Social responsibility projects help link corporations with communities.
For those in corporate leadership, holding a responsible position is nothing new. Properly steering a company in a profitable direction for the benefit of shareholders and employees demands that company leaders do their jobs responsibly. Social responsibility, however, may not be on every corporation's agenda -- but growing numbers of consumers expect it. Corporate executives and managers who take social responsibility seriously are learning which project practices work best.
Global Approach
Corporate social responsibility is now everybody's business, Bryan Horrigan asserts in his book "Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: Debates, Models and Practices Across Government, Law and Business."
Rather than view corporate social responsibility, or CSR, as merely a local project limited by the confines of a corporation's surrounding community, Horrigan points to some, such as Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, who treat CSR as a project requiring global community action.
Humanity shares "a common fate on a crowded planet," Sachs is quoted as saying, adding that problems such as poverty and environmental destruction will never be solved without worldwide cooperation among governments, non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations.
Educational Approach
Some may think of corporate social responsibility as synonymous with corporate philanthropy, in which companies donate a portion of their revenue to charities. But some companies are looking beyond this check-and-a-wave approach and seeing education as a CSR project that brings both short- and long-term benefits.
According to the book "Management Models for Corporate Responsibility," one company, Chevron, has trained Nigerian youths to work in its petroleum projects, giving the youths technical training and an income while also providing Chevron with a capable local workforce. It's an example of how corporate social responsibility can benefit both the community and the company.
Pyramid Approach
Another promoted "best practices" model comes from Western Washington University's College of Business and Economics. The article "The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility: Toward the Moral Management of Organizational Stakeholders" lists four major components of an effective CSR project: economic legitimacy, legal adherence, ethical consideration and philanthropy.
The economic and legal components serve as fundamental "have to's": the company has to please its shareholders, and it has to function in harmony with applicable laws. The ethical and philanthropic components serve as "it's better to's": it's better to consider the responsibility of caring for the environment and adapting to social values that go beyond what the law requires, and it's better to be generous in such practices as supporting the arts and other community projects that help improve the quality of life for all.
