Corporate Social Responsibility Defining Corporate

Corporate Social Responsibility

Defining Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility has rapidly grown for the last ten years, a big proportion of companies now are involved in a serious attempt to define and incorporate CSR into each aspect of their operations (Turban and Greening, 1997). A large number of shareholders, employees, customers, regulators, labor unions, community organizations and media houses are requesting companies to accountable for changing CSR issues. Today, there is an increasing demand for accountability and transparence and more expectation that companies evaluate report and constantly improve their CSR.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also referred to as corporate conscience, responsible business, corporate social performance or just corporate responsibility. According to Garriga and Mele (2004), this is a kind of corporate self-control incorporated into a business concept. Generally, CSR policy would act as a self-controlling system whereby an organization will evaluate and make sure that it promotes regulations, ethical conduct and international standards. As a result, an organization would act responsibly regarding its impacts on environment, employees, customers, stakeholders and to the community as a whole. In addition, CSR-centered organizations would proactively advance the interests of the public through supporting community welfare and growth. Such organizations also voluntarily avoid practices that negatively affect the public even if they are legal. Basically, as noted by Turban and Greening (1997) CSR entails voluntary incorporation of public interest within the organization' decision making organs and upholding the triple bottom concept: people, planet and profit.

Every company implements CSR in a different manner (Turban and Greening, 1997). The difference comes from factors such as the size of the company, the industry involved and the culture of the company. Other factors are stakeholders' demands, and the history of the company. A number of companies focus on a single aspect that they regard as very crucial, for instance the environment, whereas other companies focus on integrating CSR in all activities of their company. For CSR to succeed, it is important that the CSR practices are incorporated in the company's values and long-term strategic plan. It is also necessary to align the CSR strategy with the company's objectives.

Why corporate social responsibility is needed

Corporate social responsibility has significant of benefits for companies, and it is making remarkable head waves in the social networking. CSR helps companies, individuals and organizations, social networking companies try to minimize negative results and maximize positive results that involve all aspects of communication and privacy of personal information (Turban and Greening, 1997).

As consumer behavior changes, all companies even those in the social networking are as well forced to change they way the do business. Corporate Social Responsibility can be viewed as a social trend currently infiltrates the social networking sites. However, taking time into perspective Corporate Social Responsibility as an attribute becomes even more ambiguous in its application. In this light, Corporate Social Responsibility offers an alluring attribute, but can hardly be sustained as the determining factor social networking. However, it is predicted that future users will reject social networking companies that cannot be responsible for the privacy of their information

CSR and social networking

Social networking through the internet started with the desire for individuals to quickly and easily share information with dear ones. This type of communication has blossomed quickly and began to compete for popularity with text messaging and e-mail. This created an opportunity that various entrepreneurs seized forming internet sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, meant to allow users to create their own profiles and share information with their friends (Alison, 2007). At the same time, these online social sites permit users to create social networks with tens and even thousands of other users. In the past, the use if these sites created minimal known risk to personal privacy even as users profile information changed. The users began with posting the basic information required to create an online person. However, the truth is some of this information on these online social sites is private and at times not something an individual would share with his/her family or a stranger and clearly not with a potential employers. As social networking became more widespread, facebook opened up more products and increased its users. Job seekers are starting to see the negative effect of posting or private information on facebook as they more and more employers access facebook and use private information of these jobseekers in the hiring process. This aspect has lead to look at Corporate Social Responsibility of implications of Facebook's privacy policy

Facebook outlines the following about private policy

Facebook is meant to share information with others such as friends and individual within your network. but, at the same time provide the user with controls that can bar other third parties from viewing user's information. Facebook allows the user to decide which information friends and other people can access. Face book's network system and user's privacy setting permits the user to make informed decisions concerning who can access the user's information. Facebook does not share contact information with third parties without the permission of the user. Facebook shares private information with third parties in very limited cases where the company believes that such sharing is a) reasonably essential to provide the services, b) legally needed, or c) allowed by the user (Facebook.com).

When examined at a glance, facebook's privacy policy seems comprehensive. It safeguards personal privacy right. However, looking at the privacy clause outlined on the facebook site, the default account settings permits anybody in a shared network to access a user's complete profile. At the same time, through facebook Development Platform, facebook allows third parties who accept to follow the Platform's Terms of Service that entail restrictions to access, data storage and usage of that data some rights to access member's personal information. However, facebook states that it undertakes contractual and technical measures to limit possible abuse of such information by the third parties. Yet, facebook goes on to state that it cannot and does not promise that al third parties in this arrangement will follow they agreement they have entered (Facebook.com).

Basically, facebook underline that it will try to protect its users' private information but does not assure full protection and declines to be responsible for any breach of protection (Alison, 2006). A good example is of Dan Hornig a top HRM at Novo Recruitment uses 35% of his working hours researching on company clients, and this includes examining information on social sites like facebook (Kennedy and Macko, 2009). Mr. Dan Horning is an example of a third part who has signed an agreement with facebook regarding Facebook Development Platform terms, and who can access hundreds of university students and potential clients' social profile from facebook they way he pleases (Kennedy and Macko, 2009). But as this goes on, facebook declines to take responsibility. This is just one example; other examples in the previous years have demonstrated lack of privacy outlined in the facebook Privacy Policy.