Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Values Based Management – Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Now that you and your team have created a successful business you find that you are receiving more and more scrutiny on social media and in the public press. Some critiques even suggest that you have become greedy entrepreneurs seeking only fame and fortune. Regardless of your views about your responsibility to serve the interests of others, you realize this increased scrutiny is not a positive development.
You have called a critical meeting and asked each team member to come prepared with recommendations on what should be done to address this growing negative publicity.
You have read and heard recently of the importance of businesses becoming “better global citizens”. Some advocates argue it is the “Right” thing to do. Successful business leaders like Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) have given substantial sums of money through their foundations to address social concerns. Other pundits have suggested that even if you do not have a philanthropic mindset it is still wise to embrace these broader, social responsibilities from a public relations perspective.
Individual Activity for Exercise 4 B
Your first task is to identify the various stakeholders or constituents who have an interest and expectations regarding the actions of your business. Examples of stakeholders include: stockholders, customers, employees, suppliers, communities, governments/regulators, distributors, business partners, etc. Do some research on this stakeholder view of business accountability and list the categories of your business’s stakeholders in the worksheet on the next page along with their expectations of your business.
Business Stakeholder Analysis
Individual Worksheet (Submit)
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Individual Activity for Exercise 4 B – Continued
Given the competing expectations of the stakeholders you identified in the previous worksheet, consider your business’s responsibility for addressing those expectations. Do you believe your business should try to be responsive to all your stakeholder’s expectations? Or, is your view that you cannot please everyone so why bother? Do you believe there are other ways to address negative public sentiment besides becoming more socially responsible in your actions?
With these questions in mind consider the advantages and disadvantages of undertaking a proactive initiative of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):
- Briefly define what it means for a business to be considered “exercising CSR”. Consider that adopting a “Pro CSR” perspective for your business may require fundamental changes to your organization’s culture.
- List the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing a CSR initiative.
- Decide on what your recommendation would be to your team members.
List your analysis and recommendations on the worksheets on the next pages.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Analysis
Individual Worksheet (Submit)
CSR Oriented Business – Defined/Described
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Advantages of Adopting a CSR Culture/Initiatives
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Disadvantages of Adopting a CSR Culture/Initiatives
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Recommendation
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Rationale
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Individual Activity for Exercise 4 B – Continued
Assume your team decides to adopt a CSR culture. What are the top 3 specific initiatives you would recommend that your business pursue in support of this decision? Consider the type of business you have, who are the most important stakeholders for the business, and how you can best address the critical expectations of your stakeholders in order to produce the biggest impact from your initiatives. If you are not sure what a CSR initiative is, do some research on examples of what businesses currently do to be responsible corporate citizens. List your 3 recommended initiatives and rationale in the Worksheet on the next page. Be prepared to advocate and defend your recommendations in the team meeting this week.
