Social Responsibility

Social responsibility in broad terms revolves around business ethics, compliance, reputation management, corporate citizenship and corporate volunteerism. In this context, it mainly applies to the business world whereby businesses have the obligation of operate under certain specifications and limits/boundaries.  Social responsibility measures started to be introduced in the early 19^th century just as the society was recognizing the role of corporations and companies in shaping the day to day lives of people in the community. This mainly happened in United States of America after the occurrence of World War II and the firms arose to dominate the global economy.

From the time of development of measures surrounding social responsibility, it has become a matter of importance that has aroused attention of key people debating upon the issue in relation to the claim that social responsibility fosters stakeholders relationship through trust, improving performances and productivity, enhancing customer satisfaction and investor loyalty. Therefore, social responsibility is something that is grounded in the mutual relationship between customers, employees, competitors, government, investors and stakeholders.

The article under analysis presents matters of large weights as far as social responsibility is concerned and one being the way social responsibility fulfills society expectations. The society expects a lot from the business world. It is necessary to note that any believe that need and should accept to abide by four types of responsibility namely; legal economic, ethical and philanthropic. Philanthropic activities are given much importance since they involve activities that promote goodwill and human welfare.

Another point of utmost importance is the global nature of social responsibility. Despite the fact that many forces globally shape the debate on social responsibility, it has become a matter of international concern. Globalization of business has been the core factor that underlies global nature of social responsibility. These also involve the confluence of businesses, governments, groups and trade associations. Such confluences are characterized to take matters of social and ethical concern to their own hands and handle them simultaneously.

Relevant statements to the session

This article depicts a number of points that relate to evidence effectiveness. One outlined relevant statement is that “the society has become successful overtime.” This has been supported by bringing on board the fact that there had been underlying institutional framework that persistently reinforced incentives for organizations to engage in productive activities. This is also accompanied by the point that a number of social institutions that promotes trust became of importance in economic wellbeing of the society.

Critical Analysis

Efforts to keep up the spirit of social responsibility has failed at grass root level especially in underdeveloped countries and in some developed countries more so when matters of morality are concerned. The rule of business ethics required fairness, accountability, transparency and modulation of work. However, this has not been the case in many countries whose firms merge dually to enhance social responsibility. Actually, the global image of most of these firms are perfect to that matter  but when considering what is done at grass root level, a lot of fresh blood has to be injected.

There are a number of emerging issues that can support this. One of them is frequent cases of corruption in ministries in governments of developing countries. This comes whereby when companies are being awarded tenders, a number of backdoor activities has to take place and for a long time such issues hit the headlines in the world news. Besides, the integrity of leaders who are at the top in looking into these matters has also been stained by this mud. As one can observe, there has been many cases of sexual harassment more so implicating big fishes in the business world. It is heart breaking to note that most of the employee-employer relationships had been developed in dark ways especially where a female employees has to use her body to get employment or to get a promotion. These are not matters to be tamped under the carpet but they need to be brought to light so that social responsibility can be what it is said to be.

Business Case

In a business case, matters of social responsibility more so on business ethics are of great significance for reference when one handles a business case. This translates to analyzing how a business affects, customers, employees and the community at large for instance, if a business tampers with the environment then the relationship with the community is tampered hence a case can be built on matters to do with air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, land management, urban sprawl, deforestation and biodiversity. All these matters should not arise in a set up where the standards of social responsibility are upheld to the letter.

Lessons Learnt

From the reading, I come to borrow a lot of things about the social responsibility frame work. One can thing that strikes is the fact that one needs to be socially responsible as an individual before entering the business world or government in order to champion matters to do with responsibility. This need to happen in relation to the way one handles his/her family and personal life more so to keep his or her integrity. I have also come to learn that in law, one need to maintain high standards of social responsibility and not have wrinkles of issuing briberies and exploitations of clients based on their ignorance or lack of insight on matters they bring on board.