Responsibility Of Corporate Social Responsibility

Decent Essays
While humans may spend a relatively short amount of time here on earth, most of us strive to achieve some measure of good that will long outlast our physical presence. Many people measure their own worth and value to society based on the positive impact they have made on others, which is very admirable. While it would be difficult to find somebody that argues this is a poor way to lead your life, in the past corporations have had difficulty identifying with this train of thought. Corporate social responsibility is a relatively new term that attempts to hold corporations responsible for the actions they take on a regular basis, although it has worked to varying degrees with different companies. While progress may not be exactly where we want …show more content…
I believe that this burden should fall upon the government, as they have the best means of enforcing these regulations. The government should be involved with this process because in theory they should be a completely impartial party and willing to mete out punishment to whoever deserves it, regardless of how deep that companies pockets are or how far their influence reaches. The government 's main job is to protect and serve its people, and there is no better way of doing this than to make sure that we are not marginalized by some major corporation just because they see a window for profit. The government already has many precautions in place to ensure that future generations can enjoy this land just like we do, and they should certainly be able to press these standards on businesses. At the same time I also believe that the government’s power should be limited to a certain degree, as a company should not be forced to stray too far from the mission upon which it first set out. While we all may wish that every company would do as much as it possibly could to help the world, this is simply not realistic, and there should be a strict set of minimum requirements that all companies must meet. After these requirements companies should be allowed, but not forced, to spend extra time and money on …show more content…
The more time and money a company invests in to CSR the more likely I believe it is to succeed. Obviously there is a point of no returns here, because there does have to be a balance between shareholder needs and CSR spending, but the limit is fairly high. With the internet and social media as pervasive in our lives as it is today, it is much harder for companies to participate in poor practices without us knowing. No longer can a factory dump toxic waste in to a river, because somewhere downstream somebody will have a camera to capture the footage. Time has shown when these types of scandals erupt in the news, stock prices always tank and a large sum of money has to be spent to try and correct the company’s reputation. Investing in worker benefits and safe work conditions also promotes a more productive workforce, so there are a number of ways that investing in CSR can drive positive firm performance. In this day and age, companies are not left much of a choice other than to make sure they behave responsibly, because people all over the world have made it quite clear that they will no longer tolerate a company that looks out only for its own

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