Corporate Social Responsibility

“When in doubt, do what’s right” – General Norman Schwarzkopf, once advise, The image of the business world would be in much better shape if this simple advice had been followed.
At the time, when a corporation behaves as if it has a conscience, it is said to be socially responsible. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the implied, enforce, or felt obligation of managers, acting in their official capacity, to serve or protect the interests of groups other than themselves. It is how a company behaves toward society and certainly more than words being said.
It’s normally involves values such as respect, integrity, being connected and excellence. An organization’s top management usually determines an approach to social responsibility. However, often they made decisions that did not parallel to the expectations of society.
What ever reasons being given, CSR is vital and since it can create an impression of being great place to work and of the company as an asset to the communities where it operates, top management should revise the role of it and determines the best approach and avoid decisions which can jeopardize corporate image.
To overcome the negative publicity of corporate misdeeds and to restore trust, organizations nowadays conducting audits of their social responsibility activities together with financial ones, This audit, known as Social audit; a systematic assessment of a company’s activities in terms of its social impact. The idea behind social audit would go well beyond a simple listing and involve determining the benefits to socially oriented business activity.
As general, there are nine steps recommended for establishing and implementing a CSR program. These steps are listed as below:
1) Developed program structure and assigned a person to be in charged and responsible for the program.
2) Review of what company is presently doing with regards to CSR.
3) Determine shareholders’ expectations and perspectives.
4) Write policy statement covering CSR areas such as environmental, social and community issue.
5) Develop a set of company objectives and action plan to implement the policies.
6) Create quantitative and qualitative targets and key performance indicators based on core business.
7) Communicate with the stakeholders.
8) Determine the CSR program progress.
9) Report the CSR progress.