Management

Principles of Management

12-8-11

Should the CSR report be required by the SEC?

Companies in the United States that file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC should be required to report on Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. CSR encompasses not only what a company does with their profits but also show how they make them. It goes beyond how the companies manage their economic life but to also report on the social and environmental impacts they are going to make as well. Also it requires them to report on the workplace, the marketplace, supply chain, the community, and all the other things that their company will have influences upon. Like annual reports filed by U.S. companies the SEC does not require the CSR to be filed out. I feel that this should be changed and all U.S. public companies should have to file a CSR annual report.

Even thought the SEC does not require the CSR to be filed out by companies more and more companies are issuing CSR along with their annual reports. These current companies that already report are because most of these companies are involved in companies that have higher levels of green gas effect or other pollutions. The reasoning for these companies reporting are due to the recent environmental stories such as the failure of BP’s gulf coast oil rig. These environmental issues should not be the only worry of the SEC because there are many problems within the workplace. The companies should be required to report on all of the issues that apply to them. Many people say that the CSR report is just a glossy presentation of the company’s CSR values. I don’t agree with this at all I see the CSR report as a very useful key for shareholders and stakeholders to make investment decisions along with many other key factors that affect the stakeholders and shareholders alike. People are no longer that worried about the profits that a company make they are more worried about how they made them and were...