CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
SESSION PLAN
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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) defined
Strategic CSR defined
CSR activities
Rationale for CSR
The opposing view
Benefits of CSR
The basis for developing a CSR strategy
Developing and implementing a CSR strategy
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) DEFINED
CSR is exercised by organizations when they conduct their
business in an ethical way, taking account of the social,
environmental and economic impact of how they operate,
and going beyond compliance
STRATEGIC CSR DEFINED
Strategic CSR is about:
• Deciding initially the degree to which the firm should be
involved in social issues
• Creating a corporate social agenda – considering what
social issues to focus on and to what extent
CSR ACTIVITIES
• Incorporating social characteristics or features into
products and manufacturing processes
• Adopting progressive human resource management
practices
• Achieving higher levels of environmental performance
through recycling and pollution abatement
• Advancing the goals of community organizations
(McWilliams et al, 2006)
RATIONALE FOR CSR
• There is a moral imperative for businesses to ‘do the
right thing’ without regard to how such decisions affect
firm performance (the social issues argument)
• Firms can achieve competitive advantage by tying CSR
activities to primary stakeholders (the stakeholders
argument) (Hillman and Keim, 2001)
THE OPPOSING VIEW
The adoption of CSR policies diverts a firm from its
essential purpose, that of making money
BENEFITS OF CSR
• Offering distinctive positioning in the market place,
protecting reputation
• Building credibility and trust with customers and
employees
• Redefining corporate purpose or mission
• Securing the company’s licence to operate (CIPD, 2003)
THE BASIS FOR DEVELOPING A CSR
STRATEGY
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Understanding society
Building capacity
Questioning ‘business as usual’
Stakeholder relations
Strategic view
Harnessing diversity (CSR Academy, 2006)
DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING A
CSR STRATEGY
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Understand the business and social environment
Understand the business and HR strategies
Know who the stakeholders are
Produce and deliver persuasive arguments in favour of CSR
Identify the areas in which CSR activities might take place
Prioritize as necessary
Draw up the strategy
Obtain approval for the CSR strategy
Communicate information on the strategy
Provide training
Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of CSR