Corporations having social responsibility to society

Being socially responsible

Being socially responsible means giving back to your community in the same way that your community gives to your business. Both past and present, corporations have been criticized for ignoring society, devoting so much focus and resources to corporate and shareholder wealth, and forgetting to belong to the community (Dahlsrud, (2008). , this paper addresses the question of whether companies have a responsibility to their communities beyond maximizing profits. It is right for corporations to help improve the standards of the people living in their society instead of only concentrating on profit maximizations that sounds like being selfish to the people that support these corporations make profits. If it were not for the community, these organizations would probably not be in existence, and thus they should consider having a responsibility to society.<\/p>

Corporations as sources of problems

Corporations are one of the primary sources of the many problems facing the society such as pollution of the environment, corruption in the community, discrimination of all types like race, tribe and many others among more issues facing the community. Corporations or businesses are involved in activities of polluting the environment especially if the company is a factory. They emit their gases during production to air which the people belonging to that particular area breathe in causing them health problems. For that reason, these corporations should have the willingness to take the initiative of either providing medical solutions to those in society or finding other safer means of having those poisonous gases disposed of as one of the ways of having a responsibility to the community.<\/p>

Combating corruption through responsibility

On the problem of corruption, there are those businesses that deal with technology issues just like the way Apple Company manufactures iPhones. They thereby have the opportunity to have a software installed on those phones to engage people in corruption activities like people trying to plan on how to corrupt someone’s mind for their benefits. These businesses or companies like Apple can have a responsibility to the society by ensuring that this software is not available in their phones or if the software must be installed, the government should have the power to decrypt information transmitted via those devices for the security of the country as a corporate social responsibility. These societal problems like pollution, corruption, discrimination and many others should be a requirement for the corporations to resolve them as they are members of the society.<\/p>

Corporate responsibility as societal members

Another point on corporations’ responsibility to the society is that corporations are stakeholders of the community in which they reside on and thus members of that particular society and therefore they should assume responsibility just like everyone else in the society. One of the ways of participating as a societal member would be to help the needy and the poor in the society instead of just rewarding their employees heavily with huge salaries that the employees cannot spend on their families and themselves wholly while others are dying of hunger and cold. Statistics from audits have shown that the CEOs of some corporations are paid huge salaries that are beyond their level of expenditure and their percentage of salary increase is getting high every year that leaves many citizens of a country worried. Historically, this salary issue was not a worry to many however as per the status of the country’s economy where prices of products of prices have gone high increasing the rate of poverty as many people in the society cannot afford even the essential products yet some CEOs have excess in their pockets defeats logic. In the future, these poor people will force the government to set salary limits for those overpaid individuals and encourage them to give back to the society (Mohr et al., 2001).<\/p>

Benefits of social responsibility

A corporation having a responsibility to the society is said to be more successful compared to that with no response. This organization also has a good reputation or image in the world market, and thus it attracts more investors, shareholders and even the right, qualified and competent employees who in return takes its productivity to a higher level. Historically there were no events recorded for corporations being responsible for the society, but currently, some have started considering having a responsibility to the society although some still criticize the idea. In the future, this issue will be taken seriously as per the benefits accrued to a socially responsible corporation, and it is estimated that every corporation will have to take responsibility in the society to succeed.<\/p>

Decision-making process for corporate responsibility

For a corporation to have a responsibility to society, the persons involved have to consider the process of decision making that is; identifying the decision that is to be socially responsible, gathering information on how to have a social responsibility, checking whether there are alternatives to the decision, weighing evidence, choosing among the many options and acting on it and finally reviewing the decision. A corporate considering having a responsibility to society has positive effects to both the corporation and the people in the community and the country as a whole. Having a social responsibility actively complies with the accounting and auditing standards of the United States as it leads to business development and improved living standards in the country. Since the issue of social responsibility leads to business development, investors, auditors, managers of the company and the whole economy are not faced with any consequences as it does not threaten the operations of the business.<\/p>

Conclusion<\/h2>

Large groups of business stakeholders like investors, auditors, company managers, the government and the public as a whole have given reports from various research indicating that corporations with a social responsibility and ethical accounting and auditing standards are more successful compared to those that are not, and therefore those socially irresponsible companies should be encouraged to aspire to be socially responsible instead of maximizing profits alone. No consequences for investors, auditors, managers or any other stakeholder considering the implementation of the issue of having a responsibility to society (Campbell, (2007).<\/p>

References

Dahlsrud, A. (2008). How corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37 definitions. Corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 15(1), 1-13.

Mohr, L. A., Webb, D. J., & Harris, K. E. (2001). Do consumers expect companies to be socially responsible? The impact of corporate social responsibility on buying behavior. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 35(1), 45-72.

Campbell, J. L. (2007). Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 32(3), 946-967.