Corporate Ethics: The Importance Of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), by definition, refers to the responsibilities of business that go beyond that of its obligatory economic, legal and technical requirements and more towards philanthropic actions for sustainability. It is rooted from the belief that a business owes certain responsibilities towards the society and stakeholders beyond that of making profits. Corporate ethics, which are the morals of right and wrong regulating the conduct of businesses, works side by side with CSR.

In today’s increasingly globalized and corporate world, plagued by exploitation, inequalities and corruption of corporate irresponsibility, ethical behavior and CSR has grown in importance and has turned into an evident priority for business leaders.

For multinationals, CSR plays the role of opening up new market opportunities where multinationals can aid poverty-stricken, less developed companies and open up new customer bases. Cutting edge CSR provides organizations to learn from projects they invest in and to improve their own core competencies. The healthy image of a company gained by practicing CSR also helps retain more and better quality workforce, as they feel more honoured working in a company with socially responsible. Furthermore, with much of the developing world moving towards growing economies, customers value quality, brand image and ethics more than prices. Even in terms of investing and financing, there is a growing trend of shareholders investing in socially responsible companies. Practicing CSR also helps the company earn a reputation of a good corporate citizen that increases brand awareness and attractiveness and companies also do some cost saving in terms of escaping expensive fines and court

It’s products range from air-conditioners, television, lights, home appliances and many other electronic products and is now one of the largest electronic companies in Japan.

Panasonic’s aims have always been directed towards environmental sustainability due to their long- standing philosophy of a company as a public entity of the society. It’s mission and objective is to contribute in advancement of the world by improving society through their products. With their vision to become the number 1 green innovation company in the electronics industry, they have integrated their CSR activities with their business nature.

Out of the model of determinants of ethical behavior, as in figure 2, in the case of Panasonic, personal ethics of the President, the organizational culture and leadership are most likely to be the roots of their ethical behavior. As Konosuke Matsushita says that companies and society are a single entity rather than separate ones and this is how he expects his employees to look at their corporate