Chapter 9 - Social responsibility and ethics in business

The nature and aspects of social responsibility

Social responsibility is the concern of businesses for the welfare of society as a whole, responsibilities beyond the management of the firm itself. The firm is expected to act like a citizen, having rights, duties, selfconscious and an ethical feature.

The nature and aspects of social responsibility

Firms are expected to show their social responsibility in at least three major areas: 1. protection of the environment 2. protection of consumers 3. relations with the employees

Business ethics
Business ethics represent standards for judging the rightness or wrongness of conduct in business practices, institutions and actions. When a company is criticized for discharging too many pollutants, it is being judged on ethical grounds; When hiring an ex-convict or a person with former drug problems, it is judged positively on ethical grounds too, as contributing to the human well being.

Business ethics
Over the time, business ethics were institutionalized, meaning most of the companies established: - a formal code of ethics a code describing the general value system and ethical principles that must guide the employees in everyday behavior; - ethics committees a group of people within the board of directors that consider the ethical dimensions of company policies and practices and what social programs to work on.

Conclusions

Social responsibility is the concern of businesses for the welfare of society as a whole. It is voluntarily and has a broad application. Firms are expected to show their social responsibility in at least three major areas: protection of the environment, protection of consumers and relations with the employees

Conclusions

Firms response to environmental problems is recycling used materials. Firms response to consumerism is improving the products and services quality. Related to the discrimination problems, the firms must act like a human beings, based on judgment and trust/second chance principles.

Conclusions

Business ethics represent standards for judging the rightness or wrongness of conduct in business practices, institutions and actions. Ethics concerns the rules by which social responsibility is carried out, establishing to whom and for what the firm is responsible.

Thank you for your attention!