corporate social responsibility as a valuable contribution to ...

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Valuable Contribution to Improvement ... 25
are managed voluntarily. They are usually a response to pressure from employees, nongovernmental
organizations or local authorities. The following actions can be quoted as
examples here: organizing a system of employee transport to the place of work, providing
workers with soundproof screen even if noise level does not exceed permissible levels,
organizing the kindergarten for employees’ children. In this case, it is an imposed
responsibility taken on as a result of pressure from society but in the interest of a firm.
The third level assumes making various forms of investments in community or the
environment voluntarily. These are the programmes initiated by a firm that reflect a long-term
concern for social and economic development of a particular region, and improvement in
inhabitants’ standard of living. In this case, it is possible to talk about conscious responsibility
when enterprise undertakes initiative as a result of its sense of “citizenship” (corporate
citizenship). Actions taken by a firm in accordance with social responsibility rules may bring
a number of various benefits, namely external (referring to environment of a firm) and
internal (referring to relations inside a firm and its employees). Society enjoys certain benefits
as well. The scale of these benefits depends on taken within social responsibility and the level
of obligations taken on the scope of actions by the management. Social expectations are
becoming greater and greater with market development and maturity. The more firms accept
conscious responsibility connected with the creation of social value added, the less
considerable benefits accrue from assuming only imposed responsibility. Table 1 shows
benefits accruing from CSR and enjoyed by firms and society.
Table 1. Benefits accruing from running responsible business
Benefits Type Description
to a firm
Growing interest from
investors
Greater loyalty from
consumers and
stakeholders
Improvement in
relations with
community and local
authorities
Firms that take social dimension into account in their strategies can
have easier access to financing. Creditors are more interested in the
cooperation with firms that, apart from good financial results, are at
the same time managed in a transparent way, create their image and
relations with environment responsibly, than with the ones which
do not do so. For many investors, financial reliability of a firm
depends on its social reliability.
Greater social awareness of consumers leads to the fact that while
making a choice, they are guided by the trust they have in a
particular firm and its image. Modern consumer is more and more
often an aware consumer. Apart from fair price and good quality,
he/she expects a product or service to have positive associations. A
larger group of consumers pays attention to the “ecological” values
of product or service, if a firm obeys the rules of social
responsibility while creating them as well as the general standing of
a business.
Participation of firm in the life of local community as well as
making long-term and notable social investments facilitate its
effective and peaceful functioning. Social responsibility enables a
firm to become deeply rooted in community and win favour with
its members and also local authorities’ trust.
Improvement
competitiveness
in
Introduction of responsible business rules is one of advantages
thanks to which firms win competitive advantage. For Polish firms,
transparent CSR policy may be one of means for establishing their
position on world markets where expectations about meeting
responsible business standards are much more confident.