Is Corporate Social Responsibility heartfelt?

"Corporate Social Responsibility is a company's sense of responsibility towards the community and environment (both ecological and social) in which it operates. Companies express this citizenship through their waste and pollution reduction processes, by contributing to educational and social programs, and by earning adequate returns on the employed resources," (Business Dictionary.com).

Experts says that good corporate citizenship is not just something that differentiates a company from its competitors but today it is something that is a requirement to remain competitive in almost any industry. In spite of this requirement many companies do not have a budget for their CSR missions (Greene, B. 2014).

If a company does not have large funds to spend on giving back to society with big events, it can at least empower its employees to be CSR ambassadors. This helps employees give back to their communities and make a difference.

For example big companies like Walmart and McDonalds are doing their business by making sure that their production is not harming the environment. Microsoft has committed itself to helping nonprofits by doing work with communities. These are great examples of real CSR initiatives.

But the question is, are CSR initiatives become another way to gain publicity? The main purpose for any company to take up a CSR initiative must be to bring about social change. So when a company brags about its CSR initiatives, should we believe it for bringing about change in the community or is it simply a publicity stunt. Experts say that when employers engage their employees in their CSR initiatives, they genuinely want to make a difference (Mahesha, N. 2013).

Therefore to really believe a company when it launches its CSR initiative, we need to understand whether it wants to make any social change and whether it involves its employees with that initiative. If there is no ambition to bring a social change, we can blindly assume that the company is merely looking for publicity.

Dr. Bradley Googins, Executive Director of Corporate Citizenship at Boston College says Corporate Social Responsibility is no longer used as a publicity generator or as a tax exemption technique by organizations. CSR initiatives taken up by organizations are actually making a big difference. It is helping societies all over the world (CB Bureau, 2010).

Reference list

CB Bureau (2010). Corporate social responsibility no more a publicity generator. Cause Because. Retrieved from website link

Corporate Social Responsibility. BusinessDictionary.com. Retrieved from website link

Greene, B. (2014). 10 Steps to Launching a Successful CSR Program. PR News. Retrieved from website link

Mahesha, N. (2013). Does CSR come from a good place or just another way to gain publicity? Retrieved from website link