Corporate Social Responsibility

INTRODUCTION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

“The phrase Corporate Social Responsibility was coined in 1953 with the publication of Bowen's Social Responsibility of Businessmen” (Corporate watch report, 2006). The evolution of CSR is as old as trade and business for any of corporation. Industrialization and impact of business on the society led to completely new vision. By 80’s and 90’s academic CSR was taken into discussion. The first company to implement CSR was Shell in 1998. (Corporate watch report, 2006) With well informed and educated general people it has become threat to the corporate and CSR is the solution to it.

1990 was CSR as a standard industry with companies like Price Water house Copper and KPMG. CSR evolved beyond code of conduct and reporting it started taking initiative in NGO’s, multi stakeholder, ethical trading. (Corporate watch report, 2006).

The present day CSR (also called corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business and corporate social opportunity) is a concept whereby business organizations consider the interest of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities as well as their environment. This responsibility shows that organizations have to comply with legislation and voluntarily take initiatives to improve the well-being of their employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.

DEFINITIONS:

Corporate social responsibility is not a new concept. However, what is new is the shift in focus from making profits to meeting societal challenges.

Giving a universal definition of corporate social responsibility is bit difficult as there is no common definition as such. However, there are few common threads that connect all the perspectives of CSR with each other; the dedication to serve the society being most important of them. Most ideal definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR)...