‘Social Issue Is Business Issue’

Abstract

The Management Centre for Human Values (MCHV) along with the participants of the Post-Graduate Program for Executives (PGPEX) and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) arranged a seminar on Socially Conscious Leadership, or the Lattice 2010, on 19 December 2010. The seminar debate on the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in contemporary business makes for an interesting note that would befit the Journal of Human Values (JHV). This is so because the invitees to the seminar, through their singular and idiosyncratic narration of experiences, have inevitably problematized the basic concepts of CSR itself. Concepts like ‘human values’, ‘ethics’, ‘social consciousness’ no longer exist as water-tight compartments of traditional or even autonomous sanctuaries of humane goodness. These concepts have been transformed from ‘value-adding’ propositions to ‘value-appropriating’ propositions, or in other words, social issues have become business issues. A wide spectrum of views coming from Gen. Bajwa, representing the army; Prof. Chaudhuri and Prof. Bhatta, representing administrative academia; Sri Salvi and Sri Tyagi, endorsing real-life CSR; Mr Ahir and Mr Rayaprolu, representing the corporate; Ms Vatsa and Ms Swami, representing NGOs; and Prof. Sarkar, Prof. Mohanty and Prof. Chatterjee, representing the academicians; along with the presence of Ms M. Bhattacharya from ONGC—all of them have aided and abetted in establishing the contemporary position of CSR as a successful and competitive business proposition. The note addresses the issues developed from their individual experiences and opinions, and attempts to establish, but on an individual level, an intellectual point of departure for an academic discussion of CSR that would initiate further potent research and theorization in this regard.