Corporate+Social+Responsibility

**Corporate Social Responsibility**
//What is Corporate social responsibility or (CSR)?// Corporate Social Responsibility is the moral responsibility of a company to run their corporation while treating their workers, and the environment they work in reasonably well, regardless of lost profits. It is the //responsibility// that //corporations// have to //society.// Although many corporations are providing a service, there is an expected moral obligation to be friendly and fair to the world, regardless of if its conflicts with their attempts to rake in the 'proverbial //jack//.'

//What happens without corporate social responsibility?// Without CSR, we begin to use the term the ‘race to the bottom’, which is a phrase used to explain how companies provide their workers with degenerating standards to raise profits. Poorer countries tend to attract sweatshops because they often lack labour regulations and laws. Many governments of Third World countries feel that by allowing the corporations to manufacture products in their country, it will improve the economy through investments.

We start to notice which companies and corporations are participating in the ‘race to the bottom,’ because they might show some of the following traits:
 * Low wages
 * No job security
 * No benefits
 * Long hours
 * Poor safety regulations

__**Importance**__: Whether we know it or not, this is a very important issue. Without corporate social responsibility, employees are treated poorly. They would be paid less than minimum wage, provided with poor working environments, work long hours (often more than 60 hours a week), have no benefits, and could even be subjected to child labour. In Egypt for example you girls (ten- and eleven-year-olds) work at looms making carpets. They work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in violation of Egypt's labour laws. They work six days a week and make $5 per week. (//Source: U.S. Department of Labour.)//

Let’s say you work for a company without Corporate Social Responsibility. Without common health benefits, and spending overtime in a unsanitary/poor working environment, you could become very sick. Now that you are sick, you need to take time off work. The company you work for has no Corporate Social Responsibility which means they provide you with no job security, so if you don’t show up tomorrow you will lose your job. Workers often get stuck in a "cycle of poverty"



Fortunately many more companies provide a stronger social responsibility today then in the past, as you can see in the graph to the left. Although there is an increase of CSR in Canada, the problem isn’t going away, especially in third world countries.

__**Who**__: Many companies and corporations seem to care more about getting their product to the consumer and turning a profit, than working conditions. Sometimes they even go as far as refusing to contact or even implement unions for their workers. Because of this you could say that both the company and the consumer are at fault for this. The company for treating their employees like dirt, and the consumer for supporting the company by buying the products. However, in most cases the consumers are unaware of the working environment the company provides their employees so it seems unfair to put the blame on the consumer. On a positive side, Corporate Social Responsibility is becoming a more frequent term to people, and more research is being put into it to see which companies are being responsible. As you can see from the chart to the left, it has a list of the top 25 highest ranking companies, according to the 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Index. Corporations that have been criticized for their labour practices include Nike, Wal-Mart, Coca- Cola and Firestone.

Further research with the 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Index shows us where we perceive some companies’ standards are and how they actually scored. As you can see in the graph below.

By: Greg Dean