Politics, Ethics and Social Responsibility of Business

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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY—MODELS |

21.5.6 GOVERNMENT

The government through its various regulatory bodies tries to protect the interests of various stakeholders. The

corporate sector in India very often blames the government for poor governance and lack of far-sightedness,

similarly civil society criticises the corporate sector. The time has come when public–private and government

should co-operate to look into policy imperatives for each in the sphere of their inf uence. Government must

initiate the process of dialogue and set the agenda rolling for the corporate sector. There is no point in the blame

game. Society expects better governance; better governance will lead to meeting the expectations of society

and a step towards nation-building. Business and government should not be viewed as adversaries in different

camps. We need to move away from this mindset; industry and government together need to f nd solutions that

will meaningfully address problems of the community. If government throws entire responsibility on business,

which does not fall in the domain of business then business will not accept that and without the co-operation of

business also the government cannot fulf l the expectations of the society. Therefore, both sides must co-operate

as mature adults discuss debate and arrive at actionable agenda for complementary responsibility for each.

21.6 CONCLUSION

There is pressure placed on companies by various stakeholder groups. There are various groups trying to

def ne socially responsible behaviour. This makes the debate continue over the existence of ‘true CSR’. The

models presented here simplify the discussion in a way that makes it possible to identify the interactions

among social, environmental and f nancial goals across a variety of situations: a necessary f rst step in paving

the way for a discussion about how to proceed. Plans are necessary to promote CSR and must be tailored to

f t the prevailing business models for CSR. For encouraging CSR without f rst understanding, the motivation

is a lot like designing a ship without testing the waters. The four models above make us better understanding

of the architecture of the ship we wish to build in the light of the waters that it has to face.

Suggested Questions

1. Enumerate the four models of CSR.

2. Compare and contrast the statist and liberal models of CSR.

3. ‘Stakeholder model gained maximum acceptability in explaining CSR.’ Enumerate the components of

this model.

4. Who are the internal stakeholders of the company? Discuss their importance.

5. ‘Shareholders are the only stakeholders of company in true sense.’ Discuss.

6. Is government’s role important as a stakeholder in CSR? Explain.

7. Explain the ethical model of CSR.

8. Ethical concerns of CSR are best taken care of by the ethical model. Do you agree?

Bibliography

Adawal, Shanker. Corporate Social Responsibility (www.manavadhikar.net).

Agha, A. (2003). Corporate social responsibility. 37th Annual A.D. Shroff Memorial Lecture, 5th November, Mumbai.

Freeman, R. Edward (1984). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach . Boston: Pitman.

Mehra, M. (2004). National Conference on CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility for Bridging the Gap,

9th November, New Delhi.

Mitra, M. (2007). It’s only Business! (USA: Oxford).

Redman, E. Three Models of Corporate Social Responsibility: Implications for Public Policy . Retrieved on

http://rooseveltinstitution.org/news-f les/review/redman.pdf.

http://www.insiderreports.com/storypage.asp.