Corporate Governance and Ethics

Running head: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Corporate social responsibility is an inevitable part of the duty of the corporate houses
which they seek to fulfill by means of showing concern towards the social causes through
indulgences in the philanthropic pursuits. The corporate social responsibility is supposed to be an
inevitable part of the governance of the corporate organizations and also their ethical
responsibility. However ever since the days of the industrial revolution, the corporate social
responsibility has been treated as a matter of serving the selfish interests of the business
organizations and in the contemporary times as shown in the case of the Commonwealth Bank
that profits are the only concern of corporate organizations and they indulge more in propaganda
than actual work.

2CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
Introduction
The proliferation of the private sector and the expansion of the corporate houses through
business ventures on an international basis has been possible because of the advent of the system
of laissez faire economy due to which the state interference in the business activities had
significantly reduced. The state as per the theorization of the classical philosopher Weber is
supposed to be the institution which must be taking the responsibility of ensuring that the
competition at the level of the market does not lead to the encroachment upon the general interest
of the public. The sphere of market as per the Weberian analogy is the sphere wherein the selfish
interest of the human beings are fulfilled and the state is supposed to regulate the actions of the
market without interfering in their profit making ventures. Thus to say that the corporate houses
are totally devoid of any form of control mechanism from the state and from the society at large
would be an understatement. The corporate houses are thus bound by a responsibility to the
society and its betterment which they are supposed to fulfill through the process of incurring
profit and furthering their business ventures. The control mechanism or the regulatory steps are
not necessarily something which is supposed to be imposed by an external agency such as the
state authority for the purpose of making the corporate houses responsible towards their social
responsibilities, which includes within its scope the stakeholders and the general public. This
particular responsive attitude of the corporate houses towards the individuals associated with the
organization and also towards the society at large which emanates from the conscience of the
corporate houses instead of being imposed by any external agency is called the corporate social
responsibility (Unit, 2015).