Why Businss Should Act Responsibility and be Accountable？.docVIP

Why Business Should Act Responsibility and be Accountable？ Behaving in a socially responsible manner is increasingly seen assessential to the long-term survival of companies. An international survey conducted by Price waterhouse- Coopers in early 2002 found that nearly 70% ofthe global chief executives believed that addressing corporate social responsibility was vital to their companies’ profitability. Corporate social responsibility has been defined as “the integration of business operations and values whereby the interests of all stake holders ,including customers, employees, investors, and the environment are reflected in the organization’s policies and actions” and “the obligation of the firm to use its resources in ways to benefit society, through committed participation as a member of society, taking into account the society at large, and improving welfare of society at large independently of direct gains of the company”. There are a number of other definitions, all of which include taking into account the social and environmental impact of corporate activity when making decisions. Corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility are often used interchangeably, although Wad dock argues that corporate citizen ship necessarily places a strong emphasis on “developing mutually beneficial ,interactive and trusting relationships between the company and its many stakeholders” while corporate social responsibility does not necessarily involve stakeholder engagement. Information on environmental and social issues is commonlycommunicated by companies either as a section in their annual reports or in stand-alonereports. Stand-alone reports are either hard copy only, Internet-based only or,most commonly, provided in hard copy format as well as being put on theInternet. Many companies are now following the Global Reporting Initiativeguidelines (GRI 2002) and adopting Triple Bottom Line (TBL) reporting on economic,environmental and social issues to demonstrate the