Policy Press
10 Returning business ethics and philanthropy to corporate social responsibility
Abstract
There is a great deal of argument at the moment about the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is an important idea. The question of how money is made and how it is deployed is a crucial one. The idea has been brought into the headlines by a now familiar litany of cases: the use of sweatshop labour by Nike and Gap in Indonesia and Cambodia; the problems encountered by BP in Colombia; Nestle’s aggressive marketing of baby milk in developing countries; Shell’s Brent Spa oil platform in Nigeria, and Monsanto’s problems with GM soya beans.
Now, the argument has moved into a new phase. The attention of campaigners has shifted from the process by which profit is made to the very product itself. The best example of this is the case against the tobacco companies and the incipient argument against junk food. These campaigns deploy a mixture of health and moral arguments, although the former usually cloak the latter. One of the components of this new set of campaigns is the demand that companies act responsibly, as the drinks industry did in funding drink-driving campaigns and as the tobacco industry did not in denying into the last ditch that there was any link between smoking and lung cancer.
These cases all have one of two characteristics. Where they involve explicit law-breaking there really is nothing further to be said. The task for government is then simply to enforce the law and punish the wrongdoers. Companies are obviously not outside the law.
Abstract
There is a great deal of argument at the moment about the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is an important idea. The question of how money is made and how it is deployed is a crucial one. The idea has been brought into the headlines by a now familiar litany of cases: the use of sweatshop labour by Nike and Gap in Indonesia and Cambodia; the problems encountered by BP in Colombia; Nestle’s aggressive marketing of baby milk in developing countries; Shell’s Brent Spa oil platform in Nigeria, and Monsanto’s problems with GM soya beans.
Now, the argument has moved into a new phase. The attention of campaigners has shifted from the process by which profit is made to the very product itself. The best example of this is the case against the tobacco companies and the incipient argument against junk food. These campaigns deploy a mixture of health and moral arguments, although the former usually cloak the latter. One of the components of this new set of campaigns is the demand that companies act responsibly, as the drinks industry did in funding drink-driving campaigns and as the tobacco industry did not in denying into the last ditch that there was any link between smoking and lung cancer.
These cases all have one of two characteristics. Where they involve explicit law-breaking there really is nothing further to be said. The task for government is then simply to enforce the law and punish the wrongdoers. Companies are obviously not outside the law.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Foreword v
- Scope of this book and acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
-
Overview
- Towards a ‘right use of money’ 3
-
The role of money in 21st-century Britain’s economy
- A ‘full investment’ approach 13
- Meeting economic, environmental and social challenges simultaneously 19
- Restoring the link between money, price signals and ethics 29
- Encouraging enterprise and decentralisation 39
-
Ethical dimensions
- Linking money and morality 49
- Encouraging a ‘giving’ culture 55
- Managing the power of money 59
- Money: what is it for? 67
- Returning business ethics and philanthropy to corporate social responsibility 71
- Reducing inequality 79
-
Empowerment
- Living on a low income 89
- Hearing but not listening: why charities fail 97
- Responding to cultural diversity 103
- Conquering helplessness: ones and zeros 113
- The myth of easy money: developing financial services that would really help 123
-
Conclusions
- Promising approaches and mechanisms 135
- Index 141
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Foreword v
- Scope of this book and acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
-
Overview
- Towards a ‘right use of money’ 3
-
The role of money in 21st-century Britain’s economy
- A ‘full investment’ approach 13
- Meeting economic, environmental and social challenges simultaneously 19
- Restoring the link between money, price signals and ethics 29
- Encouraging enterprise and decentralisation 39
-
Ethical dimensions
- Linking money and morality 49
- Encouraging a ‘giving’ culture 55
- Managing the power of money 59
- Money: what is it for? 67
- Returning business ethics and philanthropy to corporate social responsibility 71
- Reducing inequality 79
-
Empowerment
- Living on a low income 89
- Hearing but not listening: why charities fail 97
- Responding to cultural diversity 103
- Conquering helplessness: ones and zeros 113
- The myth of easy money: developing financial services that would really help 123
-
Conclusions
- Promising approaches and mechanisms 135
- Index 141
