How Corporate Social Responsibility Is No Longer a Philanthropic Effort - Essay Example

Client’s Name: Name of Institution: Level of Study: Subject: Sociology Reflection Paper: Business and Society HOW CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IS NO LONGER A PHILANTHROPIC EFFORT BUT A STRATEGIC ONE INSTEAD Corporate social responsibility basically is aimed at ensuring that a business is aware of its actions and impacts, it is accountable for its actions and that it undertakes these actions in a responsible manner. Businesses clearly have an impact on the societies in which they operate and in turn the society impacts on the ability of the business to pursue its interests sustainably and that becomes the essence of corporate responsibility (William 2010). In market economies, the primary purpose of a business is to make profit but corporate responsibility comes in to remind businesses that they are not guided by profit motives alone but also about values and accountability, they have legal obligations which address both social and environmental issues (Michael 2008). Traditionally, corporate responsibility has been about compliance to the law and doing public good in the community but today it is becoming a business objective and strategy (Swartz 2010). Development cannot be sustainable if it is centred on economic growth ignoring the other aspects. A business does not thrive in a vacuum rather in a business environment which is the surroundings of a business that affects its operations and effectiveness thus modern business cannot operate in isolation and cannot just be an economic organ but a social one as well. Strategic corporate responsibility understands the mutual symbiotic relationship between arm and eye and likens it to business and environment. When the arm pains the eyes cries and the arm in turn wipes the eye. Business and environment operate in the same tandem. Businesses depend on the environment for inputs like raw materials, capital, and labour .etc. and transform them into goods and services for profits but are it right for a business to profit at the expense of its environment and its people? This is where strategic responsibility comes into play, where businesses are expected to attune to the political and social circumstances within which the business activities are embedded paying attention to the socio-environmental risks and opportunities (Swartz 2010). From a political point of view, environmental regulation through legislations to highly fine companies that leave a large ecological footprint or carbon footprint might see some companies close down but for strategic social responsibility, this can be a window of opportunity if the company adopts and positions itself competitively. I found it very interesting when some car manufacturers like Toyota came up with fuel efficient renewable energy powered vehicles. On a social point of view, a company ought to go beyond a product and understand the values of their consumers before even producing products since this may present an opportunity as well as a risk since it matters to customers on how the product is made (William 2010). I find it interesting how companies pollute the environment and still expect people to consume their products. There has been an instance where people unanimously decide not to buy certain products associated with certain companies due to practices like child labour and religious insensitivity. These are areas strategic social responsibility addresses and businesses must always put into consideration the felt needs and interests of the local environment it operates in including its people. Businesses should adopt partnership for development strategies if they are to maintain competitive advantage. During the 1992 Rio de janiero declaration under Article 21, governments were urged to improve corporate environmental management. During the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable development, governments were reminded and urged to promote corporate responsibility and accountability here meaning answerableness to the people and their environment (William 2010). Climate change is a phenomenon that is important in showing the importance of corporate responsibility as a strategy rather than a philanthropic effort. Greenhouse emissions and industrial emissions are causing this phenomenon and going by the various conventions on the environment including the earth conference, businesses have a huge price to pay for ecological footprints left and the USA and Europe have a higher share. I found it plausible when a recent world summit saw African states’ leaders demand for compensation on the effects global warming and climate change are having on the food situation in Africa. They must pay for this. Thus strategic corporate responsibility and sustainability is important for businesses and most are going in this trend making them adopt environmentally friendly policies and operations like renewable energy, clean energy like wind and solar energy to cut on the environmental costs they would have paid for their ecological footprints. This paradigm shift from seeing social responsibility as a philanthropic move to a strategy makes companies foresee future trends in their operations including energy needs and are able to come up with feasible options that are eco-friendly and cost-effective. In conclusion, issues of environmental sustainability and social cohesion are very important for business environments and societies. Climate extremes like famine and hurricanes destroy business environments, conflicts and wars are also detrimental thus corporate responsibility should be a conscious and strategic effort geared towards human rights, social cohesion and environmental sustainability (Michael 2008). IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRITY AND ETHICS IN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE I believe it is important to practice what we preach and not do a complete opposite, and this is the essence of integrity not just for a profession but also in life. What guides our daily actions? Do we have guiding principles like honesty and respect? To me, a fulfilling life is one that is self-regulatory and one that is aimed at achieving all life can offer in an ethically and morally approved way. Whatever we do must be humane in ways that are socially defined and