Corporate Social Responsibility

If the ideological or legal system whereby commercial activities are primarily regulated through private measures cannot solve social problems, then the responsibility to find solutions for these problems is to the government and not to the business sector.

Business leaders are trained in terms of finance, marketing, operations management but are not equipped to address complex social problems.

Businesses need to absorb costs of socially responsible actions and programs which will hurt their competitive position.

Which of the following expresses an argument in favor of Corporate Social Responsibility?

There were corporate scandals which led the public to lose trust in government agencies to monitor and control corporation's unrestrained behavior of businesses so that consumers now expect more from organizations they buy from.

Often, the lack of government resources render the regulators powerless over the ever-increasingly powerful business organizations in the delivery of social and environmental services and objects so that it seems there is a government disconnection or a regulation failure.

Job seekers also seek for companies with business philosophy that match their personal principles. When hired in a company whose practices do not demonstrate accountability for their employees, employees leave and transfer to other organizations who are more responsible.

In developed countries, consumers can afford to be choosy about products they buy and corporations they buy from, but in less developed countries, consumers and government may be less stringent because inflows of investments are needed for the country's economy.

Since communication is very different in the age of technology, consumers can be made more aware nowadays so that it is easy for campaign an issue worldwide. If consumers are informed about a wrongdoing of a company, they may initiate a boycott on certain company's products.

Businesses or consumers are setting standards for or prescribing conducts from their suppliers. For an example, Unilever does not allow distribution companies to cater to them if they engaged child labor in transporting Unilever products to different destinations.

The needs of society can be met by the free-for-all interaction of individuals and business organizations. But for the ideals of the free market economy to be actualized, the marketplace participants must act honestly and fairly toward each other. This was the first realization of the need for Corporate Social Responsibility articulated in the classical economic model of business.

Industrial revolution brought about efficient production of goods and services so that workers earned more than before and large organizations became bigger. Bigger corporations became powerful and the founders/owners became rich and powerful out of which some became great philanthropists while the very companies they owned had unscrupulous business methods.

Big corporations were criticized for becoming too powerful and for their anti-competitive practices that as a result, laws and regulations were enacted to protect the rights of consumers, employees and society.

Corporate Social Responsibility is now recognized as an essential dimension of contemporary business practices.

Which of the following expresses an argument opposing Corporation Social Responsibility?