Research Proposal on "What Is Corporate Social Responsibility CSR Do We Need It?"

Research Proposal 10 pages (3110 words) Sources: 3 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Corporate Social Responsibility in a Transcontinental Business Context

Transcontinental Management and Global Business

Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility

Is Corporate Social Responsibility Necessary?

In a world of ever expanding global corporations, how should we hold these companies responsible for the nature of how the conduct business? Should we allow companies to continue the massive exploitation of past generations of doing business in foreign lands? Within a modern context such production practices are unnecessary and unethical. There are now alternatives which can help reduce exploitation of land, resources, and human labor. Corporate Social Responsibility aims to stop such exploitation and force corporations to take responsibility n the regions the produce and sell in. The concept forces global corporations to take responsibility for their actions both at home an abroad. Despite arguments against implementing Corporate Social Responsibility, it proves essential to help preserve the world and its consumer markets as we know them today. Utilizing Corporate Social Responsibility will prove to benefit foreign nations that are the homes of mass production as well as the average consumer who can then buy guilt-free their favorite and needed products.

The nature of business in today's market place has changed drastically within the past few decades. What was once a single minded institution with mainly one individual region in mind has morphed into a business machine with much more in its control. Traditionally, many companies were aligned to fit the need of specific regions and not a larger consumer base. In this set up, there might be a few isolated sub-markets which the corporation might have dabbled in, however these were much different than today's multitude of markets. In many cases the state still had control of working and business conditions in these markets. That meant that the state was in control of overseeing things like production, environmental, and workers regulations. The state therefore was responsible for regulating social responsibility and olding various corporations accountable for their actions during production. However, "One of the most significant business and economic trends of the late 20th century is the stateless corporation," (Eom 1994:22). Many states failed to uphold stricter regulations, and from nation t nation such regulations were vastly different. This lead to rampant corruption in the social responsibility of many corporations; they followed the bare minimum which would in most cases not be deemed very responsible by American standards. On top of that, corporations were being fragmented by the various regulations set forth in different geographical regions which they conducted business in. Essentially, this meant that many corporations outgrew the states which they have their headquarters in. This means that they have much larger interests in other nations, and must abide by a more international agenda rather than a more limited state bound agenda. Since international rules are much weaker and shakier than some state regulations on corporations, this left many corporations to basically manage themselves and to regulate themselves in various ways.

Transcontinental Management and Global Business

Many state governments and institutions bound these early corporations. However, the growth of the consumer base was tempting. This forced many companies to expand their interest beyond one single region and onto a more global approach which aimed at several markets all over the world. With globalization came new ways of expanding and regulating business. For instance, Early Decision Support Systems (DSS) focused on the individual region, not truly acknowledging the larger context of global sized business. This was popular up until the 1980s, where "many companies shifted their attention to the application of DSS technology to large-scale organization and global decision making," (Eom 1994:23). Technology and regulations were changing to fit the needs of the newly established global corporation.

Today, most companies now structure the nature of their business within a more globalized scale. What has resulted is a whole new breed of businesses and corporations which operate strictly with a global agenda in mind. Today, many corporations have their production in one country, with vastly different marketing campaigns in other nations which are geared toward the individual consumer markets within those regions. Companies are no longer thinking streamlined to fit only on demographic. They have expounded that traditional technique to fit single demographics in a multitude of different market places. Going global has completely changed the face of business and has created the field of transcontinental management in order to best regulate and manage international assets and individual consumer markets. Management has now been promoted to a global scale.

There are several key elements which have helped the rise of transcontinental management and the global corporation. Developing technologies have allowed companies to access global markets with much more ease. Various developments in information technology have allowed for the same kind of strict information regulation and control on a much broader and global scale. For example, "The forces unleashed by the telecommunication and microcomputer revolutions over the past decade have brought two significant phenomena: increasing global interdependence and internationalization of business firms," (Eom 1994:24). In today's world, technology now helps managers in one region to control and monitor an entire globes worth of corporate information and market data. Production in China, sales in Japan, employee information in Canada -- all can be handled in a neat package over the desktop of a manager in the headquarters in Dallas. Such technologies and new emerging markets have expounded traditionally local companies onto a global level, "To many global companies, online access to corporate data has already become vital for their success in managing numerous overseas subsidiaries," (Eom 1994:25). Development of web based applications has allowed a more streamlined method of controlling such a vast and fragmented global presence. The continual growth of the international business has also driven the need for new technologies. Constant new developments come out of the need to unite such a widely divided global presence. With this continual technological development, running a globalized business will soon be just as labor and resource consuming as owning a local or domestic corporation, just with much more profit potential.

Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility

With developing technologies comes seemingly unlimited growth potential. And many global corporations have expanded far beyond what they would have projected back when they were catering to a single market. However, this growth on the global scale means that these growing companies must understand the responsibility of operating in these various markets. Since state regulatory guidelines have subsided in the midst of ever expanding global corporations, many have found themselves in charge of handling the social and environmental responsibilities of working in various regions in the world. Thus modern global companies are forced to acknowledge a wide variety of different aspects of the different regions they work and sell in. This can include making crucial decisions based on things like differing economic and political factors, "When making any global decision, several global risks must be considered, including political, foreign exchange, and tax rates," (Eom 1994:27). Differing political agendas and economic conditions are a major part of doing business in other nations. Global corporations must constantly respond and negotiate with unfavorable or favorable conditions in the political and economic sphere. However, these corporations cannot truly control external regional political and economic forces, they merely maneuver around them to still maximize their profit share.

However, one aspect they can control is their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR. In today's modern business application, Corporate Social Responsibility, (CSR), is a way for global corporations to manage and regulate themselves as stipulated within each corporation's business model. It stipulates what is crossing the line for an individual corporation in terms of environmental and employee regulation. Such policy is interwoven within the traditional business model, and so serves as an internally regulatory function to watch over the actions and policies of the business itself. This would then leave the business with the responsibility of regulating itself within the multitude of global markets it enters. Such responsibilities within these varied markets include environmental, consumer, employee, community, and stakeholder responsibilities within each an every location the corporation was conducting business. Perfect practice of Corporate Social Responsibility is the true execution of what is lined up so nicely within business strategy. This means that a corporation is serious about keeping its products and practices ethical with the implementation of environmentally friendly and respectful employee practices. In generations past, previous global enterprises were known to rape foreign lands of their resources with little regards to the natural habitat or the native inhabitants. On top of the environmental damage caused by foreign companies in delicate natural regions such as Africa, many global corporations within ages lie the Imperial Age also held no respect or duties to the employees which were exploited for little money. Since the days of imperialism, the attitude towards environmental and human exploitation has changed dramatically. In today's world, many consumers are calling for more ethical companies who are known to have high standards for Corporate Social Responsibility. In many cases consumers tend to shy away from corporations known for having weak… READ MORE

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