Also known as corporate citizenship, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is widely accepted as an obligation when it comes to modern business, and is based on the idea of going beyond the existing legalities and regulations when it comes to protecting the environment and contributing to social welfare. CSR could be associated with a philosophy that raises the expectations from a business/ company/ organization beyond the basic (such as producing a reliable product, charging its customers with a fair price and keeping a fair/ reasonable profit margin, providing employees with fair wages) and extends to caring for not just themselves but the environment and other social concerns as well.
Few of the responsibilities of the organisations towards the society include factors such as preventing environmental pollution as much as possible, making use of appropriate and most efficient technology, contributing towards the growth and development of social health education, minimizing the ecological imbalance and overall development of the locality.
Some common questions or doubts that one tends to have is whether Corporate Social Responsibility and ethics are the same? Or even whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) are the same? The answer to both of those is a simple and clear no.
While both CSR and ethics are closely intertwined, ethics is a way broader concept than CSR. CSR revolves more around the specific organization's social obligations to the society while ethics (in business) has a broader construct and extents these obligations not just to the society but the employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and other stakeholders as well.
Similarly Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) offers a more defined focus for the organization’s ethical activities in comparison to the CSR.
Something we must know is that CSR has had an impact in several domains. Companies have initiated measures such as installing renewable energy sources/ purchasing carbon offsets to improve the environmental sustainability of their operations. Additionally, in various industries especially in managing supply chains, efforts and precautionary measures have been taken to eliminate the reliance/ implementation of child labour, slavery and other unethical practices.
Corporate social responsibilities are divided further into three kinds of responsibilities, namely, economic, legal and ethical responsibilities.
Some of the financial responsibilities that every company/ business/ organization has towards the shareholders include working for the survival and growth of the organization and its productivity, building an honourable reputation and goodwill of the company, ensuring a feasible and reasonable rate of return over time and most importantly- remaining transparent and accountable always.
Regular payment of taxes, refraining from taking advantage of loopholes in business laws, obeying and abiding by various instilled rules and regulations and finally, cooperating with the government to not just promote social values but also for the economic growth and development of the society/ nation are few of the responsibilities that every organization has towards the government.
A few of the ethical concerns that need immediate attention from all organisations globally are-
• Violation of customer rights
• Protection of the environment
• Exploitation of employees
• Exploitation of women
• Exploitation of child labour
• Misleading advertisements
• Production of hazardous products
• Illegal trade practices
• Indulgence in corrupt and/ or unfair practices by the management
• Violation of Intellectual Property Rights
Two other vital responsibilities that CSR focuses on for every organization globally are- responsibilities towards employees and customers.
Organisations need to grant employees regular and fair wages and provide them with a healthy and safe working environment to enable most productivity. Organisations/ Companies must also provide services for employees to train along with welfare services as well as promotion facilities. Apart from the expected and reasonable standards of working and norms, the organization/ company must also recognize the efficiency and hard work of employees and reward them. Additionally, providing mechanisms or alternatives to redress workers’ grievances might also be considered one of the many responsibilities that organisations bear for employees under the corporate social responsibilities (CSR).
As for the customers, the organisations must adopt fair pricing, resist black-marketing and profiteering, maintain and respond efficiently to customer’s grievances cell and use it as a survey to improve upon bottlenecks or grievances, provide after-sale server and most importantly, supply socially harmless products to all its customers.
Apart from these responsibilities, there also are some difficulties or challenges that organisations may face. One such significant challenge companies that operate in different geographic areas and/ or multiple industries may face is the task of keeping up with the varying social responsibilities that differ from region to region and also from industry to industry.
All things being said, despite providing multiple benefits to businesses such as,
Þ A stronger brand image and a better reputation
Þ Boosting the firm’s or organisation’s competitiveness
Þ Increased customer loyalty along with requesting services time
Þ Retaining and rewarding the key, skilled employees.
Þ Having easier access to funding and also saving up on operational costs
Some business owners still disregard the idea of participating in CSR for reasons such as lack of social skills, the need to maximise profit to the fullest by cancelling out the cost of social participation or having to invest in non-renewable sources of energy/ environmental friendly better techniques, lack of accountability and lastly, the inability to make ethical choices.
All in all, CSR is often seen to be a tough business decision given the challenges faced in its implementations, but most people still view it to be a beneficial strategy for organisations with ethical practices and values that tend to have a more loyal and bigger customer base, hence generating more sales and profit!
To implement CSR or not- what is your stand on it? Feel free to share your opinions or express your queries if any in the comments section!
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