Insight

Corporate Social Responsibility – Myth or Reality?

Authors:
Dr Anurika Vaish
Divisional Head(MBA-IT & MS-CLIS)
IIITA

Dr Shveta Singh
Faculty IIITA

Abstract
Key words: Corporate Social Responsibility, Education, Ethics, and Returns

The ethos of corporate social responsibility was conceived to bring in the era of responsibility of our corporate giants and institutions towards their stakeholders.

Issues of global warming, deforestation, depleting hydrocarbon reserves, wildlife extinction, etc, which were limited to textbook fantasies not so long ago, are now a harsh reality knocking at the world’s door. At a recent report made by the BBC, Planet Earth is already living in debt of our natural resources, that is, over the next 100 years; the world would have lost its basic natural resources, due to the indiscriminate and selfish scavenging of our corporate giants. The lure of the riches has forced capitalist regimes to function as if there is no tomorrow.

The problem with corporate giving is that although it's nice to give back to, from whom or what you got so much from, often times the corporate giving effort is used to mask bad behavior, or in my opinion, the ease of which one can give and then wash their hands of further effort, which is worse. It's not the corporation's role to solve everyone's problems. But, by highly and ethically performing, the corporation is an engine upon which so much can be built which will give us a stronger result.

When corporate social responsibility became the corporate “buzz” word, many companies did set up the acceptable norms/projects world wide, whether it was the setting up/funding of research institutes, educational institutes, hospitals, places of religious worship, etc and things seemed to be taking off in the right direction. However lately, one has come to realize that the companies are now using these projects as legal ways to siphon off their taxes or cutting down their cost, which would earn them good benefits.

Any pressure, or effort, underpinned by the idea of the corporation having to pay to solve world problems makes sense only to those calling for payments because they know that's where the money is, the corporation. You certainly don't see these NGO and CSR organizations going to homeless shelters looking for money or to solve cancer. Now they either do this because they know corporations are rich and vulnerable to public opinion, or they do it because they believe corporations are to blame for the world's problems - pollution, war, disease, poverty, child labor, and illiteracy. To some extent the corporation does contribute to these problems and that's where strong regulations and concepts of sustainability are helping, but for the most part the corporation is a source of development and has the potential to solve the root cause of all those problems known as global poverty.

Authentic, and legitimate, productivity with developmental and sustainable qualities, and obeying all laws, are all that is required of the corporation. Corporations working to reduce their environmental footprint, improve the communities in which they operate, boost education, etc. are examples of taking responsibility for their own sustainability and, for whatever the reason, if it's authentic then it's a good thing. The key is that those efforts should be tied to core strategy so they are indeed authentic and sustainable, and that they are performed by choice.

The immense resources of the corporation should solve poverty because that action enables the sustainability of the corporation, and for no other reason. If you keep that in mind, that the specialization of the corporation, production and profitability, is maintained above all other distractions, then it will succeed in the goals of social and economic development.

Education is the exception to all of this, however. If corporations give, then it should be to education. Thus, an effort has been made to bring out the realization among the corporate giants to the real meaning and foundation on which corporate social responsibility that was coined.