Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility
This essay will be based on corporate social responsibility (CSR). It should allow the reader to understand what CSR is, the importance of CSR and how it would influence customer activities. Themes that would be included in this essay will be the background of corporate social responsibility, history and the development of corporate social responsibility. The key concepts will also be explained and the different stakeholders which will be linked to corporate social responsibility.
It could be argued that corporate social responsibility practices can affect wider society. As explained in Boddy (2011, p. 136) Ford managers who dealt with Pinto advocated that profit is more important than the safety of others. It could be argued that there may be many organisations that do not think about the welfare of their employees or consumers. As stated in Francisca Farache and Keith J. Perks (2010) “Legitimacy theory states that organisations can only secure their existence if they are perceived as operating within the values and norms of the society”. (Gray et al, 1996).
Many people only gain awareness of corporate social responsibility or a lack of it when there is some kind of controversy which society has been exposed to as citied in Boddy (2011). There is no consensus on what constitutes virtuous corporate behaviour. Which leads to questions to corporations, is sourcing overseas to take advantage of lower labour costs responsible? Are companies morally obligated to insist that their contractors pay a ‘living wage’ rather than market wages? Are investments in natural resources in poor countries with corrupt governments always, sometimes or never irresponsible? Therefore in this essay I outline corporation behaviour and how CSR has a big impact on firms and consumer activities.
Is it a good idea that BP admitted climate change before many of its competitors, or criticised for its poor record? Is it a good idea that Shell is
This essay will be based on corporate social responsibility (CSR). It should allow the reader to understand what CSR is, the importance of CSR and how it would influence customer activities. Themes that would be included in this essay will be the background of corporate social responsibility, history and the development of corporate social responsibility. The key concepts will also be explained and the different stakeholders which will be linked to corporate social responsibility.
It could be argued that corporate social responsibility practices can affect wider society. As explained in Boddy (2011, p. 136) Ford managers who dealt with Pinto advocated that profit is more important than the safety of others. It could be argued that there may be many organisations that do not think about the welfare of their employees or consumers. As stated in Francisca Farache and Keith J. Perks (2010) “Legitimacy theory states that organisations can only secure their existence if they are perceived as operating within the values and norms of the society”. (Gray et al, 1996).
Many people only gain awareness of corporate social responsibility or a lack of it when there is some kind of controversy which society has been exposed to as citied in Boddy (2011). There is no consensus on what constitutes virtuous corporate behaviour. Which leads to questions to corporations, is sourcing overseas to take advantage of lower labour costs responsible? Are companies morally obligated to insist that their contractors pay a ‘living wage’ rather than market wages? Are investments in natural resources in poor countries with corrupt governments always, sometimes or never irresponsible? Therefore in this essay I outline corporation behaviour and how CSR has a big impact on firms and consumer activities.
Is it a good idea that BP admitted climate change before many of its competitors, or criticised for its poor record? Is it a good idea that Shell is
Bibliography: Boddy.D with Paton.S (2011) Management An Introduction. 5th Edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Caroline.D, Simonsen.D and Wenstop.F (2013) ‘How stakeholders view stakeholdersas CSR motivators?’Social Responsibility Journal 7(1) pp. 137-147. Farache.F and Perks.K.J (2010) ‘CSR advertisements: a legitimacy tool? ‘Corporate Communications: An International Journal 15(3) pp. 235-248. Sarbutt. N (2003) ‘Can SMEs ‘do’ CSR? A practitioner’s views of the ways small –and medium sized enterprises are able to manage reputation through corporate social responsibility’Journal of Communications management 7(4) pp. 340-347. Reflective journal I will discuss my personal experience when completing this task. By doing this task I have learnt about CSR as this is not a topic I have studied previously. I have learnt the importance of CSR in organisations and how customers consider ethical behaviours. I have also learnt how to use my research effectively because in this task I could only use limited sources. Furthermore, I could have improved my learning by having good management skills as this is an area where I struggled. Also I have not read journals before so understanding journals was another area where I struggled. Therefore, I need to make sure that for other tasks I undertake careful planning and make notes so that I can use in my writing. I will also need to start reading journals so I can adjust myself when reading future journals for my writing. I also feel that the main problem I had with this assignment was referencing. I need to watch tutorials online and read examples of referencing so it can help develop this skill. My main weakness would be time management as I did not allow myself to prepare for this essay. When given future work I must make sure that I organise my notes and research so that it helps when writing the actual essay. I must also make sure that I use the resources given to me and the best of my ability so that I can get a good overall grade. This task was difficult and I believe that I need to develop these skills so that I can pass this degree. I also believe that there is a big change coming to study at university and therefore I must be organised and manage my time effectively if I want to success on this degree.