Social Responsibility

If we are not equal in temporal things, we cannot be equal in spiritual things. Men on whom God has bestowed financeering ability are the men that are wanted at this time. . . . Persons who have the ability are the ones who should step forward in things that would lead the Latter-day Saints to this union. It would be of more value to them than all the things of earth. The blessings of God upon them in time and eternity would well repay them to step forth and labor for the Zion of God. . . . What a lovely thing it would be if there was a Zion now, as in the days of Enoch! that there would be peace in our midst and no necessity for a man to contend and tread upon the toes of another to attain a better position, and advance himself ahead of his neighbor.

President Lorenzo Snow

Beyond the narrow scope of managerial ethics and/or the moral values of individual corporate leaders lies the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Its basic premise is that firms do not operate within a social vacuum. They take on identities and have impacts, for good or evil, on various stakeholders in society.

Such entities may include employees, customers, local and national governments, the natural environment, suppliers of raw materials, the community, and so on. Stakeholders may be primary, such as investors. Or they may consist of relatively lesser or secondary groups such as a nearby school, or perhaps the press.

“Survival of the fittest” ought to be the basis for human morality. Advocating “Social Darwinism” or the “law of the jungle” in which the weak are killed off: “It seems hard that a labourer incapacitated by sickness from competing with his stronger fellows, should have to bear the resulting privations. It seems hard that widows and orphans should be left to struggle for life or death.” However, “the whole of nature is to get rid of such, to clear the world of them, and make room for the better. . . . Such natural predatory instincts are necessary to” exterminate “[people who suffer just like] beasts of prey and herds of useless animals.

Herbert Spencer, British philosopher and early sociologist

Social Responsibility Links

The revolution is for organizations to become the place where our personal values and economics intersect. Reforming our organizations so that our spirit is answered, and our ability to serve customers in the broadest sense is guaranteed.

Peter Block, Stewardship