MT Masterclass - corporate social responsibility
What is it? Do you believe that business is about more than simply making money? That your actions as a business leader may have serious consequences for your staff, your customers and the wider community?
If so, then you are, perhaps unwittingly, an advocate of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Of course, you might say that businesses should always act ethically and responsibly. That may be true, but as anti-business protests grow ever louder, self-interest dictates that businesses look carefully at their activities to see if they pass the 'how would this look on the front page of my newspaper?' test.
Where did it come from?
As the pace of globalisation accelerated through the 1990s, the perception grew that big business was also a 'big citizen' of the world. In the face of protest, business had to consider its wider responsibilities more closely.
