Financial Reporting and Ethics - The Institute of Chartered ...

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN ETHICS(b)Indirect ResponsibilitiesIndirect responsibilities are defined as those outside the mainsphere of a company’s activities/control. It may include rectifyingpollution for which the company is not itself responsible but whichderives from the same industry sector. It is usually not a directrepair of damages but, to facilitate any clean-up by co-operatingwith the responsible company by sharing information, techniquesand resources if they are available.Companies could become an important instrument of social justice andsocial change. These responsibilities to the society arise from the positionof power which companies have in society which enables them to influenceand lobby power over government to ensure that their views are wellrepresented.12.2.2 The Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility?Corporate responsibility is a concept that describes the responsibilitiesthat organisations take for the impact of their activities on customers,suppliers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporatesocial responsibility expands on this concept by including considerationof the impact of their activities on communities, the environment andsociety as a whole. Corporate Social Responsibility therefore is theobligation a business assumes towards society. To be socially responsibleis to maximise positive effects and minimise negative effects on thesociety.The European Commission defines Corporate Social Responsibility asthe integration by companies of social and environmental concerns intheir business operations and in the interaction with their stakeholderon a voluntary basis. It can also be understood as the administration ofcompanies in a socially responsible wayMoral Responsibility on the other hand implies that an action mustbe done knowingly and willingly. For instance, though I am causallyresponsible for the things I do in my sleep, I am not morally responsiblefor them. To be morally responsible would mean:(a)(b)That I did the action (the cause of the result of the action);That I did the action intentionally : knowingly and willingly.The implication is that one is not forced to act; one had a choice, knewwhat one was doing and did it deliberately. One can also be morallyresponsible for failing to do what one was morally obliged to do; buthere the failure must be intentional.247