Business 101: Principles of Management

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Social responsibility is on the minds of everyone in today's world. From making the world cleaner (greener) to making it a better place to live, companies and managers must grasp and understand social responsibility.

A Brave New World

Green - what an interesting word. Back in the day, it was just a color. In some instances, it was associated with envy. Thus, green was a very simple color and did not have a lot of different meanings. However, all that changed with the focus for companies to be socially responsible and minimize their carbon footprint. Now, green means being clean and not hurting the environment, and that is a driving force behind organizations being socially responsible.

What It Means to Be Social

Social responsibility, while around for some time, really kicked into high gear with the advent of social networking sites (Facebook and Twitter for example), and the focus was put on saving the environment. Now companies have to actively take part in making sure they are doing their part to make the world cleaner and/or working to help society. Thus, social responsibility can be defined as a company, person or organization that, during the course of its business dealings, works with the benefit of society as a whole in mind.

Thankfully, many companies have adopted a socially responsible stance when they conduct their business. It can be argued some do it for the positive public relations they receive, but we have to think that a majority of the companies out there are doing it because they generally care about the environment and want to make the world a better place. And while I have spoken a lot so far about environments, being socially responsible also branches out into helping individual people as well. Thus, the term encompasses a wide variety of actions and contributions, all designed to make the world cleaner while also helping individuals or specific causes.

So Who Does It?

There are so many companies involved in being socially responsible that the list can stretch on for miles. It does help, though, to get an understanding of some of the work that is being done out there by companies of varying size. For example, according to Macleans:

• IBM founded the Green Sigma Coalition, an industry alliance of over ten companies, to provide technological solutions and management for a number of natural resources and greenhouse gases.
• Kellogg's initiated a unique breakfast-sharing program that aims to provide one million breakfasts in schools in the 2011-2012 school year by engaging consumers to contact the company's website with photos and descriptions of breakfasts.
• The Body Shop, a subsidiary of L'Oreal, assures that their products are not tested on animals by meeting the standards of the Humane Cosmetics Standard of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
• At McDonald's, over one-quarter of the company's management positions (vice-president level or above) are filled by women.

As you can see, the spectrum of social responsibility is very broad. We have companies thinking about animal safety, feeding people and trying to find greener ways of managing our world. However, the question remains: how does a manager and a company deal with the focus on social responsibility?

Going All In

For a manager or a company to deal with and get engaged with social responsibility, they have to think of the old cliché 'in for a penny, in for a pound.' That means you cannot just dabble in being socially responsible. That is like saying you are a little pregnant. Rather, you have to be engaged with the aspects of social responsibility, review them and determine how your company (or you as a person) can support them.

Some areas to think about before getting socially engaged:

• Does your company produce a product that could help others if it could easily be put into their hands (is it available to people that normally would not be able to purchase it)?
• Is there a way for your company to produce a product and lower its carbon footprint?
• Is there an organization that could benefit from your company (or you) joining or getting involved with it?

Lesson Summary

Social responsibility is a wide-ranging topic that takes into account making the world cleaner but also a better place. Its focus is to help companies and managers give back to the world they live in and make it better for everyone. As we discussed, it is not only about reducing your carbon footprint but helping people that need help and being engaged with the community as a whole. If you can keep that one goal in mind, you will most certainly embrace social responsibility and can, indeed, make a difference.