Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility
My Lit teacher gave me the entry form for an essay writing competition on the above topic. The prize is $2000 dollars for the winner, and $3000 for the winner's school. It sounded like a good idea to enter at first... then there were three reasons why it began to sound not so good.
1) Entries close on the 9th of August. The competition has been open for six months already.
2) The competition is organised by the Australian Business Council (or something) in partnership with the Prime Minister. Can you smell the economic rationalism?
3) 'How can we encourage corporations to be socially responsible whilst recognising that the aim of business is to make profit?'
I believe the reason why so many corporations are not socially responsible is because they are built only to make profit. Nike can sponsor a basketball tournament for poor kids because this is relatively costless and also has advertising benifits, but will they ever pay their shoe-makers a fair wage?
Corporations have proven that their efforts at social responsibility are relatively cheap and extensively brand-stamped: Ronald McDonald House, for example. I could write an essay extolling the need for more community involvement and contribution by businesses, and that would probably go down well - it's small target, not too radical, not too critical, and anyone can write bullshit in an essay, but what I really believe is that the sole aim of every business and every corporation - to make a profit - will prevent any meaningful social responsibility from occuring. Will Starbucks ever stop underselling independent coffee stores? Will fast food chains ever pay their workers well? Will foreign factory workers ever be paid enough to live on? They won't, because the socially (and globally) responsible thing to do is going to take a chunk out of their profits.
I think, knowing the focus of the competition, writing what I really believe would only be an excercise in futility.
My Lit teacher gave me the entry form for an essay writing competition on the above topic. The prize is $2000 dollars for the winner, and $3000 for the winner's school. It sounded like a good idea to enter at first... then there were three reasons why it began to sound not so good.
1) Entries close on the 9th of August. The competition has been open for six months already.
2) The competition is organised by the Australian Business Council (or something) in partnership with the Prime Minister. Can you smell the economic rationalism?
3) 'How can we encourage corporations to be socially responsible whilst recognising that the aim of business is to make profit?'
I believe the reason why so many corporations are not socially responsible is because they are built only to make profit. Nike can sponsor a basketball tournament for poor kids because this is relatively costless and also has advertising benifits, but will they ever pay their shoe-makers a fair wage?
Corporations have proven that their efforts at social responsibility are relatively cheap and extensively brand-stamped: Ronald McDonald House, for example. I could write an essay extolling the need for more community involvement and contribution by businesses, and that would probably go down well - it's small target, not too radical, not too critical, and anyone can write bullshit in an essay, but what I really believe is that the sole aim of every business and every corporation - to make a profit - will prevent any meaningful social responsibility from occuring. Will Starbucks ever stop underselling independent coffee stores? Will fast food chains ever pay their workers well? Will foreign factory workers ever be paid enough to live on? They won't, because the socially (and globally) responsible thing to do is going to take a chunk out of their profits.
I think, knowing the focus of the competition, writing what I really believe would only be an excercise in futility.
This entry was posted
on July 24, 2005 at 8:13 AM.
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