approved (Platts 2003). According to Cowton (2009), Integrity means being straight forward, honest, fair and truthful in any professional or in any business relationship. Ethics and integrity are two important virtues in any profession. Think about justice administration; it is a judicial duty for judges to adjudicate cases according to the law as entrenched in judicial codes of ethics. The judge determines cases guided by laid down principles and it is only through impartiality that one can feel justice has been dispensed fairly. If a judge can clearly be unethical you can imagine justice being dispensed by tossing a coin to determine the morality of an action within the law. This could be detrimental to principles of justice and of fairness which are fundamental principles in such professions and such institutions of society would lose public trust which legitimates their existence. Have you thought of what you eat and come to appreciate that it is not what we eat that makes us strong rather what we digest, the same applies for professionalism, it is what we practice that gives us integrity not what we profess. It is not easy though being professional, it requires sacrifice, a strong moral standing that will hold on to what your profession believes in being guided by principles and ethics of that profession. It is like a promise made to a society and that promise is self-regulation (Davis 1997, De George 2006). But if professionalism is all about ethics then do some professions benefit more for being professional than others? This is fairly a relative question rather than an absolute one and there exists a great correlation between ethics and profitability and it pays to be professional. It pays to operate in a fair, open and efficient manner that builds customer satisfaction and confidence. Consumers then appreciate what you do and feel that you are reliable and so are your products, goods and services and this pays. I have walked into different banks halls and the kind of service I get from the bank’s staff determines the extent to which I can do business with that bank. I like spending little time on queues, a bank for instance that has customer friendly rates. If such a bank operates in such tandem and is able to win a customers’ smile each day, this becomes healthy for business and translates to profitability. Customer satisfaction is built on trust, efficiency and reliability and these are guiding principles in any business environment or profession and must be ethically guided. PLANNING FOR CAREER Career planning is a lifelong process that does not just involve choosing an occupation but also getting a job, growing in that job and possibly changing careers along the way. It is not just an experience but a process and has a lot of considerations and most people require a lot of guidance or else they will find themselves just finding a job they do not like and are incompetent in the first place. Most people are unhappy with the jobs they do each day and personally I would love to do things that I love to do over and over again and this would ensure that I am not only happy in my career and job but also productive. I believe many companies or businesses do not compete optimally because they have employees who just walk in and do a job that they do not like, most do the job for survival and be able to make ends meet in their lives but not doing the job because they like it and enjoy doing it thus this minimizes productivity. My friend works as a customer service representative in a call centre and she never enjoys doing the job at all, she is always complaining of the kinds of problems clients call in that they want solved and her job involves problem solving but she never finds the job exciting, she feels that the position does not offer challenging tasks and all she does is repeat a boring task each day and this kills the morale in her. Looking clearly at career choice, a lot of considerations must be put in place before one settles for a career. According to the career workbook, I think it is important to discover yourself first, know what are your values and principles as well as you strengths, weaknesses, passions, likes and dislikes and most importantly your personality otherwise you can find yourself in a job you dislike. I want my career to be guided by attitude and aptitude. Easy things like disliking my employers may make me not like my job which is wrong because my attitude towards my employer would be affecting my productivity. My aptitude and competencies are also what I would want to build and plan my career on, this would allow for me to be at my best at any one time in my career. I have come to learn that there is nothing as important as doing what you like for instance like in cooking a favourite meal you not only cook to your best but you will also enjoy the eating. Same applies for career choice and planning. Another thing I like is always advancing higher and higher, I want an opportunity that allows for growth like in leadership where I would motivate a team and so on. So in planning on my career, opportunities that I like and that allow for growth are my priorities. I am my most important asset and every effort I’m going to put into my career planning will be geared towards what I like doing and based on my strengths as well as my goals. It would be very hard for instance to take up a career in the military or in the police since I value life a lot. Consequently, a career in humanitarian issues or in law that deal with human rights would be a great choice. List of References Cowton, C. J., 2009, accounting and the ethics challenge, Accounting and business research, vol. 39 pp. 177-189 Davis. M, 1997, Professional Codes: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Business Ethics. London: Werhane. De George, R. T., 2006, Business Ethics, 6th edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice hall. Michael, B., 2008), corporate responsibility: A critical introduction, Oxford University Press, London. Plats, J., 2003, Developing competence and trust: maintaining the heart of a profession, journal of professional ethics. V.11, pp. 3-18 Swartz, J., 2010, Timberland's CEO on standing up to 65,000 angry activists, Harvard Business Review, vol. 88 (9) pp. 39-43. William, B. W., 2010, Strategic corporate social responsibility. London: Oxford University Press. Read More