Corporate Social Responsibility Within Phillip Morris
PPD1 – portfolio 2
Corporate Social Responsibility within Phillip Morris (USA and International)
Word Count: 1867
I will in this essay assess the efforts of the two chosen companies, Altria’s Phillip Morris USA and Phillip Morris International, in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Before tackling this, a brief explanation of CSR and its introduction in the companies will be provided. Thereafter, I will deal with domestic issues within the United States regarding health deterioration caused by tobacco, state intervention and youth smoking prevention, by assessing how Phillip Morris USA has dealt with these. While these CSR issues mainly deal with the consumption of cigarettes - I will afterwards move on to the other company, Phillip Morris International, and evaluate CSR efforts relating to its supply chain. This discussion will mainly entail the issue of abusing labor. Make note, that the two companies used to be one, but were split in 2008. However, they created their CSR policies as one, and still share similar views on it, so for the purpose of this assignment, they will be treated alongside one another. In order to discuss Corporate Social Responsibility, a definition must be provided, as the term has undergone much debate through time. CSR is by Griseri & Seppala (2010) broadly defined as “the accommodation of corporate behavior to society’s values and expectations”. CSR goes beyond legal and economic responsibility, which is the important distinction to make. Within Phillip Morris USA, CSR was introduced towards the end of the 90s, when in 1997 the “PM21” public relations strategy was launched (Hirschhorn, 2003). In the preceding years of the launch, the company had been suffering from an increasing number of lawsuits from US state attorneys, arising from public protest against tobacco products and their harmfulness. PM21 “intended to burnish the company’s image by stressing its humanitarian and environmental good works” (Hirschhorn,
Corporate Social Responsibility within Phillip Morris (USA and International)
Word Count: 1867
I will in this essay assess the efforts of the two chosen companies, Altria’s Phillip Morris USA and Phillip Morris International, in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Before tackling this, a brief explanation of CSR and its introduction in the companies will be provided. Thereafter, I will deal with domestic issues within the United States regarding health deterioration caused by tobacco, state intervention and youth smoking prevention, by assessing how Phillip Morris USA has dealt with these. While these CSR issues mainly deal with the consumption of cigarettes - I will afterwards move on to the other company, Phillip Morris International, and evaluate CSR efforts relating to its supply chain. This discussion will mainly entail the issue of abusing labor. Make note, that the two companies used to be one, but were split in 2008. However, they created their CSR policies as one, and still share similar views on it, so for the purpose of this assignment, they will be treated alongside one another. In order to discuss Corporate Social Responsibility, a definition must be provided, as the term has undergone much debate through time. CSR is by Griseri & Seppala (2010) broadly defined as “the accommodation of corporate behavior to society’s values and expectations”. CSR goes beyond legal and economic responsibility, which is the important distinction to make. Within Phillip Morris USA, CSR was introduced towards the end of the 90s, when in 1997 the “PM21” public relations strategy was launched (Hirschhorn, 2003). In the preceding years of the launch, the company had been suffering from an increasing number of lawsuits from US state attorneys, arising from public protest against tobacco products and their harmfulness. PM21 “intended to burnish the company’s image by stressing its humanitarian and environmental good works” (Hirschhorn,
Bibliography: 2. Needle, David. (2010). Business in Context – an introduction to business and its environment. Cengage learning. 3 2. Hirschhorn, Norbert. (2003). Corporate social responsibility and the tobacco industry: hope or hype? Tob Control 2004: Volume 13: issue 4. 3. The Business Wire. (2012). Altria Statement on Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Tobacco. Database: Regional Business News. 4 5. Palitza, Kristin. (14-09-2011). Child labor: The tobacco industry’s smoking gun. The Guardian (guardian.co.uk) 6