Skip to main content

Behind the Mask- The Real Face of CSR

“CSR is not a new concept, but has rapidly come to prominence in the past few years with hardly a day going past without a new report on CSR by leading company, international organization, NGO or journalist”

The criticism of CSR can be channeled into seven essentially different statements.

1. CSR lacks universal definition; everyone seems to have their own concept or definition.

2. CSR is just part of public relations plan to bamboozle an increasingly skeptical public.

3. CSR is just another word for corporate philanthropy and the contribution that a business directly makes to the welfare of the society (or “the planet”) is to be viewed as largely independent of its profitability.

4. CSR is misleading as it diverts attention from key issues; it is a curse rather than a cure.

5. CSR ignores development economics and its concerns with capitalism and neo-liberalism and it is just a way to introduce socialism through the back door.

6. The social responsibility of business begins and ends with increasing profits; CSR is unnecessary distraction.

7. CSR is sham because companies cannot be left to self regulate.

“With these criticisms is CSR to stay? Or will CSR disappear into the mists of time as just another fad?”

Most likely is that CSR will transform into different concepts but not disappear entirely. Since the realm of the business in society is so crucial, CSR and its entrails will eventually become embedded in all organizations rather like the concerns with environment right now. Consequently in the future there would be less talk of CSR simply because it will become just part of routine daily operations.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Principles of CSR

Because of the uncertainty surrounding the nature of CSR activity, it is difficult to define CSR and to be certain about any such activity. There are three basic principles which together comprise all CSR activity. 1.Sustainability: If the resources are utilized in the present, then they are no longer available for use in the future. This is particularly pertaining to those resources which are finite in nature. Measures of sustainability would consider the rate at which resources are consumed by the organization in relation to the rate at which the resources could be generated. 2.Accountability: Accountability is concerned with the organizations realization that its action affects the external environment therefore assuming responsibility for the effects of its actions. It implies that the organization is a part of wider societal network and has responsibilities to the entire network rather than just to the owners of the organization. 3. Transparency It means that the external impact o...

HR: A Strategic Asset

Strategic assets are “the set of difficult to trade and imitate, scarce, appropriable, and specialized resources and capabilities that bestow the firm’s competitive advantage”. It is easy to understand why organizations talk about people as an asset, but tend to manage them largely as a cost to be minimized. Aside from accounting principles that encourage this perspective, HR costs are easy to observe, while HR value creation is not. Largely because of the traditional perspective on HR, organizations have no way to measure HR’s strategic performance. Nevertheless, we know that intangibles in the aggregate are an increasingly important source of firm value, and that human capital ought to be a part of that asset value. HR is a strategic asset as it can play a critical role in both strategy implementation and management systems. Namely, the ability to execute strategy well is a source of competitive advantage, and “people” are the lynchpin of effective strategy execution. We think i...

Followership

“It is often said Today’s effective followers are tomorrow’s potential leaders” There are effective followers and ineffective followers Sheep There are people who are passive and like to work from 9-6. They think they work for living and lack initiative. They expect their leader to think for them. Most probably they may say, “Sir, whatever you think good for me”. They are also “Yes Sir”, “No Sir” type. Survivors There are some people whose motto is “better to be safe than sorry”. They do not take risk, tend to be political. They do not lead change but want to survive across it all costs. They are not someone who would rock the boat. You will find plenty of such people in Govt. offices.  Followership Model Alienated Followers They are capable yet cynical people. They come across as negative people. They generate and emit lot of negative thoughts and energy. They are seen gossiping in the corridor and criticizing their organisation and management. You will hear comment su...