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Corporate and Social Responsibility

Decent Essays

CRITICAL REVIEW OF ARTICLES

D. Birch (2002). Social, Economic and Environmental Capital. Corporate Citizenship in a New Economy. Deakin University, Melbourne

J.M. Darley (2005). How Organizations Socialize Individuals into Evildoing

In recent years, Corporate and Social Responsibility has become an ever increasing concern and source of community debate. It is now socially accepted that corporations have some ongoing responsibility, though sometimes ignored, to set a good example, make decisions based on social good and on ensuring positive environmental practices.

The two articles reviewed both focus on this corporate responsibility but they have very different approaches and draw very different conclusions. John Darley 's …show more content…

Acknowledging that such a change in thinking is easier said than done, Birch still determines that this type of "Sustainable Capitalism needs to be at the heart of New Economics – it is about investing in the long term" (p.5).

While I believe this is an overly simplified way of looking at the problem of ensuring corporate responsibility I think it does offer hope for future corporate social reform and some means for achieving this reform. How we perceive, deal with and interact with corporations and how they interact with each other may well have to change if there are to be broad sweeping changes within the corporate world involving social responsibilities. Consideration also needs to be given not only to incentives for acting responsibly but for deterrents and penalties.

As both articles identified, there is a growing desire in the community for greater care, a sense of involvement and social-corporate interaction. While Birch examines this desire in terms of positive corporate influence and increased interaction in the community and then offers some ideas on ways to move forward, Darley focuses on the concern caused by lack of past corporate responsibility and how individuals played a part in these larger processes.

Corporate Responsibility is obviously a broad reaching topic that is composed of many other factors. Neither article chose to look in-depth at some of these other

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