Building socially responsible corporate cultures

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) largely refers to the responsibility of an organization — whether it be a corporation, a governmental body or a nonprofit organization — to its stakeholder, the wider society and environment. The mainstream view is that organizations, as ‘corporate citizens,’ ought to be accountable to and responsible for the consequences of their activities which directly and/or indirectly affect society and the environment. Legislation is a driving force in the uptake of CSR, and with penalties for poor implementation particularly for FTSE 100 companies, there is a tendency to view it as having a ‘check-list’ quality. This approach may generate only incremental changes, with limited innovation as organizations are cautious to go above and beyond such legislation in light of potential risks and unknown rates of return on investments. Despite this, there are a cluster of organizations which are shaking up the traditional business models in favor of new,