Social Responsibility of Business

This report explores the concept of social responsibility of business and its importance in increasing profits. It discusses various models and ethical principles that help organizations comply with their social responsibilities. The report focuses on Rowlinson Knitwear, a small and medium enterprise, and its implementation of corporate social responsibility theories.

Social Responsibility of
Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Topic : The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits...................................3
a) Concepts of range of businesses social responsibilities ....................................................3
c) Various models that helps the organisation in complying with their social responsibility4
d) Ethics in business with examples ......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Social responsibility is an ethical framework that helps an organisation to perform in such
a way that they can contribute to the society whose resources they utilise (Leipziger, 2017). This
helps the business to operate effectively as it improves the image of the organisation. Ethics are
the moral principles on the basis of which the individual behaves. Various ethical theories have
been followed by the organisation to make their employees access and identify what is good or
bad. For the report the organisation that is taken into consideration is Rowlinson Knitwear which
provides garments for school and offices and the company is an small and medium enterprise.
This report is prepared to understand the various corporate social responsibility theories which
helps the organisations to implement the concept of business ethics.
Topic : The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits
It is standard theory of business ethics that they have to create wealth for the shareholders
of the company whereas the company uses their resources in the social causes. This reduces the
returns of the shareholders. As Friedman said that, the business has only one responsibility that is
of utilising the resources only in those activities which generates revenue for the company so that
shareholders returns can be increased. But to contribute to the society in which they are operating
is also crucial for the organisation. The concept of social responsibility is not applicable only to
the large organisation but also to the small enterprises as the business efficiency and ethical
behaviours is requirement of all the businesses irrespective of the size and nature of the
organisation (Eriksson and Svensson, 2015).
a) Concepts of range of businesses social responsibilities
Every business that operates have various social responsibilities against the shareholders
and the society. Rowlinson Knitwear also has range of such responsibilities and to identify that
various concepts are used. Social responsibilities are the framework which are ethical ways that
helps the organisation to meet their obligations in regards to society, stakeholders and others.
Stakeholders theory suggest that the sole responsibility of the business is not to
maximise the profits for the organisation but to contribute towards the stakeholders. Under this
theory, the interest of the stake holders need to be considered as they can ceases them to exist. It
addresses various business ethics and moral values which is to be considered while handling the
shareholders who are part of the organisation. This theory seeks that the benefits of the

stakeholders should be maximized by the organisation by enhancing the efficiency of the
organisation. It helps the companies to gather funds, attract customers, guides their employees to
behave ethically (Spence, 2016). The other concept that they suggest the range of responsibilities
for the company is Triple Bottom Line concept which help the organisation in evaluating the
performances of the business in a broader perspective to enhance the value of the business thus
focus should not only on the shareholders but on the stakeholders. It provides a reporting
framework which suggest to take into account the social and environmental performance in
addition to financial performance of the organisation. Rowlinson Knitwear follows the same
reporting framework that helps them satisfy not only the shareholders but the stakeholders.
c) Various models that helps the organisation in complying with their social responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility is the concept that helps the businesses in self regulation.
It is management concept where organisation integrates their environmental ans social concerns
with the organisational operations. With the help of which they can create balance between their
operations and their responsibilities. Various models that are used by the Rowlinson Knitwear to
achieve their goals related to CSR (Belal, 2016).
The corporate social responsibility is important for the organisation irrespective of their
size and nature. It helps the businesses to performance better in overall market and to increase
the market share as the clients becomes more satisfied when they the organisation behaves
ethically which further helps to improve the profitability for the company and also it increases
the stock prices of the company. This also satisfy the employees by the ethical and social
behaviour which increases their level of satisfaction and motivates them.
The first model which they uses is CSR Pyramid model is the model that provides
framework which helps the organisation to understand why and how they can meet their social
responsibility. The important features of this model is that the profit is must for the organisation
as CSR can only be done if there are sufficient profits in the organisation (Slack, Corlett and
Morris, 2015). The pyramid prepared in this model helps the Rowlinson Knitwear to identify
their four responsibilities such as economic which are associated with the profits and the survival
of the company, the next responsibility is related to the laws and regulations which they need to
follow, then comes the ethical responsibilities which implies that businesses need to act morally
and ethically. The last responsibility of the business is of philanthropy which makes the
companies liable to give back to the society whose resources they uses in their operations. On the

