Corporate social responsibility is the management’s obligations to make choices and take actions that will contribute to the welfare and interests of society as well as the organization. CSR can be a difficult concept to be understood because different people have different beliefs as to which actions improve society’s welfare. To make matter worse, social responsibility covers a range of issues, many of which are ambiguous with respect to right or wrong. Eg. Kmart declare bankruptcy because of their financial problems. Some said that it is perfectly legal while some say that they declared bankruptcy to avoid financial obligations to suppliers, labour unions or competitors.
There are four approaches to social responsibility.
Draw the spectrum of approaches to CSR
Social responsibility is demonstrated by the organizations determination to treat customers, employees, and investors fairly and honestly. An organization 's social responsibility is ranked from the lowest stance to the highest stance. The lowest stance an organization can utilize is the obstructionist stance. Moving up a level is the defensive stance followed by the accommodative stance which leads to the highest level, the proactive stance.
Firstly, the lowest level of social responsibility is the Obstructionist Stance. In this level, a company does as little as possible to deny or cover up violations. For example, employees breathing in fumes of a chemical spill which is hazardous which led to their deaths. Doctors arrived on the scene to determine the cause of death only to discover that the organization would not reveal what ingredients were utilized in the chemical. The characteristics of this situation led to the believe that the organization took an obstructionist stance towards the employees, environment and the social welfare of the community. The characteristic of an obstructionist stance is the organization doing very little to eliminate the problem. The second