Social Responsibility Issue

Social Responsibility Issue

Corporate Social Responsibility is “a firm’s obligation, beyond that required by the law and economics, to pursue long-term goals that are beneficial to society” (Robbins 53).

Milton Friedman and others have argued that a corporation’s purpose is to maximize returns to its shareholders, and that since (in their view), only people can have social responsibilities, corporations are only responsible to their shareholders and not to society as a whole. Although they accept that corporations should obey the laws of the countries within which they work, they assert that corporations have no other obligation to society.

Corporate Social Responsibility covers a wide range of areas but can be summed up as the “triple bottom line approach: economic, social and environmental”. With that said, there are many important issues when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility. I decided to pick the issue concerned with the wellbeing of employees and reaching out to the community. This is probably best put in the book “The New Gold Standard” by Joseph A. Michelli. “The New Gold Standard” challenges most of Milton Friedman’s viewpoints. “Great businesses grow their people, their communities, their customer base and their profitability” (Michelli 229). Successful by-products of Corporate Social Responsibility programs are the ability to unconsciously recruit individuals “looking for workplaces that will ensure continuity between their values and their careers” (Michelli 231). Another great quote that challenges Friedman’s view: “When value based companies make positive investments in communities, the gratitude is often reciprocated by those they employ and the people in their community they serve” (Michelli 252).

Positive social effect include but are not limited to Charitable donations, employee volunteer programs, corporate involvement in community education, employment and homeless programs, hunger relief programs, product safety and...