which an organization may opt to invest its corporate social obligation. Such areas include education programs and environmental conservation. These aspects look to take care of the general publics well-being as the operations are friendly to the environment and the society experiences justice and economic development. They are also a display of a corporation's ethical standards and improve its image and profits. It is immoral for one faction of society to earn so much at the detriment of another. It would be therefore fair to come to the conclusion that all multinational corporations have a moral obligation to engage in CSR programs.

References

Banerjee, S. B. (2008). Corporate social responsibility: The good, the bad and the ugly. Critical sociology, 34(1), 51-79.Crowther, D., & Rayman-Bacchus, L. (2004). Perspectives on corporate social responsibility. Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Werther Jr, W. B., & Chandler, D. (2010). Strategic corporate social responsibility: Stakeholders in a global environment. Sage Publications.