Legal Responsibilities of CSR (Revised Annotation 4)

       Carroll and Buchholtz (2006) declared that “Legal responsibilities reflect society’s view of ‘condified ethics’ in the sense that they embody basic notions of fair practices as established by our lawmakers. It is business’s responsibility to society to comply with these laws (P. 35).” The laws are the rules of the game. When entrepreneurs engage in the business, it is necessary for them to maintain the order of the society by obeying the laws. The laws seem to be the regulations for entrepreneurs, but they are the protection for the general public.

For consumers, when they have disputes about products with businessmen, they can seek for the laws to prevent the damage. Recently, more and more people have been used to buy commodities on line, which leads to many problems in the process of deals. The common problem is that proprietors do not provide the system of returning imperfect products. According to the article 19 of Consumer Protection Law, “Consumers of a mail order or door-to-door sale, if unwilling to purchase the goods received by them, may return the goods or notify in writing the business operators to rescind the purchase contract within 7 days upon receipt such goods without stating reasons or paying any expenses or the purchase price (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).” If sellers have a complete procedure for protecting consumers’ right, it could not only reduce consumers’ worry about commodities, but also appeal more people to increase the profits.

For employees, especially females, when they encounter the unequal treatment on works, they can ask employers to give proper work environment and adequate salaries with the legal procedure. On the basis of the article 10 of Act of Gender Equality in Employment, “Employers shall not discriminate against employees because of their gender or sexual orientation in the case of paying wages. Employees shall receive equal pay for equal work or equal value (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).” If entrepreneurs believe and value talented women’s ability without discrimination, they could also help the companies gain profits. Besides, another serious problem is basic wages. In the past, there is no law to avoid employers’ oppression on employees. Nowadays, employees’ right is not neglected anymore because they can rely on Labor Standards Act. In the light of the article 21 of this law, “A worker shall be paid such wages as determined through negotiations with the employer, provided, however, that such wages shall not fall below the basic wage (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).”

       Legal responsibilities are necessary for the society. If entrepreneurs do not have these responsibilities, which is like playing the game without rules, the conditions would not be controlled in the business and the society. It cannot make the world better that people escape the responsibility (see Figure 1), such as the problem of evading taxes. Only the good quality of people’s lives does stimulate the business transactions.

Figure 1: Most people escape the responsibilities.

References:

1.   Buchholtz, A. K. & Carroll, A. B. (2006). Business, society, and stakeholders: Corporate citizenship: social responsibility, responsiveness, and performance. In D. Shaut (Ed.), Business & Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 6th edition (pp. 29-60). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

2. The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Consumer Protection Law. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=J0170001

3. The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Act of Gender Equality in Employment. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=N0030014

4. The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Labor Standards Act.            Retrieved December 25, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site:     http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=N0030001

Reference of Figure 1: 

    Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Google Web site: http://biblioteka.adamdebowski.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/12063288-large.jpg

Philanthropic Responsibilities of CSR (Revised Annotation 3)

In 2006, Carroll and Buchholtz’s study of corporate social responsibilities defined that philanthropic responsibilities are “being a good corporate citizen (P.38).” That is, entrepreneurs should make contributions to the community. The philanthropic responsibilities are the public’s expectations of current business. Therefore, they become a kind of business strategies, which makes the corporations have competitive vantage. All entrepreneurs want the win-win situation, which makes them get both economic and social advantages. However, only engaging in corporate philanthropy do make you step forward to this situation.

        There is an idea about “community involvement (P.268)” in philanthropy, which is mentioned in Corporate Social Responsibility (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2008). Entrepreneurs and the general public are members of the community, which means that they are influenced by each other. The relationship is like jigsaw puzzle, which would be incomplete without only one piece. If entrepreneurs are voluntary to help the society make a progress (see Figure 1), it would not only have positive impact on the society, but also benefit the companies.

Figure 1: The idea of Community Involvement

The process of achieving the business success involves many elements, and promoting the quality of the society is the prerequisite. J. Michael Cook, retired leader of Deloitte & Touche, argued that “If we have good educational systems, good safety, and good activity programs for young people, we’re going to be much more effective in attracting and retaining quality people (P.472, Carroll & Buchholtz).” Entrepreneurs need to serve the general public with charity for financial and social goals because the healthier society brings more profits to companies. As the UK retailer Marks and Spencer commented, “We have long believed that healthy high streets need healthy back streets (P.267, Crane, Matten & Spence).”

