The Four Components of Corporate Social Responsibility
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- Date Submitted: 08/21/2010 08:57 AM
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The four components of Corporate Social Responsibility are economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. Economic means that a corporation produces goods and services provide jobs with good wages while still earning a profit for its stakeholders. Legal means to follow the law that government uses to protect employees', stakeholders, customers, suppliers and the community. Ethical means to do what is right and just. Philanthropic means to show concern for humanity, by performing charitable actions such as donating money, time or services.
How Wal-Mart is doing in meeting these components varies. The company’s main goal is to keep its costs low. They have done so by creating their own logistics and distribution of their products. They have managed to reduce costs by demanding high productivity from their employees (associates), but wages paid do not meet the demand. They have also pushed many of their suppliers to outsource their products so they can produce more at a lower cost.
Wal-Mart attempts to conduct business practices by the law, but over the years have been subjected to over 5,000 lawsuits ranging from discrimination (pay for women not being equal to men) to unfair labor practices (working overtime without pay), which means that members of the corporation may not be following the laws as stated. There are also problems with suburban sprawl (with Wal-Mart’s massive growth into areas where they are not welcome) and lost jobs from outsourcing.
Today, the actions of Wal-Mart executives (or lack there of) seem to not be in the best interest of anyone. There is such a strong focus on “keeping costs low” that good business practices seem to have gone out the window. For example, they are the largest corporation that conducts international business in the United States. Some suppliers feel they are strong-armed into doing business with China in order to do business with them.
There was a time where Wal-Mart conducted business in a more ethical...
How Wal-Mart is doing in meeting these components varies. The company’s main goal is to keep its costs low. They have done so by creating their own logistics and distribution of their products. They have managed to reduce costs by demanding high productivity from their employees (associates), but wages paid do not meet the demand. They have also pushed many of their suppliers to outsource their products so they can produce more at a lower cost.
Wal-Mart attempts to conduct business practices by the law, but over the years have been subjected to over 5,000 lawsuits ranging from discrimination (pay for women not being equal to men) to unfair labor practices (working overtime without pay), which means that members of the corporation may not be following the laws as stated. There are also problems with suburban sprawl (with Wal-Mart’s massive growth into areas where they are not welcome) and lost jobs from outsourcing.
Today, the actions of Wal-Mart executives (or lack there of) seem to not be in the best interest of anyone. There is such a strong focus on “keeping costs low” that good business practices seem to have gone out the window. For example, they are the largest corporation that conducts international business in the United States. Some suppliers feel they are strong-armed into doing business with China in order to do business with them.
There was a time where Wal-Mart conducted business in a more ethical...