Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility and Morality

Multinational companies are increasingly urged to adopt corporate social responsibility programs. This means that companies should have goals that go beyond the mere attainment of profits, should contribute in other ways to the welfare of society, promoting broader-based economic progress, and social, environmental.

Social responsibility includes the duty to individuals, groups and institutions in relation to society as a whole; or in relation to all people, all groups and all institutions. Responsibility is what makes us subjects and objects of ethics, law, ideology and faith. Etymologically the legal, institutional, moral and social have the same root-meaning.

The social moral responsibility is a segment of ethical obligations, limited by the intersections of the spheres that separate on a plane, law, institutions and religion, in others the private responsibility. Being morally responsible is to care for the output of the company or institution does not negatively impact on humans, including people who work there. That includes every human being and humanity as a whole.

Aristotle said that it is possible for there to be something which is an end in itself and not merely a means to some other end. Managers, therefore, can make decisions that are consistent morally and with profitability. Managers do have a degree of flexibility in pursuing the overall goals of the firm. This theory of individual rights also explains why employees of a corporation must live up to their contract with the owners not to sacrifice profits. The only universally obligatory “social responsibility” of a firm is to respect individual rights, rather than to increase profits.

Social Responsibility and Business Ethics

Behavior based on ethical business benefits the society, the company and the economy in which it inserted. The ethical principles form the basis of trust and cooperation and the assessment of entrepreneurship as correct or not.

Business ethics based on the same ethical and moral sphere and the people, and within the same organization, people that live in it are constantly evaluating whether their behavior is ethical or not. If indeed the company has concern and responsibility for employees (quality, environment, compensation, sense of family, incentives, security) to provide dignity and respect, workers may be more satisfied and motivated to produce quality, give your best effort and to form the organization. This mood and disposition of workers may be considered unethical because they value the behavior of the organization responsible (Sen & Korschun 2006, pp. 158).

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