What is Corporate Social Responsibility? - InnoTrain CSR

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
1.4. Corporate ethics and value-based management
In short
Corporate ethics deals with ethical rules and principles within a commercial
context. Corporate ethics is expressed in very specific situations in which
company owners, managers and employees are faced with difficult business
decisions. It concerns basic fields such as truthful accounting, compliance
with rights of employees and fairness in business relationships. By developing
corporate mission statements or codes of behaviour and ethics, principles for
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and a value-based management system
can be derived from corporate ethics.
Learning targets
� Get to know the terms corporate ethics and value-based management
� Discuss values and standards as basis of CSR and value-based management
CSR learning contents
Normally, corporate ethics is not dealing with the justification of ethics, but rather with
the evaluation of practical questions, problems and duties associated with business
actions and relationships. Decisions relating to corporate ethics arise for example, if
business interests (often in connection with so-called inherent economic necessities)
are conflicting with the ethical conduct or personal attitudes and values of the actors.
The distinction between values and standards is helpful for understanding corporate
ethics. Values are objects, spiritual or religious customs or goals considered
important, valuable or desirable - usually by a group such as for example the
employees of a company, stakeholders or the entire society and different cultural
circles. Some examples include peace, freedom, progress, human rights, property,
solidarity, education or fairness.
Standards are value-based expectations. Standards are a basic orientation guide for
the individual and his/her social and professional life. A simple example of standards
is: "Our Company is not open on Sundays" - the associated values may be the
recovery and health of the employees.
The project "InnoTrain CSR" is organized by GILDE GmbH and has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 12/2010
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