Provide ethical considerations you think were (are) associated with the CSR initiative and if you were consulting with this organization, how you would address the ethical considerations you identified.

Assignment: 8–10 pages

• Describe the organization, its mission, size, location, ranking, profits, etc.
• Provide a summary of when the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative was started and its role in the organization.
• Explain the positive social change impact and the CSR initiative’s impact on the organization (i.e. on employees, leadership, profit).
• Provide ethical considerations you think were (are) associated with the CSR initiative and if you were consulting with this organization, how you would address the ethical considerations you identified.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings Inc.

Shauna Davis

Walden University

7/7/19

Introduction

What is?

Corporate Social Responsibility?

Ethics in CSR

Social Change

How do the social change and CSR connect?

In this presentation there are three things that we are going to look at. These are CSR, Ethics in CSR and Social Change. It is important to note that we shall be looking at how these later two are connected to Corporate social responsibility. The slide shows a picture that illustrates some of the things that govern social responsibility and it is evident that ethics is highlighted as one of the major arms of CSR.

2

Corporate Social Responsibility

Commonly known as CSR

A company’s effort to give back to community it serves

Entails;

Economic Responsibility

Environmental Sustainability

Acts of philanthropy

Ethical business practices

Involves;

Employees

Members of the Community

Profit Organizations

Non-profit organizations

Environment (Lindgreen & Swaen, 2010).

CSR is simply the efforts that any organization or company make in order to serve community it works in better. This could include giving back to the community through philanthropic giving, ensuring ethical business practices, ensuring their operations do not negatively impact the environment and change the lives of the community members it serves directly or indirectly. In the named activities all companies have a responsibility towards achieving this for the benefit of community members or the environment and it is best achieved when the employees or staff participate (Lindgreen & Swaen, 2010).

3

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings Inc.

An American company that makes Ice-cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet.

Number 1 of 20 top CSR companies in 2017

It allocates 7.5% of its pretax profit to philanthropic acts

Allocates more than $1.8m annually (Nupur, July 2017).

Engages in;

community based projects

grant awarding corporate charity

employee generosity

use of fair trade ingredients

advocating for social change

This is an American company that sells Ice-cream, yoghurt and sorbet. Almost since its inception, the company participated in charity and currently have a budget of 7.5% of their profits before tax dedicated to social responsibility. In an article published in 2017 it was the first in a list of 20 companies that take CSR seriously. These are some of its engagements in CSR.

4

Ethics in Corporate Social Responsibility

Moral values governing conduct

CSR itself is an ethical requirement in Business

CSR has to be conducted in ways that are applicable to the governing morals of the immediate environment (Griseri & Seppala, 2010).

Ethics are moral values or principles on which the conduct of a people, an organization or nation is based on. Carrying out corporate social responsibilities activities is in its own way an ethical act. Conducting these activities effective and efficiently while considering the values held dear by those directly targeted by the CSR is being ethical too. Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship are the major ethics on which CSR acts are grounded. Ben & Jerry’s show these ethical values by having CSR policies and programs for the employees as well as the society.

5

Social Change

Changes in human interactions

Result in cultural change and change in social order

Companies can be agents of social change (Visser, 2011).

Ben & Jerry’s achieves this through social and environmental justice and sustainable food systems.

Caused by:

Social conflict

Cultural change

Technological advancements

Population growth

Change in population composition

Environmental changes

Social change is simply a change in the composition, structure, order or functions of a society as a result of human or environmental factors. Human factors contributing to social change include; conflict, technology advancements, culture changes and even change in population composition amongst others (Visser, 2011). Ben & Jerry’s as a CSR company advocates for social change by direct action into programs that support social and environmental justice as well as sustainable food systems. Proposals around the three interests are funded by their active foundation.

6

Intersection of CSR, Ethics and Social Change

From the above explanations in previous slides it is clear that the three terms are interconnected. Corporate social responsibility uses ethics to advocate for social change. Positive social change is a major aspect of business ethics as much as it is an anticipated result of corporate social responsibility.

7

Corporate Social Responsibility

Social Change

Ethics

Summary

CSR is a responsibility of all companies

Whether they are profit making or not

CSR affects the environment and community

Ben & Jerry’s is a good example of a highly

responsible CSR company

Ethics are important in CSR

CSR should push for positive social change

8

References

Griseri, P., & Seppala, N. (2010). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Cengage Learning.

Lindgreen, A., & Swaen, V. (2010). Corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(1), 1-7.

Nupur V. (July 2017). Top 20 Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives for 2017. Retrieved from https://www.smartrecruiters.com/blog/top-20-corporate- social-responsibility-initiatives-for-2017/

Visser, W. (2011). The age of responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the new DNA of business. John Wiley & Sons.

9