Corporate social responsibility

“Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” by Lord Holme and Richard Watts Movement aimed at encouraging companies to be more aware of the impact of their business on the rest of society, including their own stakeholders and the environment.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business approach that contributes to sustainable development by delivering economic, social and environmental benefits for all stakeholders.

CSR is a concept with many definitions and practices. The way it is understood and implemented differs greatly for each company and country. Moreover, CSR is a very broad concept that addresses many and various topics such as human rights, corporate governance, health and safety, environmental effects, working conditions and contribution to economic development. Whatever the definition is, the purpose of CSR is to drive change towards sustainability.

While many companies now practice some form of social responsibility, some are making it a core of their operations. Ben and Jerry's, for instance, uses only fair trade ingredients and has developed a sustainability program for dairy farms in its home state of Vermont. Starbucks has created its C.A.F.E. Practices guidelines, which are designed to ensure the company sources sustainably grown and processed coffee by evaluating the economic, social and environmental aspects of coffee production.

There is a great need of Corporate Social Responsibility as it helps in enhancing the performance of employees as well as improving the image of the company. It not only benefits the shareholders but also satisfies the society.

Thus, this leads to the conclusion that CSR and social responsibility motivates the employees, whose work becomes more meaningful. Through a greater effort of communicating their activities and what it means to the company and its stakeholders, the employees could gain a higher level of motivation. If a company is successful in communicating to its employees that CSR is important to the company and its stakeholders, such as the consumers, the employees will buy into that.