Michelle M.

Bongalonta
DBA 511 – Social Responsibility and Good Governance

Activity 5
1. Explain how corporate social responsibility (CSR) evolved and now encompasses economic,
legal, ethical, and philanthropic components. Is there any situation that your current company
was not able to meet any component? Discuss your answer comprehensively.

 The modern era of CSR, or social responsibility as it was often called, is most
appropriately marked by the publication by Howard R. Bowen of his landmark book
Social Responsibilities of the Businessman in 1953. Bowen’s work proceeded from the
belief that the several hundred largest businesses in the United States were vital centers
of power and decision making and that the actions of these firms touched the lives of
citizens in many ways.

Much of the early emphasis on developing the CSR concept began in scholarly or
academic circles. From a scholarly perspective, most of the early definitions of CSR and
initial conceptual work about what it means in theory and in practice begun in the 1960s
by such writers as Keith Davis, Joseph McGuire, Adolph Berle, William Frederick, and
Clarence Walton (Carroll 1999). Its’ evolving refinements and applications came later,
especially after the important social movements of the 1960s, particularly the civil rights
movement, consumer movement, environmental movement and women’s movements.

According to Sriramesh et al (2007), Bowen (1953) offered one of the earliest definitions
seeing CSR since then, the field has evolved assuming different names such as
corporate social responsiveness (in the 1970s) and corporate social performance (in the
1980s). This evolution also reflects an increase in awareness in important areas of
action and performance that the early definitions had overlooked. Hopkins (2004) is of
the view that until 1970s, despite regulation and legislation, business continued largely
along an autonomous path, ignoring its critics and listening only to its shareholders, to
whom it felt somewhat responsible. But the decade of the 1960s was to be a period of
enlightenment for many. Citizens were distrustful of government, business and the
undefined “establishment”. Consumers had grown suspicious of adulterants in their food
and dangerous defects in the products they bought. People were becoming aware of the
fragile nature of the earth’s ecology, while simultaneously becoming more cognizant of
human rights. Abd Rahim et al (2011) quoted Carroll (1979) who expressed that CSR
has been evolving as early as the 1930s. But Calderon (2011) quoted from book of Zerk
(2006) who discussed a more contemporary evolution from the international legal
precedents starting visionary employee compensation policies to more complex
examples of corporate citizenship in recent years. In his book Zerk, quoted numerous
examples of Corporate initiatives that can be categorized as CSR for instance, in 1914
Henry Ford’s employees received higher salaries in 8 hour working days, when the
industry standard was 9 hour work days, and in 1935 Johnson & Johnson published a
document titled “Try Reality” where the company defined it’s responsibility towards
different groups of society, an initiative that was followed by a publication of a company-
wide “Credo” in 1994 that outlined the corporation’s ethical and social goals which made
it a precursor of many modern Codes of Ethics. According to Ismail (2011), the root of
CSR has emerged since the Industrial Revolution era yet the subject is still been in a
debatable position until today. It appears to be difficult for researchers to identify or
share the common definition, principles or core areas of CSR. Calderon (2011) also
referred J. W. Anderson (1986) who considered that there had been earlier
demonstrations of Corporate Citizenship or Corporate Philanthropy that can be
considered forms of Social Responsibility in Business, dating from the Pre-medieval
period (5000B.C.- 550A.D.) to the time where the concept gained social Prominence
(1930-1988). Calderon (2011) further narrated that even when present actions of
corporate philanthropy before the twentieth century represented isolated efforts; it was
not until the advent of the figure of multinational corporations that the discussion on the
topic really evolved. Up until then there was no clear idea of whether companies had an
inherent responsibility towards society. In 1929 the then Dean of Harvard Business
School Walter B. Donham raise the point when he said: “Business have been long
 centuries before the dawn of history, but business as we know is new – new in its
broadening scope, new in its social significance.

Carroll’s four part definition of CSR was originally stated as follows: Corporate social
responsibility encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary
(philanthropic) expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time.
This set of four responsibilities creates a foundation or infrastructure that helps to
delineate in some detail and to frame or characterize the nature of businesses’
responsibilities to the society of which it is a part.

In 1991, Carroll extracted the four-part definition and recast it in the form of a CSR
pyramid. The purpose of the pyramid was to single out the definitional aspect of CSR
and to illustrate the building block nature of the four part framework. The pyramid was
selected as a geometric design because it is simple, intuitive, and built to withstand the
test of time. Consequently, the economic responsibility was placed as the base of the
pyramid because it is a foundational requirement in business. Just as the footings of a
building must be strong to support the entire edifice, sustained profitability must be
strong to support society’s other expectations of enterprises. The point here is that the
infrastructure of CSR is built upon the premise of an economically sound and
sustainable business.

In summary, the four part CSR definition forms a conceptual framework that includes the
economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic or discretionary expectations that society
places on businesses at a given point in time. And, in terms of understanding each type
of responsibility, it could be said that the economic responsibility is “required” of
business by society; the legal responsibility also is “required” of business by society; the
ethical responsibility is “expected” of business by society; and the philanthropic
responsibility is “expected/desired” of business by society. As time passes what exactly
each of these four categories means may change or evolve as well.

 As far as I know, Sorsogon State College strives to fulfill the four component of CSR and
there was not any situation where it failed to meet this.

2. Can you recommend innovative means of handling customer complaints to meet your
company’s responsibility towards customer? Or
As a consumer do you have some experiences of being cheated, or not being treated fairly etc.
by any businesses? Please share your stories and is there any actions that you made?

 As a consumer, there were times when I felt that I was not treated fairly. An example
was when I was in a queue at a bank in Sorsogon where I were to pay for the tax dues
of my clients. In my hand was the number 2, and the teller was serving customer number
1. I was expecting that I will be called after the teller served the first customer, but to my
dismay, the teller accepted not only one but two persons who I guess were regular
depositors. They only just arrived and did not bother to queue to wait for their turn,
instead, upon arriving, they immediately gave the bundles of cash and passbooks at the
counter and stand there without regard to the people lining up to be served.

I felt disregarded, but still waited patiently until they finish their business, and so when it
was my turn, I talked to the teller to tell her what I felt and that for sure, what others in
line also felt. She apologized and told me that it was her first time to serve in the counter
that’s why she was still nervous and fretting. I accepted her apology and smiled with a
parting advice that she should make use of the queue number to serve clients.