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  • Mass layoffs and record profits at the same time, manager salaries,

  • scarcity of natural resources and imminent climate catastrophe,

  • morally questionable advertising, child labor, corporate fraud, financial crisis

  • and the "Occupy Wall Street" movement ...

  • These are just a few examples you may have heard about under the topics of

  • sustainability

  • business ethics

  • or corporate social responsibility

  • These themes raise questions about justice for current as well as for

  • future generations.

  • We want to ask

  • corporate social responsibility

  • --CSR for short--

  • what is this?

  • This man made headlines a few years ago.

  • In 2004, Angelo Ugolotti learned from investigators that he was

  • chairman of the board

  • several companies

  • set up by his employer, the Italian milk concern Parmalat.

  • Angelo however had not even heard of those companies.

  • At Parmalat, he was responsible for the switchboard.

  • You can imagine how the story goes. Corporate fraud at its best:

  • bogus companies, cooking the books,

  • bribery, accounts in the Cayman Islands -- the whole works.

  • The task of corporate social responsibility is to prevent these and other morally reprehensible practices

  • which can weaken society,

  • damage companies and hurt employees.

  • More and more companies have realized the relevance of moral practices in their business;

  • even though they have not always sufficiently implemented CSR, yet.

  • Concrete preventative measures are often labeled "risk management",

  • a term more commonly used for avoiding

  • financial risks and damage to a company's reputation.

  • And no one likes bad press, right?

  • Thus, companies define clear rules, so-called "compliance" or "value-management" systems.

  • For example, you can accept a bottle of wine from the supplier,

  • but you have to pass up a golfing trip to Hawaii.

  • However, risk and compliance management are only one aspect of corporate responsibility correctly understood.

  • Firstly, CSR is not just about preventing "bad practices," like corruption and fraud and so on.

  • Secondly, this approach does not question a company's business activities, as such.

  • In fact, compliance management could be an efficient control mechanism even in organizations like the mafia.

  • The more challenging question is:

  • How can companies contribute to a "good society" through "good business" practices?

  • "Oh, that's easy!" they say.

  • We'll create a charity foundation or donate a lot of money and, thus, "do good".

  • Wrong! That won't hurt and may even help, but it is not systemic change.

  • The important thing is: CSR is about how companies make profits, not about how they spend them.

  • not about how they spend them.

  • Corporate social responsibility must not simply be the "repair center" of capitalism.

  • It has to demand systemic changes in a market economy.

  • This requires a new role for the key players in this game:

  • companies must become not only economic, but also moral actors.

  • What is required and important is a stronger integrative perspective

  • based on a system of deontological values,

  • and which is closely related to the company's "core business".

  • This means social and ecological criteria must be taken into consideration, for example, in the treatment of employees,

  • organization of the production process, offered and produced products and services and how they are marketed, and

  • responsible business practices of suppliers, the so-called "supply chain".

  • By the way, virtuous managers or the "honorable merchant" alone will not suffice.

  • We need employees of integrity at all levels of the company, but we also need organizational structures and clear rules.

  • But relying on a code of conduct is also short sighted,

  • because in extreme cases it means "act according to some given rules",

  • which is the opposite of ethical reflection, namely, actually thinking about good and evil, right and wrong.

  • In other words: CSR is always about both individuals and institutional structure.

  • In business ethics, one speaks of individual ethics and institutional ethics.

  • But isn't that unrealistic? Shouldn't the state do more to promote a good and fair society?

  • Granted. It is unrealistic and that's exactly why such questions are important!

  • Business ethicists don't just ask what the world is like, but also what it should be like

  • -- how it ought to be.

  • At the very least, we want to suggest where the journey should lead.

  • At the same time, we want to make practical suggestions about how to embark on that journey.

  • One speaks of questions of justification, on the one hand, and of implementation, on the other -- preferably in that order.

  • The state, particularly through politics and law, can contribute to the implementation of corporate responsibility,

  • but only within a limited range.

  • If we look at society from a bird's-eye view,

  • we can spot different social systems: the economic system, the political system, the justice system, for example.

  • One can speak of the "functionally differentiated" society we live in.

  • About sixty or seventy years ago,

  • some German economists came up with an idea

  • that led to the development of the social market economy as we now know it, particularly in Europe.

  • They thought that a market economy should be embedded in a political framework that determines the rules of this game.

  • This underlying idea is still important, but it has become distinctly more difficult to rely on the state alone.

  • Societal differentiation has progressed because most systems have internationalized.

  • "Globalization" is the magic word that applies to most systems,

  • but not all of them.

  • Politics and, particularly, law tend to be bound to one country's borders,

  • while the economy, above all,

  • is highly internationalized and globalized.

  • This makes effective regulation difficult.

  • Thus, it is now not only about the classic rules of the game, but also about the moves of the players,

  • the corporations in a changed and changing world.

  • And beyond politics and law,

  • civil society -- in particular NGOs --

  • has gained a strong influence on the economy, as both

  • vicious watchdogs and as partners of businesses.

  • In 21st century society, we find new, rather odd -- hybrid -- constructs

  • under the notion of "soft laws".

  • These are collective individual commitments to comply with certain social and ecological standards,

  • such as collective industry agreements or the UN Global Compact.

  • So companies are supposed to operate responsibly.

  • Is anything really happening???

  • There's no clear answer to that question.

  • The cynics say that CSR is like teenage sex:

  • everybody says they are doing it, but few actually are.

  • And those who really do it, do it rather badly. ;-(

  • The truth is more nuanced, of course:

  • in the area of corporate responsibility there is also

  • "the good, the bad and the really ugly."

  • More and more companies deal with CSR and take the first steps towards responsible business practices.

  • We can definitely observe a distinct effort, even though it is still a delicate little plant.

  • And of course there are still those who misconstrue CSR as a PR instrument and

  • simply want to "green wash" or "blue wash" their company.

  • And, unfortunately, there are still companies that don't give a damn about

  • questions of corporate responsibility, and which even trample on justice.

  • Got all that? Let's sum it up:

  • First, CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility.

  • Second,

  • CSR is based on the question of "good business" for a "good society" -- today and tomorrow.

  • Third, Corporate Social Responsibility is not charity:

  • it is about how companies earn their profits, not how they spend them.

  • Fourth, it takes employees of integrity and appropriate organizational structures to realize CSR.

  • It is a matter of individual and institutional ethics.

  • Fifth, politics continue to play an important role,

  • but in a globalized world the effects of regulation can be limited.

  • And, thus, sixth, companies play an increasingly important role.

  • Seventh, "soft laws" are new governance mechanisms

  • based on companies' self-commitment.

  • Finally, eighthly, CSR has arrived in business practice.

  • It is necessary to support these developments professionally, but also to provide critical perspectives with respect to them.

  • Research on issues of corporate responsibility is still beginning

  • and future developments will be exciting to see. It is unclear whether

  • a good and fair society can be created with the help of companies.

  • But it can't be created without them.

  • [wait! she is coming back.... ]

  • Oh, we almost forgot:

  • besides corporate responsibility,

  • there's also consumer responsibility. You can practice that the next time you go shopping,

  • and there may be more from us on that topic.

Mass layoffs and record profits at the same time, manager salaries,

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What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

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    VoiceTube に公開 2015 年 03 月 25 日
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