Csr Essay

From a business perspective, researchers often argue that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can improve the competitiveness of a company and that the CSR activities develop a favourable corporate image and their financial performance (Burke & Logsdon 1996). CSR is defined as the obligation of organisation management to make decisions and take actions that will enhance the welfare and interests of society as well as the organisation (Samson & Daft 2009). Some say that the significance of social responsibility has been changed up until today in that CSR activity may not achieve the intended effects and therefore believes that only one social responsibility exists; to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits (Forehand & Grier, 2003). This essay will first discuss corporations who believe there is only one social responsibility portrayed through returns to shareholders to firms. Secondly, it will investigate the absence of soul and ethics to corporations that follow Friedman’s perspective. Thirdly, this essay will discuss corporations that comprise of legal responsibilities within the society, ethical responsibilities with respect to the natural environment and discretionary responsibilities. Furthermore, the four primary responsibilities are very significant because it is used to evaluate the overall social performance of a corporation and is designed to help reach decision making by managers within corporations.

Times have changed since Milton Friedman stated that the only social responsibility for corporate executives was to maximise income and wealth of their company’s stockholders (Green, 2007). The idea obtained from Friedman’s stance was that only economic responsibility existed; to use its resources and create profit maximisation that will satisfy the managerial efficiency interests of stockholders (Samson & Daft 2009). It is understood that the primary goal of a business in this situation is to increase their wealth in