Corporate Social Responsibility

Read this section, paying particular attention to the sections on communities, financial contributions, volunteerism, and supporting local causes to learn more about the positive impact of businesses.

Corporate Social Responsibility

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

  1. Define corporate social responsibility and explain how organizations are responsible to their stakeholders.


Corporate social responsibility refers to the approach that an organization takes in balancing its responsibilities toward different stakeholders when making legal, economic, ethical, and social decisions. What motivates companies to be "socially responsible" to their various stakeholders? We hope it's because they want to do the right thing, and for many companies, "doing the right thing" is a key motivator. The fact is, it's often hard to figure out what the "right thing" is: What's "right" for one group of stakeholders isn't necessarily just as "right" for another. One thing, however, is certain: Companies today are held to higher standards than ever before. Consumers and other groups consider not only the quality and price of a company's products but also its character. If too many groups see a company as a poor corporate citizen, it will have a harder time attracting qualified employees, finding investors, and selling its products. Good corporate citizens, by contrast, are more successful in all these areas.

Figure 2.6 "The Corporate Citizen" presents a model of corporate responsibility based on a company's relationships with its stakeholders. In this model, the focus is on managers – not owners – as the principals involved in all these relationships. Here, owners are the stakeholders who invest risk capital in the firm in expectation of a financial return. Other stakeholders include employees, suppliers, and the communities in which the firm does business. Proponents of this model hold that customers, who provide the firm with revenue, have a special claim on managers' attention. The arrows indicate the two-way nature of corporation-stakeholder relationships: All stakeholders have some claim on the firm's resources and returns, and it's management's job to make decisions that balance these claims.

Figure 2.6 The Corporate Citizen


Let's look at some of the ways in which companies can be "socially responsible" in considering the claims of various stakeholders.


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