Corporate Social Responsibility Practices and Ethics

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS
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‘Sympathy with persons remote from us, (is) much fainter than that with persons near us’ (Hume,1751).
The globalization of business operations among different organizations coupled with the rising concern for sustainable growth and development of businesses calls for the integration of the concept of corporate social responsibility by such entities. Hence, business entities have an obligation of carrying out their daily operations in ways that may not result in adverse repercussions on the individuals with whom they interact for the smooth running of their businesses. Among the key stakeholders of the business organizations are the suppliers or the supply chain, which is responsible for the delivery of raw materials for the production of finished goods. It is also the supply chain that accounts for the delivery of the finished goods and services to the consumers. Globalization presents new challenges to the interaction between business organizations and the suppliers owing to the geographical barriers for entities importing raw materials from abroad CITATION Ghe11 \l 1033 (Ghemawat, 2011). It, therefore, becomes difficult for both the stakeholder and the organization to hold each other accountable for their actions, which may affect either of their daily operations.
It is undeniable that the effects of a business are far reaching from its immediate environment but the people, businesses and natural environment next to the business shoulder the biggest burden. Thus, for any business, resources, support and any other form of social responsibility to the immediate environment should be greater than the people further from the business. This is in the spirit of (Hume, 1751) quote ‘Sympathy with persons remote from us, (is) much fainter than that with persons near us.’ Thus, the nearest environment and people are the most affected by any adverse effect of the business organization operations. Ironically, in most cases, the immediate community highest beneficiaries are far away from the central business organization location and they suffer the least consequences of the adverse effects of the organization. For example, the effects of heavy industrialization and use of coal as a source of energy in some cities in China such as Beijing has caused some degree of environmental degradation which affects the Beijing residents, Chinese people and the world at large. However, the people nearest to these factories suffer more from the fumes such that they have to wear air filters because the air is very polluted. Any corporate social responsibility by these factories must, therefore, be channeled to help the immediate residents first who pay a higher cost of the existence of the factory before it reaches out to help people in other parts of the country who experience less effects of the factory’s impact on the environment.
No business can exist on its own without dependence on other stakeholders. All businesses need other stakeholders to operate. They will need the immediate community to provide labor, immediate environment to provide water, the government for protection, consumers to purchase their products for them...