Preview

Business Organization Shareholders vs Social Responsibility

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2089 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Business Organization Shareholders vs Social Responsibility
ABSTRACT
In this essay, I am going to prove that a business organization should be socially responsible in a successful or an effective manner which will eventually benefit the company’s owners or shareholders. I will do so through illustrating the different potential effects of a business organization engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”). The effects that will be shown in this essay would be an increase and decrease in the company’s expenses, sustaining and harming the environment, increase and decrease in sales and customers, improve the lives of people inside and outside the company, and the practice of social irresponsibility. I will also be providing actual companies engage in CSR, and its effects on each company. I will be citing several companies such as Petite Four Legs, Panga Organics, Verdigris Group, Cisco, British Petroleum, DLA Piper, PepsiCo, and Enron. All of these companies engage in some kind of social responsibility and may or may not have a positive effect on them.

Business Organization Shareholders vs. Social Responsibility
A business organization is owned by shareholders or owners. They supply the capital or money for the organization. The money will then be used to create goods or services that will be sold to reach goal of the business which is to enhance the entity’s profits and the gains of the owners or shareholders (Magaro, 2010). Being socially responsible is beneficial to the shareholders or owners of a business. This is because social responsibility is being ethical and sensitive towards cultural, economic, environmental and social issues (Enevoldson, 2014). For a business organization to practice being socially responsible, they engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (‘CSR’). It means that the ‘business does more for the well-being of others than required in an economical and legal sense’ (van de Lingen, 2011). This will eventually create profit for the company. Therefore, a business organization



References: Barrett, A., 2011, ‘Should you switch to green packaging?’ INC., viewed on 9 August 2014, <http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110501/switching-to-eco-packaging.html> Belsky, G Enevoldson, N. 2014, ‘What is social responsibility? ’, How to become a social entrepreneur, OptimizePress 2.0, viewed 17 July, 2014, <http://www.imasocialentrepreneur.com/social-responsibility/> Fallon, N Lemon, K. et al., 2011, ‘Measuring the effects of corporate social responsibility,’ vol. 3, no. 7, p. 1, viewed on 5 August 2014, < http://www.conference-board.org/retrievefile.cfm?filename=TCB%20DN-V3N7-11.pdf&type=subsite> Magaro, M

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Businesses, specifically larger corporations, play a major role in what occurs in society therefore, they are responsible to their stakeholders not only to pursue economic goals but the greater social good as well. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means that a corporation should act in a way that enhances society and its inhabitants and be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment. (Lawrence, 2010). Social responsibility is becoming the norm so much so that some businesses have incorporated it into their business model. There are three components of the bottom line of social responsibility in business: planet, people, and profitability (3P). This is also the formulation of the triple bottom line, or TBL.…

    • 4314 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Haynes, Thomas (2001) Social Responsibility and Organizational Ethics. Encyclopedia of Business. Retrieved March 14, 2009 from http://www.answers.com/topic/social-responsibility-and-organizational-ethics…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The corporate social responsibility is an activity where it has been involved by almost all of the company in the world. However, normally it would be the big companies which will engage more in these corporate responsibility activities. According to Lord Holme and Richard Watts (2010), Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large. The concept of having this Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) in the company is growing and more and more company are joining and implementing the CSR policies…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The academic literature has highlighted the lack of consensus and the prevailing confusion in defining social responsibility of business (Ramachandran 2010). Levitt (1958,) in his article ‘The Danger of Social Responsibility’, emphasized that social issues are the function of government, not job of business. Until between 1960s and 1970s, this period witnessed a significant expansion of academic interest in literature of corporate social responsibility. The theory was discussed and examined in depth, which lead to many debates on business managerial implications as well as introduction of related concepts of business ethics (Kakabadse et al. 2005). The literature has been presented in various ways from the narrow economic perspective of maximizing shareholders’ wealth (Friedman 1970) or economic, legal and ethical aspect of responsibility (Carroll 1979) to a wider stakeholder perspective which involves other parties such as suppliers, customers and employees besides company shareholders (Freeman 1984). In the past ten years, social responsibility of business has been considered long term development of…

    • 3036 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Business firms conduct activities to produce goods and services to generate profits. Obviously these activities greatly affect our society. Thus, social responsibility is the awareness that business activities have an impact on society and considering of that impact by firms in decision making…

    • 4883 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Social Responsibility

    • 2158 Words
    • 9 Pages

    A socially responsible organization goes beyond what it is obligated to do or chooses to do because of some popular social need and does what it can to help improve society because it is the right thing to do. Social responsibility is defined as a business’s intention, beyond its legal and economic obligations, to do the right things and act in ways that are good for society. A socially responsible organization does what is right because it feels it has an ethical responsibility to do so.…

    • 2158 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ethical Viewpoint

    • 3078 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is always an on-going issue that companies have to cope with. What are the responsibilities that companies should take other than the maximization of return to shareholders and by taking such responsibilities, how it may affect the operation of the firms as well as how effectively such actions could have on the society. There have been two main positions on the CSR issue. The first is the Friedmanian one stating that “there is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the games” (published in the book “Capitalism and Freedom”). The other view is that companies can and should deviate from the goal of maximizing profit to take others responsibilities that help to promote the total welfare of the whole society. I will first discuss these two viewpoints and give my opinions on such reasons then, finally, draw up my conclusion on CSR.…

