What Is the Social Responsibility of Corporate Management?
1. Introduction
A relevant amount of literature regarding social responsibility of corporate management, mainly articles and academic publications, has been produced in the last decades. Depending on the source, however, different understandings, approaches, and interpretations stand out clearly. The web is also rich of material that, while at a first impression may seem “marketing” oriented, is often directly related to the widely disputed concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Within this considerable mass of data arises, first of all, the lack of an agreed basic definition of what CSR means. Some of the numerous characterizations collected among several sources are the following:
- “Corporate Social Responsibility is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society” ;
- “Corporate Social Responsibility is about helping to meet people’s needs” ;
- Corporate Social Responsibility is “Operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business” ;
- Corporate Social Responsibility is “The responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” ;
- “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” ;
The last of these definitions, established in 1998 on behalf of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), tries capturing several regional perspectives that emerged during its development:
- “CSR is about taking personal responsibility for your actions and the impacts that you have on society. Companies and employees must undergo a personal transformation, re-examine their roles, their responsibilities and increase their level of accountability (USA);
- “CSR is about making a
A relevant amount of literature regarding social responsibility of corporate management, mainly articles and academic publications, has been produced in the last decades. Depending on the source, however, different understandings, approaches, and interpretations stand out clearly. The web is also rich of material that, while at a first impression may seem “marketing” oriented, is often directly related to the widely disputed concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Within this considerable mass of data arises, first of all, the lack of an agreed basic definition of what CSR means. Some of the numerous characterizations collected among several sources are the following:
- “Corporate Social Responsibility is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society” ;
- “Corporate Social Responsibility is about helping to meet people’s needs” ;
- Corporate Social Responsibility is “Operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business” ;
- Corporate Social Responsibility is “The responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” ;
- “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” ;
The last of these definitions, established in 1998 on behalf of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), tries capturing several regional perspectives that emerged during its development:
- “CSR is about taking personal responsibility for your actions and the impacts that you have on society. Companies and employees must undergo a personal transformation, re-examine their roles, their responsibilities and increase their level of accountability (USA);
- “CSR is about making a