Social Responsibility Essay

Submitted By allenseigler
Words: 589
Pages: 3

With the publicly broadcasted scandals of Enron, Tyco, and Sunbeam, our country, communities, and citizens have a greater awareness of corporate governance. Evidence proves that citizens are making decisions on which company to do business with based on their level of social responsibility. Social responsibility can be defined many ways. The most simple definition of social responsibility is the way a business contributes to the community in which it is located without the only focus being profitability. Many companies are operating with a focus of maximizing profits without any regard for making a positive impact in the communities in which they operate. After reviewing the details of Company Q, I strongly feel they do not have a focus on being a socially responsible company. Part of being socially responsible is understanding the needs of all stakeholders, both internal and external, and making a positive impact on all of them. Company Q’s lack of responding to the desires of their customers to sell organic products for several years and their lack of giving back to the community is evidence of this disregard. In addition, there seems to be a clear distrust of employees at Company Q. The first area in which Company Q could improve their attitude towards social responsibly is in defining their stakeholders. I think once you force yourself to identify your stakeholders, all people and companies impacted by your company, it really changes your perspective on who and how you serve. The customers of Company Q are most certainly a stakeholder. Their anger towards Company Q’s lack of responding to their desires could easily turn into a customer shopping with a competitor. Once identifying their stakeholders, I would strongly recommend this company to identify how each stakeholder could impact their company. I would love to be in the room when the leaders of this organization discussed the impact their customers could have on the company. Second, I think Company Q needs to have senior management sit down and determine their core organizational values which could include giving back, volunteerism, and sustainability. By giving back to the community, both in volunteer form and donations of old products, employees will feel a stronger connection and more loyalty to the company. Procedures could be developed to ensure the correct items are leaving the shelves to be donated to