Business Ethics & CSR BBA Semester 7th

Chapter Three
Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is an ethical theory, in which individuals are accountable

(‫ )جوابدہ۔‬for fulfilling their civic (‫ )شہری حق‬duty; the actions of an individual must
benefit the whole of society. In this way, there must be a balance between
economic growth and the welfare of society and the environment. If this
equilibrium (‫ )توازن‬is maintained, then social responsibility is accomplished.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the ethical efforts made by a

company for the betterment of the society. Company can contribute (‫ ِ)امداد‬in
numerous (‫)ب شمار‬ ‫ ے‬ways to improve the society ranging from donating money to
nonprofits or charitable organizations or implementing environmentally friendly
policies in the workplace.

Corporate Social Investment can give you a competitive upper hand over your
competitors and help you to build a reputation as a responsible business.

Dimensions of Social Responsibility:

According to Carroll, CSR is a multi-layer concept consisting of four inter-related
aspects of responsibilities, namely, economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. He
presents these different responsibilities as consecutive layers within a pyramid.

Four Dimension:
1. The Economic Dimension
2. The Legal Dimension
3. The Ethical Dimension
4. The Philanthropic Dimension

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Business Ethics & CSR BBA Semester 7th

Let us discuss, in brief, each of these four responsibilities in turn.

1. The Economic Dimension or Economic Responsibilities:

A corporation has to meet its economic responsibilities in terms of reasonable

(‫ )مناسب‬return to investors, fair compensation to employees, goods at fair prices
to customers, etc. Thus, meeting economic responsibility is the first-layer of
responsibility and also the basis for the subsequent responsibilities. The fact
remains that meeting economic responsibility is must for all corporations to
survive in the time.
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Business Ethics & CSR BBA Semester 7th

2. The Legal Dimension or Legal Responsibility:

The legal responsibility of business corporations demands that businesses abide

َ َ ُ ُ
(‫ )قانون یا حکم یک اطاعت کرنا‬by the law of land. Laws are the codification of do’s and
don’ts dos in the society.

‫ن‬
Abiding by laws is the prerequisite (‫الزیم‬, ‫)اولی تقاضہ‬ for any corporation to be
socially responsible. The business is free to do business however it wants but only
within the boundaries of regulations of various laws such as labour law,
environmental law and criminal law. For example, it’s a business’s duty to pay taxes
to the government and keep its account books clean as it helps the government to
track the economic state of the company.

3. Ethical Responsibility:

Ethical responsibilities include the behaviour of the firm that is expected by the
society but not codified in law. The factors of ethical responsibility include that the
business must be environmentally friendly. The business should always be aware of
its activities and how do they affect the environment. It is the moral and ethical
responsibility of every human and every business.

2. Philanthropic Responsibility:

The Greek word ‘philanthropy’ means literally ‘the love of the fellow human.’
Business is one the most important pillar of the society. And therefore it should
support and improve the society whenever it can. If a business is making significant
profits it is the business responsibility that it should be philanthropic towards the
society by donating funds or its goods and services.
It’s the philanthropic responsibility of the business to help different groups of the
society. It should also work towards providing free education by opening
educational institutes and training institutes or helping the people affected by
natural calamities such as floods and earthquakes. It is the responsibility of the
company management to safeguard the capital investment by avoiding speculative
‫ )قیاس آر یائ پر ن‬activity and undertaking only healthy business which give good
(‫مبن‬
returns on investment.

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