A solid business foundation
A solid business should be set up with a foundation that emphasizes legal compliance and ethical standards if it is to succeed and expand. In order to create a sustainable corporate environment, the preferential needs of customers and clients should be satisfied in a socially responsible manner.
Sound company strategy
Making a well-informed and suitable decision will be aided by the design of sound company strategy. This also affects decisions and activities that, when put into practice, will aid in achieving both long-term and short-term business goals through the company's established mission and aspirations (Messick, 2006). Therefore, despite pursuing the maximization of returns and profits, every company should focus on providing ethical standards and social responsibility to the public.
Defining social responsibility
Social responsibility can be defined as the role that business takes as an active participant in civic life and charities in the society. On the other hand, ethics is essential when it comes to policies, procedures, and steps for making business strategies. It is crucial for the organization to come up with strategic plans that incorporate both ethics and social responsibilities. The concept in which the business organizations take into consideration the society interests by being responsible for the impact they have on their clients, shareholders, stakeholders, employees and the environment at large is termed as corporate social responsibility (Mullerat, 2015).
Achieving long-term goals
The business organization can be able to achieve long-term goals through the social responsibility and by acting ethically. The involvement of these business organizations in charity through donations to the community, participating in community programs and involvement in decision-making has enabled these business organizations to achieve and profit a long-term viability in the market (Messick, 2006). According to the studies, it is evident that there is a positive relation between corporate social responsibility and the performance of the company in the market ascertaining that the social responsibility strategies are successful.
Guided by strong ethical codes
Corporate executives and managers should be guided by strong ethical codes when coming up with these social responsibility strategies (Selarka, 2016). Failure in adherence to these ethical codes may lead to deterioration and poor performance of the company’s products in the market. This is directly influenced by the poor social responsibility strategy of the company leading to negative public exposure. It is the responsibility of the managers to ensure that the business remains viable by maximizing the profit. However, guided by an ethical code, the business should not engage in activities that influence the widespread suffering of the community for the sake of making profits.
Decisions guided by law and shared values
It is also the role of the executives and managers to make decisions that are accepted and guided by the law. Managers should consider ethical decisions that are in agreement with the values that are commonly shared in the society (Mullerat, 2015). Therefore, the company should be able to adjust their ethical code based on the different cultures in the societies that they engage in during their operation. This is mostly important for those companies that are operating globally. The variability of these ethical decisions across the globe is due to the difference in commonly shared values in different communities (Selarka, 2016).
Examples of good and poor social responsibility
Some of the companies that have been seen to be in the front line of promoting good social responsibility strategies include Coca-Cola Company and Microsoft. The Coca-Cola Company has been involved in campaigns that focus on social development such as building schools and providing clean drinking water in developing countries. Microsoft through its wellness program has been seen to promote good social responsibility by providing free medical cover to its employees and creating weight management benefits for overweight employees. However, not all companies have been seen to uphold ethics and social responsibility strategies. Some of these include Mattel, which has been accused of manufacturing hazardous toys, and McDonald's, which has been accused of bad business ethics and social responsibility with its employees and stakeholders, thus leading to a negative perception by the public.
Negative consequences of poor social responsibility
Another example of business companies that have been seen to overstep these ethical codes and maintain a negative social responsibility is Nestle Company. Its infant formula for lactating mothers was found to have an increase in the mortality rate in those infants that used it as compared to those who were breast-fed. This would have been avoided if the company employed good social responsibility by taking into consideration the effect of the product on the consumers. The company did not also take into consideration the needs of the community since the formula required clean water, which was scarce in some communities. Nestle has gone ahead to make news headlines as an example of a poor socially responsible company by suing Ethiopia during its period of 20 years drought for six million dollars. However, this would have been avoided if the company practiced and adhered to proper and strong ethical and social responsibility strategies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the need to incorporate social responsibility and ethical behavior are essential to every company that is directly connected to the community. In as much as the company is benefiting from profits and returns, it is their responsibility to give back to the community through various means (Selarka, 2016). It is also necessary for companies to ensure that they conduct proper ethical standards between their customers, employees, and stakeholders.
References
Messick, D. M. (2006). Codes of conduct: Behavioral research into business ethics. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Mullerat, R. (2015). Corporate social responsibility: The corporate governance of the 21st century. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Selarka, E. (2016). Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility of Companies. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. doi:10.1007/978-981-10-0925-9
