Dr.
Macagno’s lecture focused on corporate social responsibility. This is a topic
that is very important to me as a consumer and as a sustainability student. I
want to see that companies care about their effect on the environment (or at
least will follow standards that their consumers and the government demand of
them). I also want to see companies care about defending human rights and
safety.
Corporate
Social Responsibility is discussed in our textbook in Chapter 2; CSR refers to
“the approach that an organization takes in balancing its responsibilities
toward different stakeholders when making legal, economic, ethical, and social
decisions” (Collins). Mostly they do the “right” thing for their stakeholders. But
they also do it for consumers, not always because they care, but because they will lose reputation and profits if
they don’t. If consumers spread the fact that they do not care about the
environment or human rights, the company will have a harder time finding
employees, customers, and stakeholders.
The
lecture relates to an article I read from The Harvard Business Review, titled “The
Truth About CSR.” The article covers how Corporate Social Responsibility can
just be a label used to gain the trust of customers and enhance the company’s reputation.
In order for CSR to work it must be profitable to the company, which it has
been only due to consumer choice and demand. If companies want to partake in CSR,
then they must have a clear and coherent CSR strategy, otherwise it just ends
up being talk. When companies genuinely care, it makes CSR work much better in
the long run.
References:
Collins, K. (2014). Exploring Business v2.1. Flatworld.
Rangan,
K. V., Chase L., and Karim S. (2015). The truth about csr. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 25 April 2018 from hbr.org/2015/01/the-truth-about-csr.
