Business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Real or PR stunts?

Question

Do you belive that businesses genuinely are ethical in their policies and practices, or is it all about image and PR???

Answer 1

I think you need to look at individual companies to assess which category their policies fall into. Lots of CSR policies sound better than they are, but giving money to local charities and caring for the environment can only be good things. If you ask me, all are PR stunts, but many are 'real' as well. If there is a real benefit to society / the environment then everybody wins.

Answer 2

This is very relevant question in relation to the present economic and financial problems now.  Only knowledgeable and honest leaders can communicate ethical practices to their people to doing their tasks in contributing to the overall company's goals, the industry, the community and the nation. Because if there is greed for making more money and profits success is only short term. Any businessman who believe in using unethical practises to make profits will fail in the long term and cannot contribute to corporate social responsibility.

Answer 3

It's a real topic being discussed by a psychopathic person. A corporation is to big today to have a single mind set and therefore we have both 'good' and 'bad' people in the same company sharing the single corporate brain. A corporations history dictated that they were set up to be of service to the public good, not rob the public capital. Economics has looked at ethical behavior and has proven that not working together or helping people normally leads to a worse total economic picture. Companies are realizing they cannot just be profit machines or widgit builders without a community presence and sense of being in that community. Although this is great to highlight sociual responsability we are coming into a time when the international community is joining with a different view of social responsibility and ethics. That may contrast with a U.S. sense of ethical fair play.

Answer 4

It depends on the company, I think - some of this is definitely just PR, but equally, some is genuine. I used to work for a company who made a big deal of their CSR and business ethics, and in my experience, it was completely genuine. In fact, we used to win business precisely BECAUSE we were an ethical company. And, I believe, we had a better, more motivated and more loyal workforce for the same reason.

SO, yeah, it can be just PR, but it can be genuine too! Cynicism and greed don't always win.

Answer 5

corporations are greedy and they should be.  Only by putting money first can they do the most good, for their stock holder, employees and customers. If they cared just for the environment, employees or customers the others would be sacrefised and business would suffer. Business suffers employees lose jobs, customers get less choice and sock holders lose money.  Smart greed creates a perfect balance so all players benefit.