CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) AND ETHICS

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• CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) AND ETHICS
• Submitted toProf.Moreno Submitted byAmiri
  Parvin(kiana)
  January 2013

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Definitions and Relationships

• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the
  process by which businesses negotiate their role
  in society
• In the business world, ethics is the study of
  morally appropriate behaviors and decisions,
  examining what "should be done
• Although the two are linked in most firms, CSR
  activities are no guarantee of ethical behavior

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Recent Evidence of CSR Interest

• An Internet search turns up 15,000 plus
  response to corporate citizenship
• Journals increasingly rate businesses (and
  NGOs) on socially responsive criteria
• Best place to work
• Most admired
• Best (and worst) corporate reputation

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Reasons for CSR Activities

• CSR activities are important to and even
  expected by the public
• And they are easily monitored worldwide
• CSR activities help organizations hire and
  retain the people they want
• CSR activities contribute to business
  performance

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CSR are Grounded by Opposing Objectives (Maximize
Profits to Balance Profits with Social
Responsibility) and so Activities Range Widely

• Do what it takes to make a profit skirt the
  law fly below social radar
• Fight CSR initiatives
• Comply with legal requirements
• Do more than legally required, e.g.,
  philanthropy
• Articulate social (CSR) objectives
• Integrate social objectives and business goals
• Lead the industry on social objectives

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Businesses CSR Activities

• Philanthropy
• give money or time or in kind to charity
• Integrative philanthropyselect beneficiaries
  aligned with company interests
• Philanthropy will not enhance corporate
  reputation if a company
• fails to live up to its philanthropic image or
• if consumers perceive philanthropy to be
  manipulative

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Integrate CSR Globally

• Incorporate values to make it part of an
  articulated belief system
• Act worldwide on those values
• Cause-related marketing
• Cause-based cross sector partnerships
• Engage with stakeholders
• Primary stakeholders
• Secondary stakeholders

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Business Ethics Development

• The cultural context influences organizational
  ethics
• Top managers also influence ethics
• The combined influence of culture and top
  management influence organizational ethics and
  ethical behaviors

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The Evolving Context for Ethics

• From domestic where ethics are shared
• To international where ethics are not shared
  when companies
• Make assumptions that ethics are the same
• Ethical absolutismthey adapt to us
• Ethical relativismwe adapt to them
• To global which requires an integrative
  approach to ethics

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Emergence of a Global Business Ethic

• Growing sense that responsibility for righting
  social wrongs belongs to all organizations
• Growing business need for integrative
  mechanisms such as ethics
• Ethics reduce operating uncertainties
• Voluntary guidelines avoid government
  impositions
• Ethical conduct is needed in an increasingly
  interdependent worldeveryone in the same game
• Companies wish to avoid problems and/or be good
  public citizens

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Ways Companies Integrate Ethics

• Top management commitment in word and deed
• Company codes of ethics
• Supply chain codes
• Develop, monitor, enforce ethical behavior
• Seek external assistance

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External Assistance with Ethics

• Industry or professional codes
• Certification programs, e.g., ISO 9000
• Adopt/follow global codes
• Caux Round Table Principles

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Reasons for Businesses to Engage in Development
of a Global Code of Business Ethics

• Create the same opportunity for all businesses
  if there are common rules
• Level the playing field
• They are needed in an interconnected world
• They reduce operating uncertainties
• If businesses dont collaborate, they may not
  like what others develop

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Four Challenges to a Global Ethic

• Global rules emerge from negotiations and will
  reflect values of the strong
• Global rules may be viewed as an end rather
  than a beginning
• Rules can depress innovation and creativity
• Rules are static but globalization is dynamic