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5 The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility
5 The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility
AND SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
UNIT III:
The Social Responsibility
of Business
LESSON 9
The Concept of Corporate
Social Responsibility
Lesson Objectives
• To define corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• To distinguish between CSR and business
ethics
• To give some simple business illustrations of
CSR
• To explain the business case for CSR
What Is Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR)?
It refers to a corporation’s responsibilities or
obligations toward society.
The World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD), define CSR as “a
continuing commitment by business to behave
ethically and contribute to economic
development while improving the quality of life
of the workforce and their families, the local
community, and society at large.”
Point of Contention on What
Obligations Are Included in CSR
Based on assumptions of
private property and the
free market, the ONLY
social responsibility of
business is to INCREASE
its PROFITS.
http://www.rschindler.com/friedman.jpg
On Friedman’s view, which The main reason why
we can call the shareholder Friedman holds this theory is
view, the company, through that, in his view,
executives hired by the shareholders OWN the
shareholders (owners), has company. Since the
the SOLE responsibility to company is theirs, ONLY
legally and ethically “make THEY have the moral right to
as much money as possible” decide what it should be
for its owners. used for.