Why Should Corporations Have Social Responsibilities?
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the notion that businesses need to do more than make profits and give back to society, sustainability, and good business. Through the implementation of CSR programs, corporations are able to raise their image, gain consumer trust, and generate long-term value for society and their firm. But why must corporations engage in social responsibilities?
In this blog, we’ll explore the key reasons why corporations should have social responsibilities and how it benefits both companies and the world around them.
The Moral Requirement Argument
The moral requirement that business goals go beyond the bottom line to include the people and world we all share is built on the following arguments:
Corporations already have a stake in the broader social environment and the ethical challenges that define it. For example, when manufacturers generate toxic waste, they make a statement about the safety and well-being of nearby individuals. If they take the cheapest—and riskiest—route to maximise profits, they are not evading the full issue of social responsibility; they are implying via their actions that the townspeople’s wellbeing is secondary. That is an ethical position to take. It may be right or wrong, reasonable or not, but it is unquestionably ethical. In other words, choosing not to participate in ethical debates is an ethical option. Finally, because businesses are inextricably related to ethical issues, whether they like it or not, they are obligated to engage in some corporate social responsibilities.
The ability for corporations to be involved in the efficient solutions of large social problems implies an obligation for well-established, successful, and powerful corporations. No matter who or what we’re talking about, having money and power comes with a responsibility to give back to those who don’t have it. Many people believe that the wealthy have a moral obligation to give back to society in some way, for as by establishing a foundation to support education. Why do people say that? Because they know what’s coming. What’s being claimed here is that businesses have the same responsibilities as individuals.
Businesses rely on a variety of stakeholders in addition to its owners and shareholders. They require suppliers of supplies, labourers, a town in which the workplace may be located, consumers who purchase, air to breathe, water to drink, and nearly everything else. Because a corporation is reliant on all of these things, the argument goes, it is unavoidably responsible—to a degree—for their wellbeing and protection.
Because businesses contribute to the broader world’s problems, they are obligated to assist in resolving them. What types of issues are created? Toxic waste is created in industrial chemical factories. Even if it is disposed of neatly, barrels of poison remain buried somewhere, and a hazard, however tiny, remains. Similarly, businesses that lay off employees exacerbate social tensions. While the dismissal may have been necessary or entirely deserved, the reality remains that problems are created, and with them comes an obligation to contribute to mitigating their bad repercussions.
Conclusion
Taken together, these considerations explain the view of any firm as much more than a source of economic revenue. Businesses become collaborators in a vast world of interrelated challenges and shared responsibilities for resolving them.
