What is the 4 responsibilities of
Corporate Social Responsibilities?
Corporate social responsibilty
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.Carroll
regards corporate social responsibility as consecutive layers within a pyramid
encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and philantrophic expectation placed
on organization by society at a given point in time.
Economic responsibility can
be defined as companies have shareholders who demand a reasonable return on
investments, they have employees who want safe and fairly paid jobs, they have
customers who demand good quality products at a fair price. This is by
definition the reason why businesses are set up in society and so the first
responsibility of business is to be a properly functioning economic unit and to
stay in business. This first layer of corporate social responsibility is the
basis for all the subsequent responsibilities, which rest on this solid basis.
According to Carroll, the satisfaction of economic responsibilities is thus required
of all corporation.
The legal responsibility of
corporations demands that businesses abide by the law. Laws, are the
codification of society’s moral views, and therefore abiding by these standards
is a necessary prerequisite for any further reasoning about social
responsibilities. For example, in the last few years a number of high profile
firms have been convicted of anti-competitive behaviour as a result of illegal
strategies aimed at maintaning market share and profitability. For example, the
US software giant Microsoft has faced a long running antitrust cse in Europe
for abusing its monopolistic position to disadvantage competitors, resulting
tough settlement against the company. As with economic responsibility, Carroll
sugests that the satisfaction of legal responsibilitiesb is required of all
corporations seeking to be socially responsible.
Ethical responsibility
oblige corporations to do what is right, just and fair even when they are not
to do so by the legal framework. For example, when Shell sought to dispose of
the Brent Spar oil platform at sea in 1995, it had the full agreement of the
law and the British goverment to do so, yet still fell victim to a vigorous
campaign against the acton by Greenpeace as well as a consumer boycott. As a
result, the legal decision to dispose of the platform at sea was eventually
reversed since the firm had failed to take account of society’s wider ethical
expectations. Carroll argues that ethical responsibilities therefore consist of
what is generally expected by society over and above economic and legal
expectations.
Philantrophic responsibility
is the fourth level of corporate social responsibility. By using this idea in a
business context, the model incorporates activities that are within the
corporation’s discretion to improve the quality of life of employees, local
communities, and ultimately society in general. This aspects of corporate social
responsibility addresses a great issues including things such families, support
for local schools, or sponsoring of art and sports events. According to
Carroll, philantrophic responsibilities are therefore merely desired of
corporations without being expected or required.