Some people are disadvantaged minority in the society, so the competent people should try their best to make up the others’ weakness. For example, Children Are Us Foundation is an organization, which helps people with disabilities find their value and confidence, thus they can live by themselves. Corporate social responsibilities are chances that entrepreneurs need to catch because most people appreciate and accept the companies with good fame in the community. Therefore, entrepreneurs should think about the unlimited future instead of being shortsighted with the present profits.

       According to The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, “Charitable contributions by U.S. companies fell 14.5% in real dollars last year, and over the last 15 years, corporate giving as a percentage of profits has dropped by 50% (Porter & Kramer, 2002).” It is clear that entrepreneurs’ aspiration to provide charitable contributions for supporting community keeps decreasing. Most entrepreneurs think that charitable contribution is a wasteful action. However, if they can understand how to do it well, it would become the effective advertising way to promote companies’ image and quickly penetrate the community. After all, “competing on price and corporate citizenship is smarter than competing on price alone (P.271, Crane, Matten & Spence).”

References:

1.      Buchholtz, A. K. & Carroll, A. B. (2006). Business, society, and stakeholders: Corporate citizenship: social responsibility, responsiveness, and performance; External stakeholder issues: Business and community stakeholders. In D. Shaut (Ed.), Business & Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 6th edition (pp. 29-60; 471-500). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

2.      Crane, A., Matten D. & Spence L. J. (Eds.). (2008). Understanding CSR: CSR in the community. Corporate Social Responsibility, 1^st edition (pp. 265-283). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

3.      Kramer, M. R. & Porter, M. E. (2002). The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Expert2business.com: http://www.expert2business.com/itson/Porter%20HBR%20Corporate%20philantropy.pdf

Reference of Figure 1:

Retrieved December 25, 2013, from Google Web site: http://www.ca.com/us/about-us/sustainability-report/~/media/Images/about-us/community-involvement-banner.jpg

Legal Responsibilities of CSR (Annotation 4)

        Carroll and Buchholtz (2006) declared that “Legal responsibilities reflect society’s view of ‘condified ethics’ in the sense that they embody basic notions of fair practices as established by our lawmakers. It is business’s responsibility to society to comply with these laws (P. 35).” The laws are the rules of the game. When entrepreneurs engage in the business, it is necessary for them to maintain the order of the society by obeying the rules. On the other hand, the laws seem to be the regulations for entrepreneurs, but they are the protection for the general public.

For consumers, when they have disputes about products with businessmen, they can seek for the laws to prevent the damage. Recently, more and more people have been used to buy commodities on line, which leads to many problems in the process of deals. The common problem is that proprietors do not provide the system of returning imperfect products. According to the article 19 of Consumer Protection Law, “Consumers of a mail order or door-to-door sale, if unwilling to purchase the goods received by them, may return the goods or notify in writing the business operators to rescind the purchase contract within 7 days upon receipt such goods without stating reasons or paying any expenses or the purchase price. (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).” This article of the law can protect consumers’ right and reduce their worry about commodities.

For employees, especially females, when they encounter the unequal treatment on works, they can use the legal procedure to ask employers to give proper work environment and adequate salaries. On the basis of the article 10 of Act of Gender Equality in Employment, “Employers shall not discriminate against employees because of their gender or sexual orientation in the case of paying wages. Employees shall receive equal pay for equal work or equal value (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).” Because of the natural difference between women and men, there are laws responding to this difference. For instance, in the article 14 of Act of Gender Equality in Employment, “When female employees encounter job difficulty because of menstruation, they may request a menstruation leave for one day in one month. The absent day for this leave shall be incorporated into the day for sickness leave. The computation of wage of a menstruation leave shall be made pursuant to the related statutes and administrative regulations governing sickness leave (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).”

Legal responsibilities are necessary for the society. If entrepreneurs do not have these responsibilities, which is like playing the game without rules, the conditions would be very dangerous in the business and the society. Everyone escapes the responsibility (see Figure 1), which cannot make the world better. Only the good quality of people’s lives does stimulate the business transactions.

Figure 1: Most people escape the responsibilities.

References:

1.  Buchholtz, A. K. & Carroll, A. B. (2006). Business, society, and stakeholders: Corporate citizenship: social responsibility, responsiveness, and performance. In D. Shaut (Ed.), Business & Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 6th edition (pp. 29-60). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

2.  The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Consumer Protection  Law. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China  Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=J0170001

3. The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Act of Gender Equality in Employment. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=N0030014

Reference of Figure 1:

Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Google Web site: http://biblioteka.adamdebowski.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/12063288-large.jpg

Transcript 2

Vivien: Hi! Everyone! Welcome to our two o’clock live show: Understand Philanthropic Responsibility for Corporate in 8 minutes. I’m Vivien.

