- Published: November 17, 2021
- Updated: November 17, 2021
- University / College: University of Washington
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Downloads: 45
Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory Summary Most CSR theories take into consideration 4 practical aspects: 1) Businesses are meant to produce profits, 2) Corporate power and its rational use, 3) Businesses and their social responsibilities, 4) Businesses as profit makers working within ethical domains.
Based on the above concept, the theories can be classified into instrumental, political, integrative and value domains.
Instrumental approaches regard CSR as being a strategic tool to guides the process of wealth creation only.
Political approaches aim to find the correlation that prevails between businesses, society and the power dynamics and their responsibility.
Integrative notions regard businesses to be dependent upon society for their existence and growth. Hence the corporate entities are bound to reciprocate to social demands to enhance business activity while supporting social values.
Ethical approaches
Critique
The article is simply a review of the theories presented earlier by different thinkers; hence it fails to contribute to the knowledge in this area.
The author has attempted to classify the theories into 4 groups; there is no rational reason for such grouping, neither is the need to make four groups explained in the article.
It appears that such segregation of theories into groups is an oversimplification of the reality, since many theories may possess overlapping features and other researchers may be inclined towards classifying them into different groups.
Although this work provides insight into the way different theories are located on the map of CSR, it is merely an attempt to prove that different theories are focused on the aspects that are selected by the author in the start of the paper. Hence, this work is in a sense anecdotal in nature and fails to provide objective thoughts on the topic.
References
Garriga, E., & Melé, D. (2004). Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory. Journal of Business Ethics, 53, 51-57. doi: 10. 1023/B: BUSI. 0000039399. 90587. 34
