Corporate responsibility

Corporate responsibility or corporate is defined as the way a business assumes responsibility for its own operations & actions, and the actions of its employees, stakeholders, and communities. Corporate responsibility also includes the way a company conducts its business, how it manages the impact their businesses have on the environment, and how it gives back to society.

2. Ethical corporate social responsibility

The society holds the normative expectations that laws are essential but they are not sufficient. In addition to what the law requires of a company, society expects businesses to be conducted in a manner that is ethical. Taking on the burden of ethical responsibilities shows that organizations will ensure they follow activities norms and live up to certain standards despite the fact that they are not demanded by the law but the society expects them to do so. Part of the ethical expectation of the business is that they will conduct their affairs in a manner that is fair and objective even in cases where the law has not dictated the course of action to be taken. Therefore, the work of ethical responsibilities is to embrace the standards and conditions that are expected or prohibited by society but not codified by the law. This goal ensures that businesses are responsive to the requirements, norms, conditions, and standards that reflect the honor accorded to customers, employees and the stakeholders since it protects their moral rights (Carrol, 2016).

While meeting these ethical responsibilities the businesses are expected to; carry out their day to day activities in a manner that is consistent to the expectations of society, accord recognition to the new and ethical norms that arise in society, ensure that they do not in any circumstance compromise ethical norms as they carry out their business, do what is morally and ethically expected of them which in turn makes them good corporate citizens. They should also know that ethics go beyond their compliance with the law (Carrol, 2016).

3. 3. The 21st century CR surge

Corporate social responsibility can be regarded as one of the earliest and key concepts in the study of businesses and their relation to society. The key interest in this concept is the question whether the interest of the business and society will merge in the long run. Corporate responsibility in the 21st century can be said to be an ongoing process of sensitizing business to various changes taking place in governance, and the changes that are taking place yet they go beyond the laws set by the government, Corporate responsibility is increasingly being incorporated in many businesses in the 21^st century Lastly, CSR are being used to mark the developments that are being made by businesses as organs of society. In the 21st century, CR is rapidly becoming a primary imperative to businesses and communities at a national and international level (Horrigan, nd).

4. Corporate social responsibility and the media

Media attention has an impact on how frequent firms engage in CSR activities. Management scholars investigating the role of media attention in CSR found out that media attention is responsible for influencing the behaviors and the activities that business involves itself in. Highly visible firms, that is firms that are given much attention by the media tend to invest more in CSR activities than less visible firms, that is firms receiving little attention from the media. Firms receiving attention from the media tend to receive high expectations from their stakeholders thus they are forced to involve in CSR more in order to meet these expectations, and because they are more vulnerable to crises, they will engage more in CSR  in order to build a good reputation (Zyglidopoulos, Stelios, Georgiadis, Carroll, and Siegel, 2012)

5. The upside of corporate responsibility

Engaging in CSR is a good thing for many firms. It creates a good image of the business but it creates risks for the business. An insincere CSR can make a business ruin its reputation and incur unnecessary costs. Financial profits are spent on CSR just for a no or little returns. CSR creates internal bureaucracy that in turn slows down the internal operation of the business which affects its performance. The resources spent on CSR could have been spent on more profitable opportunities. CSR has been put in place to appease stakeholders and critics that would likely led to collapse of the business (Harrison, Myron, Rapporteur. 2007). CSR is a way of increasing sales and increasing the reputation of a firm but it brings about risks that many businesses are reluctant to embrace.

6. Reputation risk management

In many instances, CSR has been used as a reputation risk management. Taking a scenario where a firm is impacting the environment it is expected that a negative environmental impact will be penalized with a bad reputation while a firm impaction the environment in a positive way will be rewarded with a good reputation. Environmental management is a driver of corporate reputation; therefore, it can be used as a tool for reputation and risk management (García-Madariaga, and Rodríguez-Rivera, 2017).

7. Brand differentiation

Brand differentiation is among the reasons why firms choose to embrace CSR. When CSR was first used companies such as Timberland found their voice and incorporated its values into its business model.  Currently, Coke and Pepsi brand have been competing for a long time they are adopting slightly approaches to CSR. Both companies are using plastic water bottles, both of these companies are very much trying to differentiate their brand from the other with the aim of grabbing a larger market share the problem is that they are adopting a slightly similar approach. In the end, consumers will only see a slight difference but in the long run, it proves that CSR is not an enthusiasm that will be short-lived (Reeves, 2012).

8. Talent attraction and retention

CSR helps improve the working conditions of employees thus the firm is able to attract and retain employees. These are the main areas that employees address in order to attract new talents and retain the employees working for them; recognition of the welfare of the employees by valuing their contribution, aligning the company’s principles to be in line with the values of the employees. lastly, CSR requires employees, in the process of volunteering employees can feel more valuable and satisfied (Yadav, Dash, Chakraborty, & Kumar, 2018).