Lisa: I’m Lisa.

Vivien: First, what is philanthropic responsibility, Lisa?

Lisa: Umm… Philanthropic responsibility in Carroll’s pyra...pyramid of corporate social responsibility is umm…the highest level. It unlike the economic and legal responsibility, which are required by society, but if…but the society will...will be glad if you take it.

Vivien: Umm…The goal for philan, for this responsibility is to be a good corporate citizen. It asks you to give back. Provide programs to support your community and engage in volunteerism, volunteerism. For example, corporate can help local to build hospitals, or schools, or sponsor cultural affairs. And, all in all, the purpose is to improve the quality of life.

Lisa: I’m support...support the philanthropic responsibility. The…this responsibility reflects the current public expectations for entrepreneurs. Umm…Philanthropic responsibilities are voluntary and benevolent activities. Entrepreneurs will…are willing to help and improve the society, including civic activities and development, by…by their desire. Nowadays, these…these philanthropic responsibilities become a kind of strategies umm…for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs would think…would think about the profits, plan…make a plan which can balance…balance between financial and social goals, and manage it. Unquestionably, entrepreneurs want the si…win-win situation on the business. But they should refer philanthropy into actions, then they can really get what they want.

Lisa: Umm…then I want to talk about the idea of “community involvement.” Community involvement is a conception, which means that entrepreneurs and the general public is…are members of the community. That is, they are influenced by each other. Umm…This relationship is like jigsaw puzzle, which…which would be incomplete without only one piece. Therefore, entrepreneurs should make efforts with the general public umm…hand in hand. Having the philanthropic responsibilities not only benefit the society but also the companies. Because the healthier society can bring more profits to the companies.

Lisa: There are four points important in the philanthropic responsibility, including help, share, donate, and give back. The style of helping others is mostly the foundation or financial donation, people…which helps people who are disadvantaged minority in the society. If entrepreneurs can provide good systems, good facilities, and good programs to people, then the…the quality of people’s life can be promoted.

Lisa: Why entrepreneurs need to have the philanthropic responsibility? Of course they have advantages appealing to entrepreneurs. The first one is it is the effective advertising way that can promote companies’ images. Umm…Make more people see the companies. The second one is the companies can gain greater acceptance because most people would accept the have the…which companies have good images. They are more willing to work for the…for this kind of companies. The third one is well-being and quality of people and life. If people and life can be promoted higher, and they can pro…bring more profits to entrepreneurs. If entrepreneurs want business to grow bigger and stronger like this flourishing tree, they should cultivate it with corporate responsi…corporate social responsibility.

Vivien: And I’m on the against side. The dictionary defines philanthropy as “a desire to help mankind as indicated by acts of charity; love of mankind.” The philanthropy responsibility is desired of business by society, but when the desire becomes a force, or a pressure, what will it be? Or when an entrepreneur said “Why do I have to pretend to care when I don’t? I don’t!” Are we going to force him to take the responsibility? Umm…does our society turns out to promote hypocrisy?

Vivien: Well, there is some advantages for businessmen if they take this responsibility: umm…first, they can promote their corporate image. When you do charity, people will think that wow you’re a good man, and your company must be a conscientious company, and then people will think that your pro…that are…people are more willing to buy your product because they think you are a good person. And…umm…second, do…do charity can deduct tax! In Taiwan, if businessmen give disaster relief to the government, their tax, their deduction rates can...umm… up to 100%! That means they don’t have to pay any tax.

Vivien: But there’s also some disadvantages for entrepreneurs. If you take this responsibility, it is for sure that you will have extra expenses. But maybe you’ll say extra expenses is not a big deal, because it’s just like another investment! But the problem is, umm… doing charity is not like buying shares or open another company, its profit is unclear. And, I think when you think…when you think of how much profit you will earn when doing charity, you…you’re already turn aside from the original spirit of corporate social responsibility. Umm… besides, this notion is conscienceless! So why force corporation to do things that the…ok! will against their basic goal to gain profit?

Vivien: To the public, maybe you’ll say I don’t care they are umm…kind-hearted or not, whatever their intention are, it’s better to…it’s better than nothing! Some people do, do get the sub…subvention! But the problem is that they show their charitable, charitable moves to us, but their firms still do things that will harm our society! This brings out two, two problems, first is that they do not really pay responsibility for their harm…for the harm they cause, and…but donate money to umm…more noticeable and more appealing issues to, in order to catch our attention. The second problem is that businessmen can blur the point that they are the origin of the problem. We always see them doing good things, but the wicked part are left unsaid. So, this will gradually make public think that corporations may have conscience—they can help the, help government build a better society! But is that really so?

