Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Returning to ethical principles in companies
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), consists of a contemporary practice that allows aligning the interests of companies with the interests of their environment. More than a normative scheme, it is a cultural process that facilitates the design, development and implementation of preventive programs and strategies, in relation to the administration of resources shared with the environment, which includes individuals, families, clients, suppliers, other companies, government institutions, other types of institutions and the environment.
Although Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has developed with more impetus in recent years, its application responds to the minimum, fundamental and basic conditions of resource management, under ethical and common sense principles, which have been applied since the origin of the companies and whose changes in their interpretation only differ due to the depth of the criteria that have historically been used for this purpose.
Some of these application criteria have regressed over time, in parallel with the process of moral and ethical weakening that exists on the part of many entrepreneurs or company and / or business administrators, whose actions are questionable due to the applications and effects that their decisions have. in the immediate environment and even beyond.
For example; Theoretically and under the economic assumptions that govern any organization, it is assumed that there must be awareness that resources are divided into renewable and non-renewable, so that the management of those who direct the organizations must consider any impact that operations may have on environment.
Managing resources under this premise, is part of the success of the administrator and represents by simple logic an important challenge to apply principles of resource optimization, evaluation of alternatives, cost management, innovation, etc.
Healthy coexistence with the environment is by itself an implicit strategy in each business opportunity, the benefits or repercussions of which must be considered as part of the respective business plan that is designed and implemented for this purpose; The reason is very simple, in the environment are the inputs, labor and customers. As a company, all of them are needed to survive over time, so aligning interests and commitments cannot be alien to the concept of sustainability and profitability that underpins any company and will be interpreted in the same way in the community or communities that are involved. interrelations with her.
All the activities that are carried out and the decisions that are made within a company come to have a relationship and impact with the environment; That is why beyond a Marketing strategy with a cause, the opinion of the interested parties must be genuinely considered, in order to achieve a systematic and sustainable coexistence, over time.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) works with stakeholders (different audiences) through programs or strategies that facilitate cooperation and guarantee co-responsibility among all those involved, assuming roles that facilitate coexistence and harmony, with autonomous control systems and, above all, general conviction and commitment.
This coexistence is the consequence of permanent evaluations in the environment (feasibility studies, opinion surveys, shared activities, socialization, etc.), as well as an adequate communication program (Public Relations), but above all, the ability to negotiate is important., under ethical and moral principles, when interacting with interested parties.
CSR programs must align the interests of the company with the environment and the environment with the company, under visionary strategies that guarantee healthy coexistence in the present and in the future; It is common to find companies and communities that align interests in a short-term way and that do not measure (or hide) the implications that these interests may have in the next generations.
According to the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987); "Sustainable development is one that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability for future generations to meet their own needs"; Considering this definition, it is appropriate to highlight that the application of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), is increasingly evaluated and with much more drasticity, by the new generations, in whom there is greater awareness of the reality of the "Green World"
In addition to the care that companies must have with the environment, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also allows evaluating and designing programs and strategies to facilitate coexistence with employees, their families, suppliers, clients and any person or community with which there is interrelation.
The basic approach of these relationships is justified in compliance with the laws and regulations established to guarantee that coexistence, but the aspirational within a CSR Program is to go much further than what companies are obliged to, without falling in advertising or marketing campaigns or strategies.
Without the need to justify the lack of public policies, which government institutions have in many countries, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) allows supporting the development of communities and countries in general, so its application is increasingly timely and necessary.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) does not constitute a practice of a regulatory and tax nature, it is based on programs that arise within organizations and that through strategies and awareness-raising actions, allow to make a call to conscience to retake the Ethical and moral principles of the foundations of entrepreneurship and good practices to do prosperous and sustainable businesses, guaranteeing coexistence, without damage to third parties neither in the present nor in the future.
