Institutionalising a Withering Sense in Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Studies and writings on corporate social responsibility turned a full cycle with much ink spilled on this topic. From the inception of a divine origin, corporate social responsibility has now become a flamboyant display of numbers and statistics which corporations proudly present them to fulfil their legal obligations. It is ironic that a divine understanding of corporate social responsibility has now transpired to be a complex calculus of statistical tabulations, too often exhibited in annual and sustainability reports. Organisations become grossly mesmerised with the grandiosity of exceeding the prerequisites of ecological, environmental, social and economic performance supported by undisputable, verifiable and measurable data. Corporate social responsibility has become senseless and meaningless. This is not a research paper nor does it entail the rudiments of any research findings. Conversely, this paper alerts and perhaps cautions corporate social responsibility practitioners on the perils of their overarching emphasis on positivism. Corporate social responsibility cannot be quantified merely in numbers but on the contrary, it should involve truthful, honest and transparent dialectic communication with the stakeholders. Many corporations deceived and some still facing the remnants of their mistakes. The Volkswagen ‘diesel dupe’ crisis and Johnson & Johnson’s baby talc powder scandals are reminders of the same. This paper is a solemn reminder that corporations must be ‘awakened’ so that ethics is grounded to its core and not merely in the cosmetic forms of presentable statistics.