Organizations can demonstrate social responsibility in numerous ways: they could donate funds to education, human livelihood, arts and culture, underprivileged children, addressing starvation or they can make commitments to reduce their environmental footprint, implement fair trade, sponsor events and work only with suppliers with similar values.
“Responsible for curing social ills” is a “fundamentally insubordinate guideline”. This is especially true for small businesses and entrepreneurts, who tend to have more limited resources than their larger counterparts.
In many societies, voluntarily helping others in need is considered a highly moral or ethical act. A famous example for this type of moral behaviour is the Tsunami disaster that affected our country in 2004.
The people gave their contribution with no expectation of benefits in return-not even the expectation that they would be recognized for their charity.
A selfless act of giving, or charity, is a traditional quality in our Sri Lankan culture. Charity requires a voluntarism of self and an elevation of the interests of helping others. In western cultures, what we consider “good” is based on the ability of a person to consider others before self and to sacrifice personal desires for the betterment of others.
Social responsibility is an ethical thought or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to benefit to the society at large. In other way social responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystem.
It requires sustaining the equilibrium between these two parameters. It pertains not only to business organizations but also to anyone whose action impacts the environment and society. This responsibility can be passive, by avoiding engaging in socially harmful acts, by performing activities that directly advance social goals. This shows the various ways that companies can invest in being socially responsible and the value those actions can bring to the company.
While the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) may be thought of involving large corporations, conducting business through balancing the long-term objectives, decision-making, and behavior of a company with the values, norms, and expectations of society. It is very often small business owners who are asked for gifts and donations in general scenario.
Entrepreneurs and small business owners are often easily accessible to those who would ask for donations and owners may feel it is an obligation to give in fear of losing community support. The question remains as to what level business owners should be expected to contribute a portion of their profits to society. The assumption that business owners have a social responsibility suggests that businesses, as members of society are expected to participate as a social member and enables their existence.
The purpose of an organization’s existence, under this model, is to not only look after the interests of the owner, but to also take into account the interests and impacts it has on stakeholders. The model further assumes that businesses must act in a socially responsible manner to fulfill ethical obligations to society.
Organizations can demonstrate social responsibility in numerous ways: they could donate funds to education, human livelihood, arts and culture, underprivileged children, addressing starvation or they can make commitments to reduce their environmental footprint, implement fair trade, sponsor events and work only with suppliers with similar values.
However, real-life applications of CSR have served more to enhance corporate ‘image’ than to serve as a model for ethical behavior. It will be shown that ethics is not related to philanthropy and that humanity, especially for entrepreneurs and small business owners, to be part of the marketing tool. While ethical behavior is always encouraged and must be maintained by the organization, philanthropy must play a role in developing and supporting the owner’s brand identity and image within the community.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of self-regulation to monitor and ensure compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards and social norms. The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility and encourage a positive impact through its activities on stakeholders.
If we assume that organizations must act in a socially responsible manner, then it can be expected that business leaders would seek an accepted standard for responsible behavior. As a result, many businesses have viewed charity as an easily recognizable and quantifiable measure of ethical behavior and use this behavior as a demonstration of the organization’s healthiness.
Morally acceptable philanthropy can also be viewed in a strategic sense so that charitable efforts improve the competitive position of the organization. Philanthropy can align social and economic goals and improve a company’s long-term business prospects. This sort of targeted philanthropy becomes a way for companies and communities to pursue win–win situations.
Larger businesses use public examples claiming that community support is simply the morally right thing irrespectively organizations that contribute to charitable causes are more positively perceived by the public.
Entrepreneurs and small business owners, seeking to imitate best practice examples announced by large firms, donate organizational funds and other resources to a number of community charities, typically with the assumption they are completing a moral requirement to the community and are exhibiting good ethical behavior.
There are three parts to the discipline of business ethics. They are categorized as personal, professional and corporate. All three are inter-related.
To remain as ethical business of society, the business owner and the business operations should always follow legal requirements and social norms such as follow tax regulations, full filling statutory requirements imposed by the country law in terms of employments, timely obtain proper license and permits, protecting environment, maintaining good health and safety standard, produce or sell quality products and services in reasonable pricing to the highest extent possible, while remaining an effective business operation. Philanthropy may be followed at the decision of the owner, but only to the extent that it can further develop the business.
Ethics are very important values in entrepreneurship ventures. This is particularly essential in decision making process. Ethical morality reminds entrepreneurs to make trustworthy and profitable entrepreneurship decisions that can enhance benefits and preventing harms to the stakeholders.
The entrepreneur must establish a balance among ethical needs, economic feasibility and social responsibility. A managers attitude concerning corporate responsibility tend to be supportive of laws and professional codes of ethics. Entrepreneurs have few reference persons, role models and developed internal ethics codes.
“Responsible for curing social ills” is a “fundamentally insubordinate guideline”. This is especially true for small businesses and entrepreneurs, who tend to have more limited resources than their larger counterparts.
Add new comment