Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CHAPTER 3
Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Sustainability
CHAPTER OUTLINE
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1. Sustainability is the degree to which a person or entity can meet its present needs
without compromising the ability of other people or entities to meet their needs
in the future.
C. Defining Sustainable Organizations
1. A sustainable organization is an organization that has the ability to meet its
present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their needs.
2. The three sustainability gauges are called the triple bottom-line:
a. the economy (not overproducing goods, fair profit for stakeholder)
b. the environment (protect natural resources)
c. the society (maintain wellbeing and protection of communities)
D. Why sustainability?
1. Increased profit
2. Increased productivity
3. Increased innovation
E. Steps for achieving sustainability
1. Managers can take the following steps to build a sustainable organization:
a. Setting sustainability goals
b. Hiring organization members who can help the organization become more
sustainable
c. Rewarding employees who contribute to an organizations sustainability goals
d. Tracking progress in reaching sustainability goals
F. Philanthropy Challenge
1. Promote welfare of others through generous monetary donations to social causes
like arts, education, world peace and disaster relief.
2. Managers should strive to make donations to societal areas that will afford the
organization a competitive edge
A. Definition of Ethics
1. Ethics, in business, is the capacity to reflect on values in the corporate decision-
making process, to determine how these values and decisions affect the various
stakeholders, and to establish how managers can use these observations in day-
to-day company management.
B. Why Ethics is a Vital Part of Management Practices
1. Ethical practices can enhance overall corporate health in the following three
areas:
a. Productivity
i. Productivity of employees
ii. If management acts ethically towards stakeholders, employees will be
positively affected..
b. Stakeholder Relations
i. Positive impact on "outside" stakeholders, such as suppliers,
customers, and the general public.
ii. A positive image with respect to social responsibility will attract
customers and vendors.
c. Government Regulation
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Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Essay questions:
A manager can make social responsibility operational in an organization by doing the following:
2. Highlight the issues a manager must address to effectively and efficiently pursue the
organizations social responsiveness.
Managers must determine exactly which social responsibilities an organization should pursue.
They must pursue only those responsibilities which their organizations possess and have a right to
undertake. They should then decide the best way to undertake activities related to meeting this
obligation whether to undertake activities on their own or acquire the help of outsiders with
more expertise in the area.
3. Profit is an important, yet not the sole, criterion of gauging organizational performance.
Discuss this statement in the context of the triple bottom-line.
Managers have historically focused on profit parameters or the bottom line as the primary gauge
for evaluating organizational performance. Managers are now evaluating organizational
performance by examining three sustainable gauges: the economy (inclusive of profit), the
environment, and society. All three sustainability gauges are considered collectively and are
referred to as the triple bottom line.
4. Should managers be ethical without being competitive? Discuss some of the key areas where
ethical business practices improve corporate health.
A manager should not talk about ethics without talking about competitiveness. Companies cannot
be competitive if they are built on cultures based upon dishonesty, and where people stab one
another in the back, take advantage of one another, steal from one another.
Three important areas where ethical business practices improve corporate health are: productivity,
stakeholder relations, and government regulations.
5. What is your personal opinion of the whistle-blowing activities of managers now that you have
studied its implications as presented in this chapter?
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Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall