FOCUS FEATURE
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Examples of CSR-related activity go way back. There will always have been business owners and leaders – and by proxy businesses themselves – that have felt a sense of corporate social responsibility and have acted accordingly. Anybody watching the current adaptation of Poldark, and its chief protagonist Ross Poldark, will see that such examples existed in the past – albeit this is, admittedly, a fictional example! Yet it is perhaps the mid-to-late part of the 20th Century
that saw individual examples of philanthropy replaced by an altogether more collective and structured notion that businesses of all shapes and sizes have a duty to the society they operate in. In the 70 years or so since emerging as a more mainstream and universally- acknowledged concept, the notion of CSR has evolved. Rosamaria C. Moura Leite’s surmises well the recent
history and changes around CSR. In her essay Historial Background of Corporate Social Responsibility she states: “In the 1950s the primary focus was on businesses' responsibilities to society and doing good deeds for society. In the 1960s key events, people and ideas were instrumental in characterising the social changes ushered in during this decade. In the 1970s business managers applied the traditional management functions when dealing with CSR issues, while, in the 1980s, business and social interest came closer and firms became more responsive to their stakeholders. During the 1990s the idea of CSR became almost universally approved, also CSR was coupled with strategy literature and finally, in the 2000s, CSR became definitively an important strategic issue”. Fast-forward to the current day and we’re fast
approaching a point – we may already be at it – whereby any business – especially larger organisations – not undertaking at least an element of corporate social responsibility is firmly in the minority. You only have to look at pages 16 and 17 of this edition and indeed all Business Network publications to see the
lengths Chamber members go in order to contribute in a positive way to society. CSR activity can and does take a wide variety of forms
and can be done for a variety of reasons. Demonstrating a willingness to partake in CSR-related activity and bring about positive, tangible results is an excellent and effective way of showing that a business’s practices are ethical and that it takes account of its social, economic and environmental impact and responsibilities. And it’s something business leaders are rapidly taking on
board. A recent survey by Chamber member PwC suggested that 64% of CEOs are increasing their investment in CSR because “they care about building trust with consumers, partners, governments, and their employees”. As this becomes increasingly common practice within the business world, that 64% figure is only likely to go one way. Indeed, a report compiled by the Chamber, following
original research, revealed that six-out-of-ten businesses in the East Midlands have engaged in CSR activity in the past year, with 40% of them looking to increase their involvement in the coming year. The survey involved 276 businesses and found that, of
those that undertook some form of CSR, the overwhelming drive behind it was a desire to ‘give something back’ to the local community, with 79% citing that as a primary reason. There also continues to be increased demands from
Government bodies, customers and employees for the business community to be more open about their practices and activities. In the evolving and often cut-throat age of social media and instant news, a business can very quickly lose its reputation and customers if not seen to be taking steps to act more ethically and sustainably. This notion is backed up in Deloitte’s Global Human
Capital Trends 2018 survey, which states that: “Organisations are no longer assessed based only on traditional metrics such as financial performance, or even the quality of their
The honest face of CSR
You’ll go some way to find a business that doesn’t engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) these days. However, Business Network Editor Nathan Fearn looks at why it might be a case of “it’s not what you do it’s the way that you do it” when it comes to this increasingly-prominent area of business.
50 business network July/August 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