Lisa: The conclusion of approving the philanthropic responsibility is that business has a responsibility to give back to the community, and besides, although the contribution is so small, it also can change the society.

Vivien: As for, for my conclusion, philan…I think philanthropy responsibility brings more disadvantages than advantages. Umm…for big company, they can, it’s the opportunity for them to improve their image, but they also have to take the risk of wasting money. To smaller company, this, this…umm…responsibility is a big burden for them. And for the public, we only get facial benefits and their hypocrisy, but the real basic pro, problems is left unsolved. And… this is our presentation, thank you for listening.

Question time:

Alice: Umm, I want to ask Vivien. Do you have any examples that, umm…some entrepreneurs umm… they do, they look like they are doing good things but they’re actually having bad intentions?

Vivien: Do you mean the thing it, itself have bad intentions?

Alice: Yes.

Vivien: I don’t know if there’re, if there has examples like this. But what I mean before is they do good things but they…the…umm…they show to public that they are doing good things. But, umm…the problem in their company that will harm our society is still… they still do this kind of things. So, the two things is different.

Philanthropic Responsibilities of CSR (Annotation 3)

In 2006, Carroll and Buchholtz’s study of corporate social responsibilities defined that philanthropic responsibilities are “being a good corporate citizen (P.38).”  That is, entrepreneurs should make contributions to the community. The philanthropic responsibilities are the public’s expectations of current business. Therefore, they become a kind of business strategies, which makes the corporations have competitive vantage. All of entrepreneurs want the win-win situation, which makes them get both economic and social advantages. However, only engaging in corporate philanthropy do make you step forward this situation.

      There is an idea about “community involvement (P.268)” in philanthropy, which is mentioned in Corporate Social Responsibility (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2008). Entrepreneurs and the general public are members of the community. If entrepreneurs are voluntary to help the society progress, it would not only have positive impact on the society, but also benefit the companies. The process of achieving the business success involves many elements, the most important one of which is “people.” J. Michael Cook, retired leader of Deloitte & Touche, argued that “If we have good educational systems, good safety, and good activity programs for young people, we’re going to be much more effective in attracting and retaining quality people.” (P.472, Carroll & Buchholtz) Therefore, entrepreneurs need to serve the general public with charity for financial and social goals. As the UK retailer Marks and Spencer said, “We have long believed that healthy high streets need healthy back streets.” (P.267, Crane, Matten & Spence)

      According to Living Water Social Ventures, it claims that corporate social responsibilities are chances entrepreneurs need to catch. There are five categories: “serving underserved market/ customer, providing socially responsible product/ service, creating employment for underprivileged people, purchasing from local or smallholder providers, and reinventing value chain for greater competitiveness.” (Living Water Social Ventures website, 2011) Some people are disadvantaged minority in the society, so the competent people should try their best to make up the others’ weakness. For example, Children Are Us Foundation is an organization, which helps people with disabilities find their value and confidence and makes them live by themselves.

      According to The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy (Porter & Kramer, 2002), “Charitable contributions by U.S. companies fell 14.5% in real dollars last year, and over the last 15 years, corporate giving as a percentage of profits has dropped by 50%.” It is clear that entrepreneurs’ aspiration to provide charitable contributions for supporting community keeps decreasing. Most entrepreneurs think that charitable contribution is a wasteful action. However, if they can understand how to do it well, it would become the effective advertising way to promote companies’ image and quickly penetrate the community. After all, “competing on price and corporate citizenship is smarter than competing on price alone.” (P.271, Crane, Matten & Spence)

References:

1.    Buchholtz, A. K. & Carroll, A. B. (2006). Business, society, and stakeholders: Corporate citizenship: social responsibility, responsiveness, and performance; External stakeholder issues: Business and community stakeholders. In D. Shaut (Ed.), Business & Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 6th edition (pp. 29-60; 471-500). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

2.    Crane, A., Matten D. & Spence L. J. (Eds.). (2008). Understanding CSR: CSR in the community. Corporate Social Responsibility, 1^st edition (pp. 265-283). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

3.    Chen, Y. C. (2011). Social business’ chance. Retrieved December 3, 2013, from Living Water Social Ventures Web site: http://www.livingwater.asia/3526440670.html

4.    Kramer, M. R. & Porter, M. E. (2002). The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Expert2business.com: http://www.expert2business.com/itson/Porter%20HBR%20Corporate%20philantropy.pdf