BHL6016 Contemporary And International Issues In Business Ethics YR17

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
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Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
For the past few decades, the concepts of corporate social responsibility and ethics have grown to be the fore in both developed and developing countries due to the growing concern of corporate wrongdoings. Additionally, the have been an increase in research in the field of business and society that have asserted that corporate social responsibility and ethics can be profitable to organizations if well integrated with business strategy. Various scholars have also argued that good business ethics, corporate social responsibility and performance of an organization are related. During their presentation at the Academy of Management in 1998, Husted and Allen begun to speak of “corporate social responsibility. However, these studies have raised troubling question: is the incorporation of ethics and corporate social responsibility in the business strategy a good thing? This paper attempts to demonstrate how good business ethics and corporate social responsibility is a good business strategy by first understanding the strategy concept. The understanding of the concept strategy will provide a base for identifying and establishing the strategic utilization of ethics and corporate social responsibility for the benefit of the business.
Strategy Concept
The major concern ethics and corporate social responsibility is whether the use of good business ethics and corporate social responsibility a good business strategy. There strategic utilization in an organization forces us to clarify what is the mean of strategy in businesses. However, in order to understand the concept of strategy, first we will consider the early definition from military science which considers it to be unambiguous term. Therefore, according to military science, strategy is the science and art of winning war. Winning a war requires proper planning. Earlier scholars of strategy such as von Clausewitz (1982, p.4), wrote “strategy makes the plans for the separate campaigns and regulates the combats to be fought in each.” These earlier definitions of military strategies built a base for the understanding of corporate strategies.
However, the focus of the early definitions of corporate strategy was on how to make plans that will enable an organization to compete successfully in the industry. The Chandler (1962) and Harvard Business School definitions are the most common and considered classic definitions. In his definition Chandler (1962) defines strategy as “the determination of the long-run goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of a course of action and the allocation of the resources necessary for carrying out these goals.” Andrews (1967) defines strategy as the (pattern of objectives, purposes or goals and the major policies and plans for achieving these goals.” These two definitions have incorporated the four elements of design which is long-term, requires the organization to set specific objectives, develop a plan and commit resources. These four basic elements are found in various definitions of business strategy in most textbooks.
Based on the above definitions, th...