Assignment One, Part Two

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1. How is Corporate Social Responsibility Defined?

According to Business for Social Responsibility, CSR is "operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial, and public expectations that society has of business. Social responsibility is a guiding principle for every decision made and in every area of business." This basically means that CSR is the company's guide to morality.

2. The term "shareholders" (or stakeholders) of a company often comes up in the context of CSR. What are a company's shareholders in this regard?

Shareholder refers to an person, company or other institution that owns at least one share in a company. It is also referred to as a stockholder. They are basically the owners of a company. They have the potential to profit if the business does well, but also the potential to lose if it does poorly.

3. What are some of the reasons that companies are motivated to become more socially responsible? Please name at least three.

By demonstrating social responsibility to the community, companies build a good reputation and earn respect. People will want to do business with a company that has a good reputation as it gives them better confidence in the company. If a company treats employees well, the company benefits also. By taking into account how employees feel and promoting programs to fix any problems for the employees, it gives the employees a sense of loyalty to the company. It increases the productivity or the company and boosts the morale of the employees, making it run more efficiently overall. All of this tends to increase the bottom line for a company. By being socially responsible it will increase the profits.

4. Please find three examples of companies that have socially responsible programs (aside from the ones mentioned in the video). Describe their programs and their intended stakeholders.

I came across Fortune's Most Accountable Companies on money.cnn.com. It lists some of the most socially responsible companies in the world and the programs they are implementing. The first was Vodafone, Europe's largest cellular telecom company. The company makes regular talks with employees, shareholders, and outside experts about "how its service and infrastructure impedes - or might be able to help - economic development." This has led to the development of Mpesa, a program that helps Africans do banking with their mobile phones, a move that will hopefully help the economic development of the region. Another CSR company is Enel, an Italian Utility Company. It does regular external audits to show its consumers its non-financial performance in areas such as customer satisfaction and its percentage of energy produced from green sources. The French automaker, Peugeot, also is a CSR company. It has an overall measure of the total greenhouse gas emissions of its vehicles - unique among automakers. Peugeot also looks at its cars impact on road safety and urban sprawl. The company is also developing ways to reduce noise emissions from its vehicles.

5. Do you personally feel that companies have good reason to become more socially responsible? Why?

Yes, I feel that it is necessary for businesses to be socially responsible. It is good for the business by increasing profits, good for the employees of the company so that they are taken care of, good for the consumers so that they get what they need, and good for the planet by taking care of what we are so lucky to have.

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