Explain the concept of corporate social responsibility, its foundations, and its implications for labor relations systems.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Corporate social responsibility is a viewpoint that rejects the shareholder value model and, importantly, the notion that employees can be thought of primarily labor costs and the sole concern of business should be profit-maximization. The corporate social responsibility model is grounded in the ethics of duty, fairness or justices, and virtue, rather than the ethics of utility and liberty. The corporate social responsibility viewpoint is broader in scope and views business as, fundamentally, a human activity where profit maximization is important but must be balanced with respect for humanity and the corporation's role in society. Since corporations are legally sanctioned by governments, and shareholder rights are not unlimited, corporations can and should be asked to serve the public interest and not pure self-interest. Corporations, while private entities, are not purely private as they also serve a social function and can, therefore, be held to common social values. This perspective suggests that businesses should be held to societal norms that value human dignity and respect workers' interests and rights. The corporate responsibility perspective is consistent with the United Nationals model code of conduct for companies and includes concerns for environmental sustainability as well as worker rights.