Moral Minimum and Corporate Social Responsibility - Coursework Example

Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) also referred to as social performance, sustainable responsible business, corporate citizenship, or corporate conscience is a self-regulating mechanism that guides the business in monitoring and ensuring active compliance with international norms, ethical standards, and regulations entrenched in law (Feltus & Petit, 2009). The main objective of corporate social responsibility is to ensure that companies and organizations take responsibility of their actions by enhancing a positive impact on the societies, environment, stakeholders, communities, and consumers through the activities undertaken by the company. Activities involved in corporate social responsibility strategies are many. They include the help organizations advance to the communities through construction of schools, healthcare facilities, helping the needy children pursue their education, training farmers on new methods and strategies of farming; reduction in environmental pollution through proper treatment and disposal of waste from factories, adoption of new methods of production such as the use of green technology; and enhancing transparency in reporting procedures and application of social reporting, auditing and accounting (to mention a few). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has numerous potential benefits that include, increased confidence of shareholders and customers towards the business, increased trust of the communities towards the company, reduction in conflicts and legal issues that face the company, and increased profitability on the part of the business. The purpose of this paper is to explore in depth the issue of CSR with a focus on Unilever and how the company has fulfilled or not fulfilled the moral minimum of do no harm, the positive injunction of the moral minimum to prevent harm, and the affirmative duty to assist society. Company Background Unilever is multinational company that deals with the production of consumer goods. It was established in 1930 (Unilever, 2012). The line of its products includes cleaning agents, beverages, foods, and personal care products. In terms of revenues, Unilever was ranked third in the world among consumer goods companies after Nestle and Procter and Gamble. Corporate Social Responsibility Honoring moral minimum Something of agreement among business ethics philosophers has emerged in the past few decades. Business ethics philosophers were previously critical regarding the view postulated by Milton Friedman that the main objective and purpose of any given business is to make profits in order to maximize the wealth of stock holders (Habisch, Jonker, Wagner & Schmidpeter, 2005). However, the neoclassical view regarding businesses is that corporations have the responsibility of making profits in order to maximize the wealth of the shareholders while honoring the moral minimum. Moral minimum refers to a state where the actions of the company do not inflict harm, and respecting individual justice and rights. In this perspective, the role of managers in respective companies is to promote and protect the rights of different stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, customers, managers themselves and the local community. These stakeholders are perceived as the most significant for the survival of the company and its operations. In order to honor the moral minimum requirement, the company is required to use resources and carry out activities designed and aimed at maximizing profits. However, the company should engage in free and open competition without engaging in fraudulent and deceptive activities (Habisch, Jonker, Wagner and Schmidpeter, 2005). In view of Friedmanite model, the company under a social contract to honor the moral minimum requirement is bound to ensure that it does not cause harm that can be avoided. This entails honoring the rights of individual stakeholders, and adhering to the canons of justice. In respect to honoring the moral minimum as one of the elements of corporate social responsibility, Unilever has well designed mechanism for honoring the moral minimum by providing clear and true answers to the questions raised by consumers regarding the safety and quality of the products manufactured by the company. This is line with the Kew Garden principle of Need. The principle holds that even though we are not obligated to solve every problem that we encounter, we have a great duty to solve the problem if there is a greater need for it. Unilever applies this principle by taking into consideration the fact that there is a great need to solve the problem of product safety. To do this the company has a well established process for new technologies and products and safety decisions are made by the Safety & Environmental Assurance Center (SEAC) (Jastram, 2007). Products that don’t meet the quality and safety standards such as having mislabeled ingredients, or raw materials contamination are withdrawn from the market as a measure of avoiding fraud towards the consumers. Defective products are recalled and consumers cautioned against consuming such products. Consumer confidence with regard to fears on amount and type of chemicals mixed with other ingredients during the production process is enhanced through involvement of consumer watch bodies in the production process. Hence, the moral minimum