In: Operations Management
On the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (issue is that CSR is better than Firedman's view of CSR and Conscious capitalism)
Does CSR issues impact stakeholders in different ways? What might the views of various stakeholders be on the topic?
Place the CSR issue within its historical (when) context. What is the history of the position? Has it changed?
Answer: The different stakeholders are affected by the CSR issues in different ways depending upon their relevance with the issues. For example the bad working conditions inside the factories will directly impact on the employees who work in the factory and will impact indirectly on the customers as the employees will not be able to work with full potential. Hence every stakeholder has its own salience when it comes to the CSR issue depending upon the nature of the issue and the interest of the stakeholder involved. The reaction and view of various stakeholders on the topic can be different as they are impacted in a different manner by the issues. The directly impacted stakeholders will have a strong view on the issues while the stakeholders not having a direct impact may not even have a clear view on the topic.
The CSR historically started with the concept that the business organizations apart from their economic functions also have social responsibilities. In the initial stages the CSR view was mainly limited to philanthropic acts like donations made by the business organizations for the social causes. Later this concept started to develop and its scope became wider and included the reducing environmental footprints of the organizations and inclusion of the concept of sustainability in business operations. Hence over the period of time, the concept of CSR has evolved and changed.