Why are ethics and social responsibility important in business?

A brief introduction to the 21st Century biggest challenge.

Ethics and social responsibility are a major concern and a new challenge for corporations in the 21st Century.

They are linked to the necessity to create a world where Human beings would be as, if more important than profit. A world where productivity would necessarily have to take into account sustainable issues. And finally, a world where everyone could find his places, regardless of his gender, race, religion or nationality.

The main idea is that Companies have as much impact as individuals and States on social and environmental issues. Therefore, they must take responsibilities to make these impacts positives rather than negatives.

We are going to discuss why ethics and social responsibility are important in Business and what actions have been taken by Corporations to integrate those principals to their governance process.

Define to understand.

Firstly, we should define what are Ethics and Social Responsibility.

According to Cambridge Dictionary, Ethics is “the study of what is morally right and wrong, or a set of beliefs about what is morally right and wrong”. Consequently, this notion applied to Business would imply to determine what is morally right or wrong when doing Business. In this case, it refers to the degree of moral Corporations are putting in their actions regarding Human and Nature.

Ethics also imply that actions could either have a good, or a negative impact. It is the case concerning human relations and interactions, but also Environment. Therefore, defining Ethics is defining what impact Corporations want to have on these two entities. And it brings us to the notion of Social Responsibility.

Social Responsibility is made of two words: “social” and “responsibility”. Social is “relating to society and the way people live together”. Responsibility on the other hand, defines the “good judgment and the ability to act correctly and make decisions on your own” or, “a duty to take care of something”.

Therefore, Social Responsibility should be understood as the duty of Corporations to take care of how people are living together.

The first steps of the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. -Albert Schweitzer

A new way of doing business.

This is one of the main issues raised and that Corporations and International Organizations, either public or private, are trying to solve.

In his Agenda 2030, the United Nations Organization defined 17 main objectives to build a world more sustainable, more ethical, with less poverty and anger, and more peaceful. To achieve this objective: everyone has a role : States, Individuals, non-profit organizations and finally : corporations.

This is where we come to Business. Indeed, many companies agreed to take actions in order to have a positive impact on social and environmental issues and take up the challenges of the 21sh Century. But how are they planning to do so? And what actions have been already taken?

First of all, most of them created a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Charter. It concerns all the objectives of the companies in terms of Ethics and Social Responsibility. For example, the company Tesla Inc. defined the objectives to increase the part of green energies in the car industry in order to limit its overall carbon emissions. The company also wants to reach goals in terms of social diversity, either for gender or race diversity within the company.

On the other hand, the French brand of Prêt-à-Porter Balibaris promised to make its production more local, decreasing the distance traveled by its merchandises, for them to be delivered by truck instead of by plane or boat.

By the CSR charts, companies from all over the world engage themselves in having a positive impact in what represents one of the 21st Century biggest challenge.

Conclusion:

We should all reorganize and rethink the way we are living together and the relation that we have towards the environment. To achieve this challenge, Corporations have a major role, and by redefining the way they are doing business they will have a positive impact in order to make the world more sustainable, equal, fair and peaceful.