The question is: As a SME business owner, or organizational leader, why should I have anything to do with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
Well as Geoffrey Klempner (see: http://www.businessphilosophy.co.uk) points out: “Apart from a few academic philosophers who have taken an interest in business ethics, or in the philosophy of business, all you will get when you say ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) is a blank stare.”
In the meantime to discover all the things that CSR is, or might be, you have to look critically at the business world itself, and at the kind of things that the label of CSR has been associated.
The vast majority of business enterprises would acknowledge that there are minimum ethics requirements regarding acceptable business practice. Requirements such as: legality, honesty, fairness and a genuine respect for persons etc.
In most businesses there is usually an understanding about things as fair pricing, or fair competition. There would also exist fair treatment of employees. For example, a company about to initiate any significant change in their business activities should always be prepared to talk to those who might be affected, particularly if adversely affected.
Such procedure could be seen as the beginning of corporate social responsibility. Ensuring respect for others can result in ethical dialogue. Nevertheless, such dialogue is without meaning unless one is prepared to act. There is a major step from allowing those effected to voice their concerns to actually granting them real power in the company’s, or organisation’s decision-making process.
CRS necessarily includes considerations of compassion and empathy, both closely related to the exercise of leadership. Again, in relation to corporate social responsibility far from SMEs merely seeking to follow the example of big-business (generally hampered by their loyalty to their shareholders), could actually take the lead in CRS.
Why not visit the Leadership and Learning Pathways website at: http://www.exercisingleadership.com
