UNIT 24: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

EXTRA PRACTICE

READING COMPREHENSION
Read the article below about Corporate Social Responsibility carefully and finish the following tasks:

Task 1: Complete the article by choosing one sentence (A-H) for each gap.
A. Thus, making money serves a social purpose.
B. They, at least, are accountable to voters.
C. The problem is that the profits of private enterprise go exclusively to shareholders.
D. One solution many companies have adopted is the appointment of so-called ‘ethics managers’.
E. The policy may in fact harm precisely those it is supposedly intended to help.
F. However, the one thing that all these ideas have in common is that they are based on a faulty analysis
of the capitalist system they are intended to cure.
G. But that does not fully discharge the enlightened company’s debt to society.
H. Companies at every opportunity now express agreement with the principles of corporate soda]
responsibility (CSR).

Task 2: Vocabulary - Match the words and phrases from the article with their definition.
1. benefits A. idea or theory on which a statement or action is based
2. premise B. indirect results of other events or situations
3. discharge a debt C. try very hard to make something happen
4. stakeholders D. people suchg as employees, customers or citizens who are involved with an
organization and therefore have an interest in its success
5. better off E. richer
6. strive for F. things such as medical insurance that employees receive in addition to money
7. fall short of G. fail to reach a desired standard
8. knock-on effects H. pay a debt completely
Task 3: Discuss these questions in small groups.
1. Do you agree that...
• companies have a debt to society apart from paying taxes and obeying the law?
• by concentrating on making profits, companies are contributing enough to society?
• managers should concenữate on making profits rather than CSR?
2. What relationship do you think there IS between CSR and corporate culture?
(Source: Business Benchmark – Advanced, Unit 21)