Final Thoughts

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my blog. I found your comments really interesting. It seems that the majority of people who commented believe CSR is motivated by purely self interest. The comments ranged from an argument that CSR is a good pr tactic to the belief that corporations practise CSR to increase their competitive advantage. I also found the example about the tobacco industry particularly interesting. Audrey posed a great question when she asked, how can the tobacco industry say they are socially responsible when it is well known their product kills people and thus hurts society?

On the other side of the argument I did receive a few comments arguing that some corporations do in fact practise CSR for reasons other than those that are just selfish. These thoughts ranged from the notion that companies do want to give back to the communities that have invested in them, to the suggestion that, in the end, a corporation is made of people like you and me, who do care about society, not just money obsessed people who only care about themselves.

I personally believe that CSR motives vary from corporation to corporation. I personally, after researching this topic, do not believe all corporations participate in CSR only for self interest. I do think though, that a CSR programme that benefits both the company and the community is the ideal CSR programme. I do not see the harm in a company benefiting financially from their CSR programme because, in the end, society needs corporations to be successful. They provide society jobs, services, and tax dollars. If a corporation was to fail it would be the ultimate form of social irresponsibility. If however, a corporations motivations are only for self interest, I believe, their stakeholders will catch on and the corporation will suffer accordingly.