CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. This was the most simple and best definition of corporate social responsibility i found at www.mallenbaker.net
This is a good video i came across explaining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Take the following illustration:I think this is a great diagram to show the common business in society today
When companies decide to adopt corporate social responsibility it can have a positive or negative effect on the company depending how truthful the company is about their policies.For example an article in the irish daily mail was released recently talking about chinese sweatshop where workers are slumped on their desks with exhaustion.These workers are working 15 hour shifts in miserable conditions in up to 30 degrees heat!The only time they get to sleep is on their mere 10 minute breaks.They do all of this for as little as 39cent an hour making computer mice and webcams for Microsoft.This investigation has been on going for 3 years by the National Labour committee a human rights organisation that campaigns for workers worldwide.However Microsoft weren’t the only company to outsource manufacturing to KYE but it does account for about 30% of the factory’s work.Other companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and Logitech also use these KYE systems.What i cannot understand is how a 3 year investigation has being going on by the NLC and Microsoft says they will only start to investigate the situation now!I find this odd when clearly it states in Microsoft’s CSR report that one of their objectives is “To provide a healthy and safe work environment for employees”
Picture of the Exhausted Chinese factory employees at KYE systems sleeping during their 10 minute breaks.
The above example shows how sometimes if businesses are not careful about what they publish in their (CSR) reports it can end up on having a negative effect on the company and its profits especially when the media gets involved.Companies like Microsoft have to make sure that their policies are not only implemented in their own country but in the foreign countries where they are located aswell.