9. CR and corporate reputation

Issues relating to the responsibility of a business are the key attributes from which the reputation of the firm is judged. Corporate reputation is the concept that stakeholders have concerning the organization. CR plays a very important role because it helps build the reputation of a firm and stakeholders make decisions based on the reputation of the business. CR is an intangible asset that firms should carefully manage and strategic importance understood due to the fact that is associated with the reputation of the firm (Yadav, et al, 2018).

10. Consumer values and expectations

Consumers expectations have been known to drive marketers to incorporate social consideration in the practices they use when marketing CSR concerns itself to fulfill and exceed the expectations of their consumers. Consumers often tend to have high expectations on businesses and their engagement in CSR, these expectations tend to be even high for highly visible firms (Harrison, et al 2007). Always the expectation of consumers has an impact on the business.

11. Investor pressure: the growth of socially responsible investing

Socially responsible investing is developed according to the demands of investors. According to the market, the need for investors has extended with a new extra-financial investment criterion, this criterion is referred to as environmental, social and governance criteria (ESG). This criterion makes SRI related to CSR as they are encouraging each other. Individual and institutional investors are considering ESG when making their investment decision (Harrison, et al 2007). 

12. Responsibility inside and out: employee involvement in Corporate responsibility

Employees play an important role in Corporate Responsibility. The employees are responsible for supporting a broad CR strategy, by ensuring the practices of the organization align with their values and culture. Employees play an important role in embedding CSR into the core of its Human Resource practices such as recruitment, communication, and diversity. Employees are responsible for leading community-based schemes, such as employee volunteering programs (Yadav, Dash, Chakraborty, & Kumar, 2018).

13. Being green

Everyday consumers are becoming more aware of the negative impacts that businesses have on the environment. CSR helps companies adopt advanced human resource management practices, reduction of environmentally hazardous substances thus preserving the environment (Albus, and Ro, 2017). Sustainability efforts under corporate social responsibility include green practices that aim to safeguard the environment.

14. Communicating about corporate responsibility

Communication is an important aspect of CSR. It ensures greater corporate transparency and enables better engagement with multiple stakeholders. Communication should be voluntary and should be guided by market pressure. Depending on the organization communication is shaped by different factors such as national culture, employees, community and environmental concerns (Golob, and Bartlett, 2007).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference List

  Albus, H. and Ro, H. (2017) ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: The Effect Of Green Practices In A Service Recovery’, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 41(1), pp. 41–65. doi: 10.1177/1096348013515915.

Carroll B 2010, Carroll’s pyramid of CSR: taking another look, Retrieved from; https://jcsr.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40991-016-0004-6

DeAngelis S 2017Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21^st Century. Retrieved from; https://www.enterrasolutions.com/blog/corporate-social-responsibility-21st-century/

García-Madariaga, J, and Rodríguez-Rivera, F 2017. Corporate social responsibility, customer satisfaction, corporate reputation, and firms’ market value: Evidence from the automobile industry. Spanish Journal of Marketing-ESIC, 21, pp.39-53.

Golob, U. and Bartlett, J.L., 2007. Communicating about corporate social responsibility: A comparative study of CSR reporting in Australia and Slovenia. Public Relations Review, 33(1), pp.1-9.

Harrison, Myron, Rapporteur, 2007, Global environmental health in the 21st century: from governmental regulation to corporate social responsibility: workshop summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11833#toc.

Horrigan B 2007, 21^st Century Corporate Social Responsibility Trends-An Emerging Comparative Body of Law and Regulation on Corporate Responsibility, Governance, and Sustainability. Retrieved from;  http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan033581.pdf

Reeves E 2012. Six Reasons Companies Should Embrace CSR. Retrieved from; https://www.forbes.com/sites/csr/2012/02/21/six-reasons-companies-should-embrace-csr/#6ece9cc63495

Schettino, A. 2016. What is Your Role in Corporate Social Responsibility? Retrieved; https://www.legal-island.com/articles/uk/features/hr/2016/feb/what-is-your-role-in-corporate-social-responsibility/

    Yadav R, Dash S, Chakraborty S, & Kumar M 2018, Perceived CSR and Corporate Reputation: The Mediating Role of Employee Trust. Vikalpa, 43(3), 139–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090918794823

Zyglidopoulos, Stelios C., Andreas P. Georgiadis, Craig E. Carroll, and Donald S. Siegel. "Does media attention drive corporate social responsibility?." Journal of Business Research 65, no. 11 (2012): 1622-1627.