Coroperate Social Responsibility

Introduction

A few years ago firms only goal was to gain economic profit from their businesses. In recent times it has been discussions if economic profit are the only reason for businesses to exist (Kilotons 1991) In modern society the belief that businesses have responsibilities against the society they operate in have grown bigger, but there are still people and organizations who believe that gaining economic profit from their business are the only thing they have to be concerned about (Chant 2013).

The purpose of this essay is to discuss and compare the different viewpoints of corporate social responsibility (hereafter referred to as CARS) and the key issue is to see why corporations and their management should be concerned with CARS. The paper will start by explaining what CARS is and how businesses can gain profit from applying CARS. Thereafter the counterargument, that business doesn't have any other responsibilities then gaining profit, will be presented. An example of good CARS-work will thereafter be demonstrated.

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The relationship between ethics in business will also be discussed.

Different views of CARS

There are many different definitions of what corporate social responsibility is but one ay to look at it is that corporate responsibility is used to describe the work that companies do voluntarily that has a positive impact on society, the environment or the economy (Shill, Apothecary ; Kansas 2010). CARS is supposed to help businesses to behave ethically and gain economic profit and at the same time helping to solve social issues (Chant 2013).

Not only are CARS good for the society and the people in it but also for the stakeholders of the company. CARS can change stakeholders purchase behavior, employment seeking and also investment. Over mime CARS can also help the company to build a stronger brand and in that way also gain an economic profit (Shill, Apothecary ; Kansas 2010). In recent times a lot of critiques have been pointed to CARS. The counterargument meaner that business only responsibility against the society is to gain economic profit and only do what the business was created to do (Chant 2013).

Many opponents against CARS say that businesses only should use their resources and engage in activities that are designed to increase profits so long as it stays within the law (Kilotons, 1991).

• Why corporate social responsibility?

The question is if businesses and corporations have a social nature and responsibility or not? My own answer to this question is that businesses, in the modern society, is of social nature and have responsibilities against the society. Corporations and businesses are a big part of our society and what they do make a big impact on people, environment and also how other business act.

I would like to compare it with people walking on the street and don't put their rubbish in the garbage bins. I believe that almost everyone thinks that it would be ethically wrong not to put their rubbish in the bins. If everyone throws their rubbish on the street the society and community would not have looked nice and people would care less about, in this case, the environment because no one else does. My point of view is that it reflection of the people in it and so are the corporations and business (Chant 2013).

It's understandable that some corporations think it is unnecessary to implement CARS and that it only will cost them money that they won't get back. To demonstrate how businesses can gain economic advantages from CARS I will use a Swedish company 'KEA. KEA is a big home decoration company that operates all over the world and ton is one of their most important raw materials. The company want all cotton used in their products to come from sustainable productions. By using the better cotton initiative they can help reduce environmental and social impacts.

They have also proved that this initiative can help KEA to offer competitive priced products that satisfy customers' needs and also helps the company to reach one of their ambitions to provide responsibly sourced products (CARS: Sweden leads by example in corporate responsibility 2013) With that said, my point is that many companies have to look ore on the output they can gain from CARS and not so much on the input. Conclusion There are many ways of looking at and understand CARS and my point of view in this paper is that CARS is a good thing and that corporations and businesses can gain both social and economic profits from it.

On the other hand it can be difficult to measure performance of CARS and to compare business with each other (Chant 2013). But maybe comparing and competitiveness is not necessary as in economical ways. Maybe CARS can be Just a question of good ethics, something as obvious as throwing rubbish in the garbage bin or pay your employees' salary in time. Is that a realistic goal? Probably not, because it takes that CARS belong to some sort of common sense if that's going to happen.

The important thing for businesses to understand is that CARS should be a part of their business strategy and goal. The modern world is growing and businesses have to keep up with the changes in the environment around them. People are getting more knowledge about ethics and culture and that's why it's getting more important for businesses and their management to apply it in to their strategy. Maybe people are going to choose one supermarket in front of the other cause the first one didn't care about the ethical issues with food production.

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