MANAGING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ACROSS BORDER

The basic approach to social responsibility, they adopt shape how they manage issues of compliance, the informal dimensions of social responsibility and the evaluation of their social responsibility efforts

Approaches to Social responsibility

a) Obstructionist stance
Organizations that take what might called an obstructionist stance to social responsibility usually do as little as possible to address social or environmental problems.

b) Defensive stance   One step removed from the obstructionist stance is the defensive stance, whereby the organization will do everything that is required of it legally but nothing more. This approach is often adopted by companies that are unsympathetic to the concept of social; responsibility.

c) Accommodative stance
 A firm that adopts an accommodative stance meets its legal and ethical requirements but will also go beyond these requirements in selected cases.

d) Proactive stance
The highest degree of social responsibility that a firm can exhibit is the proactive stance. Firms that adopts this approach take to heart the arguments in favor of social responsibility. They view themselves as citizens in a society and proactively seek opportunities to contribute

Managing Compliance

a) Legal Compliance
Legal compliance is the extent to which the organization conforms to regional, national and international laws. The task of managing legal compliance is generally assigned to the appropriate functional manager.

Examples; the organization’s top human resources executive is responsible for ensuring compliance with regulations concerning hiring, pay and workplace safety and health. Legal department; providing general oversight and answering about interpretation of laws and regulation.

b) Ethical compliance
 Ethical compliance is the extent to which the members of the organization follow basic ethical (and legal) standards of behavior.

c) Philanthropic giving
Philanthropic giving is the awarding of funds or gifts to charities or other social program. Examples; Alcoa gave $112,000 to a small town in Brazil to build a sewage treatment plant.

Informal Dimension of Social responsibility

a) Organization Leadership and Culture
Leadership practices and organization culture can go a long way toward defining the social responsibility stance an organization and its members will adopt.

b) Whistle-Blowing
Anyone who has and reports insider knowledge of illegal activities occurring in an organization. Whistle-blowers can be employees, suppliers, contractors, clients or any individual who somehow becomes aware of illegal activities taking place in a business either through witnessing the behavior or being told about it.

 Evaluating Social Responsibility

A corporate social audit is a formal and thorough analysis of the effectiveness of the firm’s social performance. Define all its social goals, analyze the resources it devoted to each goal, determine how well it is achieving the various goals and make recommendations about which areas need additional attention.