Social Responsibility of Business



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Social Responsibility of Business

Introduction

Social responsibility basically serves as an ethical ideology according to which every entity is responsible to act in a manner that is for the long term benefit of the society. The concept of entity includes both individuals and organizations. Social responsibility for organization serves as a framework that enables them to ensure a balance between the economy and ecosystem. In addition to it, the social responsibility concept helps in sustaining the balance between the economic development and societal welfare. In the context of social responsibility of organizations, the concept requires that the charge and accountability of the community welfare pertains to every employee whose actions can have any impact on the environment. This essay is written with an objective to highlight the range of ethical issues that prevail in the coffee manufacturing and grocery retailing industries. The essay will provide a critical analysis of these practices by providing examples of the companies (in case of coffee industry, comparison of Starbucks and Nestle and in case of Grocery industry, a comparison of Asda and Tesco).

Social Responsibility of Businesses

The nature of social responsibility can be active or passive. Active means that the companies are performing the activities that directly lead to the achievement of the social goals. On the other hand, passive context of social responsibility highlights those organizations that do not engage in any activity that is perceived to be socially harmful.

Ethical issues in the supply chain of the Coffee manufacturing industry

Adopting ethical practices in all spheres of organizational activities is becoming an increasingly popular approach and requires the companies to ethically manage their supply chains. With the help of ethical practices in the supply chain of the company, the developing economies provide benefits to its poor farmers and workers.

History reveals that in 1998, there was only one organization that was focusing on the social and environmental dimensions and thus introduced ethical policies for enhancing the efficiency of its supply chain. However, by the end of 2002, leading coffee manufacturing companies such as Cadbury, Starbucks, Nestle and Unilever became a part of ethical trading process. Fair Trade Programs has made it possible to ensure the ethical operations of the supply chains of the players functioning in the coffee industry.

While studying the ethical issues that relates to the supply chain of coffee manufacturing industry, one important element is of ethical sourcing or trading, which means that the company (could be an owner of brand, or a retailer) that stands at one phase of the supply chain takes a responsibility to ensure the ethical and social performance at all other stages of the supply chain.

Scope of Ethical issues in the supply chain of coffee manufacturing industry

The supply chain elements can have a pivotal influence on ...