How Might Corporate Social Responsibility Impact on an Organisation Term Paper

How Might Corporate Social Responsibility Impact on an Organisation - Term Paper Example Corporate Social Responsibility is the responsible relationship borne by business entities towards their stakeholders, community, and the environment. The stakeholders include customers, suppliers, employees, investors, and the communities. CSR is the realization of business contributions to sustainable development goals (World Bank, 2007), through the alignment of business operations with social values (Coors and Winegarden, 2005). Broadly, CSR can be measured by its contribution to society through its core business activity, social investment, and philanthropic activities. In business parlance, CSR is often termed as Corporate Citizenship. Corporate Social Responsibility emerged as a field of management studies in the 1950s (Banerjee, 2007). It is increasingly being accorded importance worldwide. CSR is important because an enterprise uses public money and survives on public money. As such, it has to invest a measure of its profits in the public. This investment in physical infrast ructure and social capital has become a necessary part of doing business. CSR promotes fairness and justice in society. Corporate Social Responsibility promotes sustainable development by bearing greater accountability towards issues of environmental and societal importance. CSR has come to be adopted as a sound business practice for small and large organizations. A company’s social responsibility and the activities carried out thereof are well-documented in the CSR reports that are often released along with Annual Reports. Nourick and OECD (2001) point out that socially responsible behavior is not limited to multinational organization alone, but is as relevant to SMEs (Nourick and OECD, 2001). Corporate Social Responsibility is different from other philanthropic activities like charity, making donations, employee welfare, etc. Corporate Social Responsibility far transcends the traditional methods of doling out donations and making charities used to carry a more public savvy image.