basis of this model the Rowlinson Knitwear can easily identify the importance and various
elements of the CSR (McWilliams, 2015). The other model that they follow is EFQM
Excellence Model which stands for European foundation for quality management is commonly
used tool of improvement. This model helps in evaluating the areas where they need to improve
and the areas which are their strengths. The framework is been developed after identifications of
the areas that needs improvement which helps in large transformation to deliver the best results.
Various elements of the model that helps the organisation to understand the cause and effect
relationships between the results of the activities and activities that are undertaken by the
organisation. EFQM model will help the company in identifying the level of CSR that the
Rowlinson Knitwear need to do as part of their business.
d) Ethics in business with examples
Ethics are the moral principles on the basis of which the decisions are taken. It is
basically concerned with what is right and wrong or good or bad. Ethics guides the persons to
carry out their activities. They can be derived from the culture that a person follows, the society
which they live in, the professional conduct or many more (Watson, 2015).
Business Ethics are associated with the policies and the practices of the businesses which
are in context of various controversial matters such as bribery, discrimination, CSR etc. There
are some laws which guides the business ethics but at times they be the guidelines fort the
company which helps them to operate efficiently and to attain a better public image.
To develop the business ethics there are various elements that are to be considered by the
Rowlinson Knitwear :
 Principle of integrity : It is one of the most important principle that is part of being
ethical as it helps the business to determine the right actions and the one which are
morally wrong. Integrity establishes the line between rights and wrong that executives
and employees in the organisation should avoid. The increased focus on integrity
facilitates the company to implement other ethical principles in the organisation.
Rowlinson Knitwear applies this principle to make their people determine the difference
between right and wrong (Vitell, 2015).
 Principle of Confidentiality : This principle of ethics helps the organisation to keep the
informations safe and secure which can be related to the stakeholders, employees,
customers and clients as they provides their information to the organisation in good faith.

Principle of confidentiality helps to improves the image of the company and can easily
expand their business, Rowlinson Knitwear is a clothing manufacturing company due to
which they a lot of information about their suppliers, which is why it is important for
them to have confidence between company and the client. Thus this company enjoys a
great business as they are trustworthy (Strand, Freeman and Hockerts, 2015).
 Principle of Objectivity : The principle of objectivity is the associated with the
authenticity in the financial statement on the basis of which the investors take decision to
make investments. The intention of this principle of ethics is to keep the management and
the accounting team concerned and consistent towards the financial data and the changes
that can influence the reports. In case of Rowlinson Knitwear it is important for them to
follow this principle as on the basis of their authentic financial statements they can easily
procure funds from the investors.
 Principle of Competency : This principle is concerned with the understanding of various
laws and the code of conduct which is required to be complied by the companies to
ensures the smooth functioning of the operations of the organisation. It helps the
organisation to avoids the legal proceedings which keeps the records of the organisation
clear. This principle will improves the image of the Rowlinson Knitwear company as
they can easily convince the clients and the investors to invest (Moratis and Cochius,
2017) .
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that ethics is important for every company as it
helps the business to improve their image and brings efficiency the operations. For developing
ethics in the business organisations applies various theories and principles in their organisation.
Also ethics in the business helps to increase the profitability of the business as they become
trustworthy in the eyes of the stakeholders.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Belal, A.R., 2016. Corporate social responsibility reporting in developing countries: The case of
Bangladesh. Routledge.
Eriksson, D. and Svensson, G., 2015. Elements affecting social responsibility in supply
chains. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(5), pp.561-566.
Leipziger, D., 2017. The corporate responsibility code book. Routledge.
McWilliams, A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility. Wiley encyclopedia of management,
pp.1-4.
Moratis, L. and Cochius, T., 2017. ISO 26000: The business guide to the new standard on social
responsibility. Routledge.
Slack, R.E., Corlett, S. and Morris, R., 2015. Exploring employee engagement with (corporate)
social responsibility: A social exchange perspective on organisational
participation. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(3), pp.537-548.
Spence, L.J., 2016. Small business social responsibility: Expanding core CSR theory. Business
& Society, 55(1), pp.23-55.
Strand, R., Freeman, R.E. and Hockerts, K., 2015. Corporate social responsibility and
sustainability in Scandinavia: An overview. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(1), pp.1-15.
Unit, B., 2015. Corporate social responsibility.
Vitell, S.J., 2015. A case for consumer social responsibility (CnSR): Including a selected review
of consumer ethics/social responsibility research. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(4),
pp.767-774.
Watson, L., 2015. Corporate social responsibility research in accounting. Journal of Accounting
Literature, 34, pp.1-16.
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