Corporate Social Responsibility and social development

Emphasis on social, environmental and economic sustainability has become a focus of many Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.  In theory and practice, CSR is synonymous with corporate conscience or responsible business. By promoting philanthropy for social development, it is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a social business model. CSR reflects the  responsibility of an organisation for the impact it causes on the society and its own prosperity, known as the" triple bottom line" of people, planet, and profit.
Socially responsible investors have now been a key catalyst asking companies to develop a CSR agenda, especially in our part of the world, which was under colonial administration for several hundred years. In British India, the colonial governments could not consider it obligatory for providing adequate social services to the native people, their welfare were compartmentalised to few sections of the society and only in the selected sectors. In that event, the social development goals were marginally met by local moneyed man through voluntary contributions. Subsequent governments, either in pre or post 1971, remained indifferent due to paucity of resources. It is encouraging that in recent years, mainstream financial institutions and the even the regulators, like Bangladesh Bank, have also come to value CSR in its right perspective. Recent survey of CSR investment by banking institutions found that 53 per cent of predicted socially responsible investment indicators will become commonplace in mainstream investing within 10 years. However, one weakness of CSR and sustainability reports, however, is lack of common measures of performance. Despite progress made by many companies, reporting is still at its infancy with most corporations. The state policy should encourage CSR rather than discourage it by making tight provisions for incentives like tax exemption or rebate etc.
No one will deny the importance for an entity to be fully accountable for social responsibility of its actions. Social accounting, a sequel to Social Business, a concept describing the communication of social, ethical and environmental effects of any eeconomic actions on particular interest groups within society and on the society at large, is thus an important element of CSR. Social accounting emphasises the notion of corporate accountability.
POTENTIAL AREAS OF CSR LEADING TO SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT : CSR programme can be an aid to recruitment and retention, particularly within the competitive graduate student market. Establishing vocational institutes like nursing training institutes may create a congenial environment for the economic emancipation of this manpower surplus society.  
RISK MANAGEMENT: Managing procedural, natural or environmental risks has been a crucial concern of the society. Reputation that takes decades to build up can be ruined in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental accidents. These can also draw unwanted attention from regulators, courts, governments and the media. Through awareness campaign building a genuine culture of 'doing the right thing at the right moment' and 'continuation of the developmental activities despite the change of policy makers'  within a society can help prevent control or even offset  these risks.
HELPING THE DISABLED:  CSR is mostly noticeable in the welfare activities of able-bodied people, and does not take into account the disabled who are also a part of the society accounting for at least 10 per cent of the population. There should be non-discrimination or diversity management awareness-raising so that the situation of people with disabilities can be compared with that of the able.
However, critics of CSR as well as proponents debate over a number of concerns related to it. These include CSR's relationship to the fundamental purpose and nature of business and questionable motives for engaging in CSR, including concerns about insincerity and hypocrisy. Regulations and restrictions which are imposed to avail CSR incentives may also be seen as discouraging if these are not framed or enforced from an encouraging standpoint.  
SENSE OF OBLIGATION : A particular school of thought argue that a corporation's purpose is to maximise returns to its shareholders, and that since only people can have social responsibilities, corporations are only responsible to their shareholders and not to the society as a whole. Although they accept that corporations should obey the laws of the countries in which they work, they assert that corporations have no other obligation to society. Critics of this argument perceive the free market as opposed to the well-being of society and a hindrance to human freedom. They claim that the type of capitalism practised in many developing countries is a form of economic and cultural imperialism, noting that these countries usually have fewer labour protections, and thus their citizens are at a higher risk of exploitation by multinational corporations.
MOTIVES AND MINDSETS: Some critics believe that CSR programmes are undertaken by companies such as British American Tobacco (BAT), the cellular phone providers (well known for their high-profile advertising campaigns) and the booming Real State sector to distract public attention from socio-economic and ethical questions posed by their core operations. They argue that some corporations start CSR programmess for the commercial benefit they enjoy through raising their reputation with the public or with government. Corporations which exist solely to maximise profits are unable to advance the interests of society as a whole. In this context, critics concerned with corporate hypocrisy and insincerity generally suggest that better governmental and international regulation and enforcement, rather than voluntary measures, might be necessary to ensure that companies behave in a socially responsible manner.
CRUCIAL  CONSUMERISM: The rise in the popularity of consumerism over the last two decades can be linked to the rise of CSR in Bangladesh. As the national population and economic activities increase, so do the pressure on limited natural resources required to meet rising consumer demand. Industrialisation, however, is booming as a result of both technology and globalisation. At the same time, corporations are increasingly motivated to become more socially responsible because their most important stakeholders expect them to understand and address the social and community issues that are relevant to them. NGOs have a better role to play in creating awareness and fixing priorities.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AWARENESS -- ROLE OF  DIALOGUE AND  EDUCATION: The role of corporate stakeholders should be to  work collectively to press corporations into the changing scenario. Non-government organisations are taking an increasing role, leveraging the power of the media and the internet to increase their scrutiny and collective activism around corporate behaviour. Through education and dialogue, development of community awareness in holding businesses responsible for their actions is growing.
 ETHICS TRAINING: The rise of ethics training inside corporations is another driver credited with changing the behaviour and culture of corporations. The aim of such training is to help employees make ethical decisions when the answers are unclear.
LAWS AND REGULATIONS: Another driver of CSR is the role of independent mediators, particularly the government, in ensuring that corporations are prevented from harming the broader social good, including people and the environment. The issues surrounding government regulation may also pose problems. Regulation in itself is unable to cover every aspect relating to a corporation's operations. This leads to burdensome legal processes bogged down in interpretations of the law and debatable grey areas. Again, it is also true that organisations pay taxes to government to ensure that society should get benefit out of this transferred payment .
Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid, formerly  Secretary to the government and Chairman, National Board of Revenue, presently Chief Coordinator, Diabetic Association of Bangladesh.
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