Social Responsibility: Types and Importance

Industrialization and technology have brought many discoveries, inventions and ultimately a bigger and better lifestyle. People are constantly surrounded by a very happening world and the drastic change is going through. Humans are evolving and so is society and its perception. However, it is quite mandatory to commemorate and keep certain duties and responsibilities that people have towards those who/which helped in living on this planet. A collectivistic approach and group acts can cultivate comparatively more results. 

With the change in the business scenario, businesses are more inclined towards serving society. They understand the role of society in their business, without society, their business would have landed nowhere. Hence, nowadays we see big business houses perform societal duties. A large amount of their profits is diverted to the needs of society.

Also, various kinds of servings can be done in the interest of society. Here, we point out the kinds in our discussion with a deeper analysis of the social responsibility performed by the business sectors.

What is Social Responsibility of Business?

Social responsibility in the business is also known as corporate social responsibility abbreviated as CSR, which pertains to people and the organizations behaving and ethically conducting business with crucial sensitivity towards the society’s - social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues. Performing social responsibility helps individuals, organizations, and governments to have a positive impact on development, business, and society. 

To initiate a smart business decision, the companies are required to earn the belief of the society by serving them rather than only counting the short-term dollars or rupees. Decision-makers should consider the future impact of today’s choices on the societal people, on the community at large, and customers and their cultural opinions. 

Social Responsibility helps the business by:

• Providing a cultural view of the company and understanding of quality

• Generating new career paths for quality professionals who are experts in Social Responsibility related decisions.

• Providing methods to enhance the efforts of SR professionals’

• Growing the community of SR practitioners

All this will help to communicate the value of SR

Social responsibility of business means the obligations or duties of the management of a business enterprise to protect the interests of society at large. According to the concept of social responsibility, the objective of managers for taking business decisions is not only to maximize the profits or shareholders’ wealth but also to serve the societal interest and protect the interests of workers, consumers and the community as a whole.

Types of Social Responsibility

There are various types of social responsibilities that can be served by the corporates: 

• Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility

This is the most common form of corporate social responsibility many companies focus on this type of CSR efforts which focuses on reducing their hazardous impact on the environment. After harmful effects on the environment were once ejected in the environment as an unavoidable cost of doing business, pollution and excessive consumption of resources now threaten social and political concern on a global level. For this reason, environmental CSR is now prioritising the impact that their business has on the environment. 

Companies, when engaged in environment-friendly practices can bring about a massive change in their surroundings and within themselves. Corporations, enormous industries, many uncountable numbers of small scale production communities and a lot of other people are contributing directly or indirectly towards the deterioration of the only planet that we got. The rapid rate of natural resource consumption and ascension of environmental pollution will only invite disastrous conclusions. Therefore Business companies can show their CSR towards the environment by raising awareness programs, initiating eco-friendly changes within the circles, conducting recycling programs, collaborating with local as well as national environmental protection based institutions. 

•  Ethical Corporate Social Responsibility

Ethical corporate social responsibility programmes ensure that all the stakeholders in a business will receive fair treatment, from employees to customers. Ethical responsibilities are self-enforced initiatives that a company puts in place because they believe it is the morally correct thing to do rather than out of any obligation. Businesses consider how stakeholders will be affected by their activity and work to have the most positive impact.  While the economic and legal responsibilities are the primary concerns of a company, after addressing the fundamental requirements of businesses, they can then focus on their ethical responsibilities. Ethical CSR is intended to enforce fair treatment for all employees, including paying higher wages, offering jobs to the individuals equally based on required criteria.    

• Philanthropic Corporate Social Responsibility

Philanthropic social responsibilities extend further than simply operating as ethical in making society better. This corporate social responsibility is moreover associated with donating money to charities, with many businesses supporting the particular charities that are related to their business in some way. Not only charity donations but other common philanthropic responsibilities include investing in the community or participating in local projects. The main intention is to support a community in a wholesome manner. 

Just like ethical responsibility emerges from the sense of right, wrong and moral integrity, philanthropic responsibility should be kept alive by putting out individual emotions together. Since business isn’t mostly a one-man army field, the steps taken by all the people of a company or many such companies can easily make an impact on the lives of people who we may even never see. 

• Economic Responsibility

Economic responsibility is ensuring an economic advantage both to the region from where the purchase arrived and to the region where it is destined to be marketed. The responsibilities are the basic social responsibilities of the business. Economic Responsibility is viewed by some economists as the legitimate social responsibility of business. Living up to the economic responsibilities requires managers to maximize profits wherever and whenever it is possible. The essential responsibility of business is to be assumed to provide goods and services to society at a reasonable cost. In performing that economic responsibility, the company also emerges as socially responsible by providing jobs for its workforce.

Suppose if a company is raising the cost of a day-to-day product like detergent or vegetables, and starts selling it to people at a higher price, they are showing their lack of economic responsibility. 

The business itself is an economic exercise. It aims at making money and earning profit. Do cut off the size of economic responsibility of business organizations with just provision of goods to people at a reasonable price. Business heads, through business processes, can show responsibility towards their employees too. Increment in salary, scale revision, provision, the adequate and deserving wage for each worker and to different sectors within the organization can induce a sense of happiness and in-turn make them responsible to keep up with the expectations of their senior employees. 

Apart from all these, another type of responsibility that business societies should ponder upon in future is Individual responsibility. Though all the types are interconnected in some way or the other, the integral value crafted by individual responsibility is much higher than anything. Business requires many people on board to run it. Naturally, it follows group-favourable approaches and decisions for the fulfilment of thoughts to actions. But it is also important to have an individualistic view when it comes to considerations and help. A business institution can grow individualistically responsible if the members can give care, respect and reflections to desired individuals. 

This includes regular surveys and meetings conducted to check on the mental health of employees, administering different tests that come in alignment with the company mission and work, among employees to motivate them to learn more and to recognize where a persons’ true passion lies. Also collect information about their family and financial background after which, collective decisions and ideas can be made to uplift at least one persons’ family who needs it the most. 

It is not easy to streamline such needs on an individual basis and gather things in one place. But it is also not impossible to do so.