Social responsibility

Social responsibility is an ethical framework which suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has a certain duty or responsibility to be a force for good in the world, according to it's capabilities, to help create and maintain a balance between the economy and the welfare of the society and environment.

Quotes

• Society's and law‐makers' demands for individual and corporate social responsibility as an alternative response to market and redistributive failures have recently become more prominent. Certainly, calls for people to contribute time and money to good causes have existed throughout history and in all societies, from Antiquity to, say, eighteenth century Quakers' and Mennonites' refusal to invest in weapons and slavery....
  the movement is gaining momentum, especially with the empowerment of civil society... and the equitable‐trade/responsible‐investment movement. A variety of factors probably combine to account for this trend: (i) social responsibility is likely to be a normal good; (ii) information about companies' practices throughout the world has become much more accessible and quick to travel; (iii) the scope of environmental and social externalities exerted by multinationals in less developed, more laxly regulated countries is likely to have expanded in pace with globalization; (iv) the long‐run cost of atmospheric pollution (e.g. global warming), or at least the public's awareness of it, has risen significantly.
  • Roland Benabou & Jean Tirole in Individual and Corporate Social Responsibility (22 December 2009)

• Charitable acts have value, but under the slightest scrutiny the magnanimity of the super-rich often proves to be a Band-Aid – and a self-aggrandizing one at that – over social consequences of the process that allows such unprecedented accumulation of wealth. Decades of skirting social responsibility to maximize profit can’t be undone with a few magnanimous gestures.
  • Ed Burmila in Jeff Bezos, Amazon and Why ‘Charity’ Is the Wrong Solution, Rolling Stone (14 February 2018)

• While some companies have formal programs, others let employees follow their individual passion for volunteering. “Our leadership team doesn’t dictate where people volunteer because we want our team members – those who live and work in the communities we serve – to decide where their time will have an impact,” said Chris Martin, President and CEO, Provident Bank. “Whether that’s picking up a hammer and helping Habitat for Humanity or spending the day throwing strikes during the Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowling Tournament, we encourage all team members to take time to give back. That is why we give every employee 2 paid days per year to volunteer.
  • Want To Engage Millennials? Try Corporate Social Responsibility by Marissa Peretz, Forbes (27 September 2017)

• As a former editor with some experience in investigating and exposing corruption and misconduct... I have the greatest admiration for the way the Guardian has handled the Snowden leaks. The moral courage, professional diligence, social responsibility, and editorial excellence that has gone into making this challenging mass of material, including technical information, accessible to general readers are in the finest traditions of public-spirited and impactful investigative journalism.
  • N. Ram, former editor-in-chief, the Hindu quoted in Editors on the NSA files: 'What the Guardian is doing is important for democracy', The Guardian (11 October 2013)