Does CSR Work? Essays -- Business Essays

Does CSR Work?Adam Smith founded the modern study of economics on the premise that all businesses are driven by the invisible hand to seek as much profit as possible while society will take care of itself. However, as the everydays opinion of big business has steadily declined in the recent decades, big business has developed a social moral sense to improve all aspects of society from worker compensation to protecting the purlieu to helping the motivey. As Stephen Cook indicates in the January 2003 edition of Management like a shot Everyone cares these days. You can hardly walk through the door of a major club in the western world without tripping over load of glossy reports telling you how they care for the environment, their community, their stakeholders. John G. Ruggie believes that the increase in incorporate social responsibility (CSR) stems from three reasons 1) companies have made themselves targets by doing unsuitable things in the past (Shell in Nigeria Nike in Indonesia), 2)public perception that the global mart is much police-able and international rules and standards are more enforceable, 3) companies large growth as made them the only ones capable of policing themselves in a global capacity. However, two questions arise from this new branch of the corporate hierarchy 1) does CSR produce results? And 2) does the public care about CSR.Gereffi et al. and John G. Ruggie both indicate that the social compact has pushed corporations to act Under increasing pressure from environmental and labor activists, tripartite organizations, and regulatory agencies in their home countries, multinational firms are implementing certification arrangementscodes of conduct, occupation guidelines, and monit... ...ally responsible, only a minority will punish socially freewheeling companies. Cook indicates similar trends in the UK where only 20% of the people would be prepared to boycott a product on social grounds. Cook, goes on to indicate, how ever, that the number of people who care is steadily increasing theres been a 40% surge in UK purchases of fair trade products bounteous a better deal to third world farmers. As more and more of the worlds population becomes aware of the growing need for corporations to maintain a strong sense of social responsibility, corporations are adopting self-regulatory policies to revel the public and enhance their own reputation. All this benefits both the consumers and corporations until a company makes another Enron-like blunder. Then all the good credentials these pacesetting companies have salt away disappears instantly.