requirement of corporate social responsibility has and continues to be fulfilled at Unilever Company. Positive injunction of moral minimum to prevent harm As state there above, Unilever has fulfilled the positive injunction of moral minimum to prevent harm through the establishment of Safety & Environmental Assurance Center (SEAC) body that deals with the safety of the company’s products to the consumers (Jastram, 2007). The main objective is to ensure that consumers are not harmed by the company’s products due to low safety standards. The proximity principle is applied in Unilever to ensure that positive injunction of moral minimum to prevent harm. The company realizes that it is always closer to safety problems because the different products manufactured are made using a mixture of chemicals that might inflict harm to the consumers. Hence, the company realizes that it is expected to enhance the safety of its products due to the proximity of the problems that may arise due to low quality and unsafe products. Affirmative duty to assist the society One of the significant corporate social responsibilities is to assist the society in different aspects. Some of the aspects include increasing educational opportunities for the disadvantaged and poor children in the society, building schools and healthcare facilities for the immediate community, reduction in pollution through proper methods for waste disposal and embracing green technologies in the production processes, avoiding any activities that might cause deforestation and many others. The Kew Garden Principle of last resort is the guiding principle at Unilever in enhancing the affirmative duty to assist the society (Maignan and Ferrell, 2001). The principle holds that is there is not help from other sources, there is likelihood for us to help and we have a greater obligation to act. Uniliver has undertaken numerous reforestation projects in different regions of the world in areas where no other stakeholders were involved. Additionally, Unilever has been involved in children rescue programs as one of its corporate social responsibility activities in different African countries and funded education for such children. This is from the realization that such children have no other source of help likely to come to their rescue. Ethical responsibilities of the business One of the conclusions that can be drawn regarding the business is that, a business is not only required to fulfill its profit making requirement but it is also obligated to ensure that all stakeholders (communities, suppliers, consumers) are not harmed by the operations of the business. For example, the suppliers must be paid in time, safety of products must be enhanced foe the consumers, and shareholders receive the considerable returns for their investments. The second conclusion that can be drawn regarding the ethical responsibilities of business is that, the business should embrace new technologies in order to avoid harm to others people. For example, ethical responsibilities obligate businesses to invest in green technologies in order to reduce the amount of environmental pollution from carbon emissions (Maignan and Ferrell, 2001). For example, Unilever has invested in green packaging in the use of materials that can be recycled during packaging. Third, ethical responsibilities of business at Unilever should be practiced in accordance with the requirements for honoring the moral minimum, positive injunction of moral minimum to prevent harm and in strict adherence to affirmative duty to assist the society. This principles that guide corporate social responsibility strategies in any given company should be aimed at minimizing harm to the stakeholders. In conclusion, corporate social responsibility is an important factor for the success of any given corporation. Unilever is one of the companies where corporate social responsibility strategies are strictly undertaken. At Unilever, CSR is undertaken by fulfilling the moral minimum of do not harm, the positive injunction of the moral minimum to prevent harm and the affirmative duty to assist the society. Companies should therefore engage in corporate social responsibilities as one of the strategies of ensuring that minimal conflicts between the company and major stakeholders such as suppliers, shareholders, consumers and immediate communities. The major role of managers in the organization is not only to increase profits but also ensure that the activities undertaken by the company do not cause harm to the stakeholders. Ethical considerations should therefore be entrenched in the company’s mission and value statements as core objectives that should be met by the business as it expands its activities. References Feltus, C., Petit, M. (2009). "Building a Responsibility Model Including Accountability, Capability and Commitment", Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ), Fukuoka. Habisch, A., Jonker, J., Wagner, M., & Schmidpeter, R.(2005). Corporate Social Responsibility Across Europe. Springer Jastram, S. (2007). "The Link Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Strategic Management". CIS Papers No.17. Centre of International Studies, Hamburg. Maignan, I., & Ferrell, O. (2001). "Corporate citizenship as a marketing instrument". European Journal of Marketing 35 (3/4): 457–484. Unilever. (2012). Sustainability . http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/consumer/safety . Read More