    • 3078 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Corporate social Responsibility (CSR) is now widely accomplished in business. The term CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment. In another word, CSR is the responsibility that business organisations have towards stakeholders to behave responsibility and ethically. (Worthington and Patton, 2013) In business, the main purpose of a company is maximizing their profit, which involves the shareholders’ interest. However, the CSR policies could directly affect the shareholders’ interest. This essay will examine the reason why CSR policies is complicit with the shareholders’ interest and why organisations still implement the policies in this situation in terms of the long-term profit and the environment issues.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In order to really grasp this concept of corporate social responsibility and ascertain its effectiveness it is imperative to understand the pressure from stakeholders (For the business to practice effective corporate governance and maintain corporate success) that make up a business. The idea of CSR has been prominent among many research agendas (Greenfield 2004; Maignan and Ralston 2002; McWilliams et al. 2006; Pearce and Doh 2005) and became very popular because it is argued that “it is not only the right thing to do, but also leads to doing better (management reviews 2010) and because of this the ideology has shifted from an “ideology” to a reality; this is because research has shown that there is a direct correlation between CSR and financial…

    • 2205 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    References: ADL, Arthur D Little Limited 2003, The Business Case for Corporate Responsibility, December, Cambridge. Aupperle, K, Carroll, A and Hatfield, J 1985, ‘An empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability’, The Academy of Management Journal, vol 28, no. 2, June, pp 446-63. Blackburn, V, Doran, M and Shrader, C 1994, ‘Investigating the Dimensions of Social Responsibility and the Consequences for Corporate Financial Performance’, Journal of Managerial Issues, vol 6, no. 2, pp 195-218. Bodie, Z, Kane, A and Marcus, A 2002, Investments, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill Companies, New York. CAMAC, Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee 2006, The Social Responsibility of Companies, December, Sydney. Crook, C 2005, ‘The union of concerned executives’, The Economist, 20 January, viewed 3 February 2007, http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3555194. EIA, Ethical Investment Association 2006, Sustainable responsible investment in Australia — 2006: A benchmarking survey, September, Sydney. Globescan Inc 2005, Definition of corporate social responsibility survey, viewed 3 February 2007, http://www.globescan.com/rf_csr_first_01.htm. Gujarati, D 1999, Essentials of Econometrics, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill Companies, United States of America. Hill and Knowlton 2006, Return on Reputation: Corporate Reputation Watch 2006, March, New York. McGuire, J, Sundgren, A and Schneeweis, T 1988, ‘Corporate social responsibility and firm financial performance’, The Academy of Management Journal, vol 31, no. 4, pp 854-72. McWilliams, A and Siegel, D 2000, ‘Research notes and communications. Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: correlation or misspecification?’, Strategic Management Journal, vol 21, pp 603-9.…

    • 3595 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Social Responsability

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Social Responsibility is a “business’ obligation to pursue policies, make decisions, and take actions that benefit society”. Under the umbrella of social responsibility there are two models for social responsibility; the shareholder model, and the stakeholder model. Basically, The shareholder model Focus’ on maximizing profit for its shareholder’s. When a company makes profit and meet their production goals they in turn benefit the community. This is made possible through job creation and tax money paid throughout production, sales, and individual taxes for the employee just to name a few. The stakeholder model includes the owners, the customers, the suppliers, the community, and the Government. The stakeholder model is when the business thoughtfully makes decisions giving intentional thought to how the individual groups will be affected. The main difference that stands out is that the shareholder model is indirect, and the stakeholder model is intentionally planned out. Of the two models presented, the most beneficial to society is the stakeholder model. This is due to careful planning out the cause and effect of the business’ decisions and how they will impact the stakeholders.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The purpose of this essay is to discuss and compare the different viewpoints of corporate social responsibility (hereafter referred to as CSR) and the key issue is to see why corporations and their management should be concerned with CSR. The paper will start by explaining what CSR is and how businesses can gain profit from applying CSR. Thereafter the counterargument, that business doesn’t have any other responsibilities then gaining profit, will be presented. An example of good CSR-work will thereafter be demonstrated. The relationship between ethics in business will also be discussed.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the phrase ‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) came into public view. This essay will describe that what CSR is and how much profits will be taken in business for CSR. Nowadays, companies not only sell their products but also give back to the society such as being active in the charity drive, solving environment problems, spending money to making infrastructure and helping other people achieve their dreams. There are two sounds about whether a company should engage in CSR. Some people argue that money cannot be put into CSR because the only factor of business must be to maximize profits. However, on the other hand, other people state that social responsibility is a very important part of business activities. Because they believe companies cannot just make money without give back to the society. For example, Carnegie (1835-1919) believed that companies had an obligation to give back to the society, so he donated to the education and peace.…

    • 2101 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    1.1 What is Corporate social responsibility?: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business, sustainable responsible business (SRB), or corporate social performance, CSR is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its support to law, ethical standards, and international norms. The definition of CSR used within an organization can vary from the strict "stakeholder impacts" definition used by many CSR advocates and will often include…

    • 2889 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Corporate social responsibility is a significant issue in the current business environment. There is now a significant shift in businesses to become recognized as being socially responsible whilst achieving the primary business objective of profit maximization. Business now strive particularly to reach the triple bottom line as a key objective as it incorporates; people planet and profit objectives. Corporate social responsibility is often difficult to define, as there are many different definitions and understandings amongst academics and professionals. However corporate social responsibility can broadly be defined as a ‘‘concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis’’ (Falkenberg and Brunsæl 2012). The relationship between socially responsible business actions and profit maximization is generally mixed and controversial. Generally the view is that in order for a business to undertake socially responsible practices there is often increased financial and non-financial costs in order to ensure this and thus leading to decreased profits in the short term. However it is also evident that socially responsible business actions and strong relationships with business stakeholders may lead to significant long-term profit maximization.…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays