Corporate social responsibility or corporate citizenship or corporate conscience relates to a mode of regulation within the corporate world where corporations display a form of corporate conscience. A corporation chooses integrate its corporate consciences into its business model, partly to meet industry standards and also to win over customers. Corporate social responsibility is not statutory but has elements of ethics and norms within industries and thus a company benefits more from engaging in corporate citizenship, than by keeping away and choosing not to incur costs related to such endeavors. Activities conducted in the name of corporate responsibility involve employees, consumers, the environment, local communities, stakeholders and the general public. It is therefore safe to say that the greater motive of corporate citizenship is the public interest which is generated the through growth and development of the community. The inclusion of corporate social responsibility in a business and in decision making is summarized as people, profit, and planet, whereby all three need to be considered in decision making and general operations. A common example of corporate social responsibility currently, is the almost worldwide concern demonstrated by companies about the environment. This has resulted in numerous ‘green' projects and initiatives from different companies, all of which aim to safeguard the environment, which at one point or another is usually compromised by them. A company may choose to initiate a project that promotes the development of the community which it supports over time, or it may choose to engage in philanthropy where the company makes donations towards existing initiatives that are chosen by the management. The alternative approach to corporate consciousness is the incorporation of fair trade practices into the running and management of an organization (Hopkins, 17).
[...] The evaluation for Nike will not be sufficient if only the corporate social responsibility reports are used, instead of including an objective evaluation of the situation on the ground. The efforts so far are commendable, but whether they are enough for a company of Nike's influence and size will only be evident after the results from the current efforts are evaluated. The Industry The global corporate environment has fully embraced corporate social responsibility. This has grown and spread over the last two decades through initiatives that began in the 1990's. [...]
[...] These have increased its rating in terms of corporate social responsibility (Hollender, Breen and Senge, 120). The company has also taken great strides forward to ensure favorable working conditions in factories contracted to manufacture its products in terms of the physical conditions, as well as the remuneration and stipend for the workers. There were reports of use of child labor in some of its factories but these have now been looked into and the company boasts a completely child-free labor force in all its factories. [...]
[...] The company still has vast potential for further increasing its social responsibility programs around the world. To begin with, the company can channel more funds that reflect the phenomenal growth that the company has recently witnessed. In addition, the company should seek to improve the remuneration of its workers. The rates of remuneration, though higher than the required minimum wage rates in the different countries, are still too low to be considered a substantial amount to sustain employees who have families depending on them. [...]
[...] Nike has transformed its outlook towards corporate social responsibility from a stage where it was merely part of company compliance to a level where innovation is driven by a deeply entrenched culture of social responsibility, which is used when drawing up and implementing management policy, procedures, and practices. To sum up Nike's outlook towards corporate social responsibility, one would say that Nike is endeavoring to produce products that leave no waste during manufacturing and packaging. In addition, it strives to ensure that these goods do not leave any waste during their usage and at the end of their useful life. [...]
[...] For the time being however, Nike has not produced social responsibility reports for fear of being accused of engaging in active advertising (Werther and Chandler, 285). CSR Report Nike recently released their corporate social responsibility report for the period between 2007 and 2009. The report details the goals, projections, and achievements of the company for the period. To begin with, the company had envisioned a rate of 22% in terms of use of preferred materials in the manufacture of its commodities by the year 2011. [...]
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