BT
Corporate Social Responsibility
Background
A successful company should be accountable in the following ways. It should:
- Make a profit
- Operate within the law
- Be ethical
- Be a good corporate citizen.
Any business venture is going to have an impact on the community in which it operates. Changes can be far reaching - for example as people are employed in well paid jobs they are more likely to spend money which benefits other local businesses. Or maybe the business changes the local landscape or creates more traffic in the area.
There are many examples from history which show that there have always been debates about how much social and environmental responsibility businesses should take.
Examples of Corporate Social Responsibility through History
- Commercial logging operations, together with laws to protect forests, can both be traced back almost 5,000 years.
- In Ancient Mesopotamia around 1700BC, the King introduced a ruling in which builders, innkeepers and farmers could be executed if their negligence caused someone’s death, or was a major inconvenience to the local citizens.
- The senators of Ancient Rome complained about the level of funding from businesses through taxation to support military campaigns.
- The industrial revolution enabled some business entrepreneurs to amass great personal wealth. Many of them are remembered not only for their business achievements but also for their charitable work.
By the early twentieth century there were widespread discussions about the social responsibilities of business. These same concerns are still important today.
The Government requires all UK businesses to be accountable for their economic, social and environmental impact.
What do you think?
See what the Prime Minister has to say about CSR. What do you think about what he has to say?
Today, corporate social responsibility goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past –donating money to good causes at the end of the financial year – and is instead an all year round responsibility that companies accept for the environment around them, for the best working practices, for their engagement in their local communities and for their recognition that brand names depend not only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how, cumulatively, they interact with companies workforce, community and environment.
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister