Corporate Social Responsibility, Big Business vs. Average Consumer
The whole idea of corporate social responsibility is based on the principles that business organizations have ethical, moral and legal obligations along with humanitarian responsibilities and earning a fair return for their investors and complying with the law. Traditional views are premised on the idea that the corporation’s first accountability is to be to its stockholders. The steady commitment by businesses to perform in ethical and contributory manners for economic development while improving the quality of life for their employees and the employee’s families and taking into consideration the impact on the local community is the basis for corporate responsibility, but that is not the full extent.
In the final analysis, without social responsibility, the wealth creation process fails. If managed in a proper manner wealth creation will enhance the competitive market of business and maximize the value of wealth creation in the eyes of society. Hard times call for corporate humanitarian acts. Protect the customer base so that you can survive to do business tomorrow after the crisis passes. What better way to build a solid consumer base than to be the one to come to the rescue in a disaster and then establish a business in the very area where you were of help? People remember who brought in the medical crews, clean water, housing, and food and helped put life back to normal. The average consumer will take their business to the corporations that put their towns and cities back together when there seemed to be no hope.
The moral judgments and behaviours of individuals and groups within an organization are the back bone of corporate social responsibility. Business ethics encompass economics, legalities, ethics and optional responsibilities of an organization. Without the moral judgments and behaviours being in the best interest of consumer and stock holders, businesses will fold under lawsuits, theft, and other behaviours that destroy the corporation.
Two hundred years ago Adam Smith, a leader in business of the day, stated that the market will not always perform perfectly and because of this marketplace participants must be honest and just toward each other in order to achieve the ideals of the free market. This holds just as true today as it did two hundred years ago.
The economic reports of large corporations that develop a status as being socially responsible and ethical show that these corporations are enjoying higher levels of returns on investments, though the central motivation for corporate social responsibility should not be the financial returns, but the ethical and moral returns that are received.
Corporate social responsibility plays an important role for many businesses who also like to promote citizen education increase awareness.
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