Firms should be socially responsible
Despite there being a case against firms being socially responsible it’s clear that the traditional view of simply making a profit is has changed. Firms have realised that conventional wisdom is outdated and therefore the New Thinking according to Porter (2013) is now seen as the modern day alternative. Awareness of the issues increased drastically in the 1960’s and early 70’s (Murphy, 1978 in Carroll 2010) and this increased pressure on firms to focus on CSR (McWilliams et al, 2000) therefore making firms unable to evade responsibility (Thompson, 2005) by relying on government. This reliance and failure of the government (Crane et al, 2010) to handle the scale of social problems put yet more emphasis on …show more content…
For example, being socially responsible can lead to a good reputation; there’s clear evidence the public support CSR (seen in the growth of the Body Shop). This reputation in turn increases sales, reduces cost and gives the product a USP (Rhee et al, 2006 in Trevino et al, 2010) which helps the firm to improve their economic position whilst also helping socially i.e. Shared Value according to Porter (2013). Additionally, being socially responsible helps recruitment and retainment of employees. Stanford University found that 94% of graduates were willing to pass up on higher pay in order to work for a socially responsible firm. For this reason, it’s clear that firms should ‘jointly address challenges’ (Selsky et al, 2005:850) with the government and NGO’s. This has been seen at Nestle who’ve worked with NGO’s in Latin America to provide 50,000 coffee producers with the required materials (Buchanan et al, 2017) helping improve their reputation …show more content…
Available online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1780075.stm [Accessed: 10/11/2016]
Buchanan, D. A. & Huczynski, A. A. (2017) Organizational Behaviour, 9th Edition. Harlow, London: Pearson
Carroll. A. B. & Shabana. K. M. (2010) The Business case for corporate social responsibility: A review of concepts, research and practice, 12(1), 85-105
Crane, A. & Matten, D. (2010) Business Ethics, 3rd Edition. New York, Oxford University Press Inc.
Griseri, P. & Seppala, N. (2010) Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, 1st Edition. Boston: CENGAGE Learning Business Press
McWilliams, A. & Siegel, D. (2000) Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: Correlation or misspecification? 21(5), 603-609
Newton, L. H. (2005) Business Ethics and the natural environment, 6th Edition. Oxford, Blackwells
Porter, M. (2013) the case for letting business solve social problems Available online: http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_porter_why_business_can_be_good_at_solving_social_problems Accessed: 2/11/2016
Selsky, J. W. & Parker, B. (2005) Cross-Sector partnerships to address social issues: Challenges to theory and practice, 31(6),
Despite there being a case against firms being socially responsible it’s clear that the traditional view of simply making a profit is has changed. Firms have realised that conventional wisdom is outdated and therefore the New Thinking according to Porter (2013) is now seen as the modern day alternative. Awareness of the issues increased drastically in the 1960’s and early 70’s (Murphy, 1978 in Carroll 2010) and this increased pressure on firms to focus on CSR (McWilliams et al, 2000) therefore making firms unable to evade responsibility (Thompson, 2005) by relying on government. This reliance and failure of the government (Crane et al, 2010) to handle the scale of social problems put yet more emphasis on …show more content…
For example, being socially responsible can lead to a good reputation; there’s clear evidence the public support CSR (seen in the growth of the Body Shop). This reputation in turn increases sales, reduces cost and gives the product a USP (Rhee et al, 2006 in Trevino et al, 2010) which helps the firm to improve their economic position whilst also helping socially i.e. Shared Value according to Porter (2013). Additionally, being socially responsible helps recruitment and retainment of employees. Stanford University found that 94% of graduates were willing to pass up on higher pay in order to work for a socially responsible firm. For this reason, it’s clear that firms should ‘jointly address challenges’ (Selsky et al, 2005:850) with the government and NGO’s. This has been seen at Nestle who’ve worked with NGO’s in Latin America to provide 50,000 coffee producers with the required materials (Buchanan et al, 2017) helping improve their reputation …show more content…
Available online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1780075.stm [Accessed: 10/11/2016]
Buchanan, D. A. & Huczynski, A. A. (2017) Organizational Behaviour, 9th Edition. Harlow, London: Pearson
Carroll. A. B. & Shabana. K. M. (2010) The Business case for corporate social responsibility: A review of concepts, research and practice, 12(1), 85-105
Crane, A. & Matten, D. (2010) Business Ethics, 3rd Edition. New York, Oxford University Press Inc.
Griseri, P. & Seppala, N. (2010) Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, 1st Edition. Boston: CENGAGE Learning Business Press
McWilliams, A. & Siegel, D. (2000) Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: Correlation or misspecification? 21(5), 603-609
Newton, L. H. (2005) Business Ethics and the natural environment, 6th Edition. Oxford, Blackwells
Porter, M. (2013) the case for letting business solve social problems Available online: http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_porter_why_business_can_be_good_at_solving_social_problems Accessed: 2/11/2016
Selsky, J. W. & Parker, B. (2005) Cross-Sector partnerships to address social issues: Challenges to theory and practice, 31(6),