Csr Unilever

Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility is not new issue. It was not widely considered to be significant problem from Adam Smith`s time to the Great Depression. But since the 1930s, social responsibility has become important issue not only for business but also in theory and practice of law. The concern of social responsibility has even accelerated since the falls of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the collapse of communism.

Until 1970s, despite the regulation and corporation, business used to ignore its critics, listening to only its shareholders to whom they feel somewhat responsible. The decade 1960s has brought some enlightens for many, the end of indecisive Korea war and new conflicts in Southeast Asia seemed destined to follow the same pattern. Citizen had distrustful of government and business. Consumers were suspicious of the products the business offered, products that might brought them dangerous defect while simultaneously becoming more cognizant of human rights.

Enron and WorldCom scandal together with their auditor Arthur Andersen have led to the further acceleration of responsibility of corporations. Even in June 2002, the chairman and Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs, Henry M Paulson noted, after the collapse of the Enron Corporation in late 2001, that he could not even think of a time when business over all has been held in less repute.

The need to address questions such as poverty, higher standard livings, exploitation and unemployment has been a focus of government to play the major role to create corporate social responsibility. In the future, there will be an increasing cooperation regarding the development of corporate responsibility, between governments –government, government-private or non government sectors.

This paper presents and discusses the range of contributions that Unilever has made towards the creation and implementation of CSR. This paper also reveals if the CSR related activities favors stewardship and charity...