CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

INTRODUCTION:

In the recent times social responsibility of business towards people at large is under sharp focus. As increasing number of companies all over world gear up to meet this increasing expectation, there is a realization that corporate social responsibility is not just about addressing images of despair. Corporate Social Responsibility is more about a whole developmental process of planned change, aimed at lasting improvements in the quality of lives of people at large. CSR is beyond the realms of our present mind set a shift from altruism to greater social inclusion. Peter Drucker and other management gurus have time and again addressed business leaders on the growing diversity in society and its implications on managing business. They feel that institutions have not fully succeeded in taking adequate care of collective good, although these institutions flourished because of community. Therefore, they argue why future business leaders will have to lead their businesses or institutions, and that they have to also learn to build community along with others.

CSR is not in a switch-on-switch-off mode of sporadic interventions or sponsorship. It is more of a long term partnership through a shared vision on working together developmental issues. It is about how hard core strategies product, service, technology, human resource are innovated to help the poor viewed as opportunities to get market mechanisms to work for all where prices reflect the truth and all this becomes an investment among people rather than

cost. It is about how employees in all strata are encouraged to volunteer in the community and create a new consciousness, for themselves and for their organizations. promotion. 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 Corporate social responsibility originated from Europe, is an important concept coming forth in various braches of learning and field s since the 20the Century, as well as a basic idea in building a harmonious relationship between enterprises and society. The so called social Responsibility of Corporations means that a corporation can not take as its sole purpose of existence to maximize the profit or money of shareholders; in stead, it should enhance to the maximum the interests of other stakeholders. Such social interests include employee interests, consumer interests, creditor interests, interests of medium and small competitors, interests of local communities, environmental interests, interests of the disadvantaged group of society, as well as the public interest of the whole society; it include both the human rights of natural person, especially the social economic and cultural rights as stipulated in the International convention on economic, social and cultural rights (can be called social rights for short), and the rights and interests of corporation organization and noncorporation organization other than natural person. Corporate social responsibility mean that under the conditions of market economy, the economic functions of enterprise is severed from its social functions; CSR is more about providing brand assurance rather than its

an enterprise purposely and designedly takes initiative to undertake its social responsibilities towards employees, consumers and communities, with the results being that the enterprise, while making profits, also gains excellent brand image and social recognition, thus realizes the win-win situation where enterprise and society jointly enjoy sustainable development. The essence of social

responsibilities of corporations is the ethic discipline of enterprise on its own economic behaviors against the background of economic globalization.

CONCEPT:

Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is an expression used to describe what some see as a companys obligation to be sensitive to the needs of the stakeholders in its business operations. A companys stakeholders are all those who are influenced by, or can influence, a companys decisions and actions. These can include (but are not limited to): employees, customers, suppliers, community organizations,

subsidiaries and affiliates, joint venture partners, local neighborhoods, investors, and shareholders (or a sole owner). CSR is closely linked with the principles of Sustainable Development in proposing that enterprises should be obliged to make decisions based not only on the financial/economic factors but also on the social and environmental consequences of their activities.

Some people are cynical about the true level of commitment of corporations to ideas like CSR and Sustainable Development, and their actual motivations for

responsible behaviour.

Corporations that create the appearance of acting

responsibly just for its public relations value are said to be green washing.

Corporate executives and employees in turn have strong incentives to internalize the corporations statutory obligations to maximize profits, sometimes to the extent that they abdicate their individual moral and ethical obligations as human beings.

So the CSR movement may perhaps be understood as an attempt not so much to regulate the activities of corporations per so, as to remind the people who constitute these corporations that they nonetheless have other responsibilities beyond the corporate ones.

Some Definitions

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication Making Good Business Sense by Lord Holme and Richard Watts, used the following definition 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. This holistic approach to business regards organizations as being full partners in their communities, rather than seeing them more narrowly as being primarily in business to make profits and serve the needs of their shareholders.

The same report gave some evidence of the different perceptions of what this should mean from a number of different societies across the world.

Definitions as different as CSR is about capacity building for sustainable livelihoods. It respects cultural differences and finds the business opportunities in building the skills of employees, the community and the government from Ghana, through to CSR is about business giving back to society from the Philippines.

The role of business ethics and corporate social responsibility has been gaining momentum since the past decade in India. While private sector companies like TATA, RELIANCE etc. are setting good examples, PSUs like ONGC & IOCL also have seriously begun to engage with NGOs for various noble causes.

Commentators have defined corporate social responsibility in a variety of ways. Most believe it is founded on good corporate citizenship or the

acknowledgement by businesses that they need to understand and manage the businesss wider influences on society for the benefit of the company and society as a whole (Marsden and Andriof, 1998). Andriof and McIntosh (2001) suggest that corporate social responsibility requires corporate leaders to understand that everything a company does has some flow-on-effect either inside or outside the company, from customers and employees to communities and the environment. They suggest that these impacts have a ripple effect on society that can be divided into three broad overlapping areas. These are: Social involvement in external social issues such as education, social inclusion, regeneration and employee volunteering. Economic addressing issues relating to jobs, ethical trading standards and product value. Environment Consideration of emissions and waste control, energy use, product life cycle and sustainable development.

Management writers suggest that corporate social responsiveness is a businesss capacity to respond to social pressures. Several have noted that to be effective, corporate philanthropy requires a strategic approach to charitable contributions. Garvin (1982) claimed that a well-managed programme of

corporate philanthropy requires a set of goals and objectives; guidelines for determining how much money will be allocated to the programme; criteria for making grants and for evaluating their use; and either in-house professional staff or access to competent consultants.

Management writers have encouraged the link between charitable contributions and business objectives. Wilson (1982) noted that increased

professionalism could result in a more focused approach to giving as businesses expand their contributions programmes. Professional contributions managers can define the educational, cultural, and social commitments that best serve society and the needs of the company. Since business and social environments change

regularly this requires companies to monitor, analyse and react to changing business and social environments. Effective corporate philanthropy and good

corporate responsiveness, from both a business and societal viewpoint, requires the integration of contributions management into the overall strategic planning of a business.