Contemporary issues in managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Contemporary issues in managment - Essay Example One cannot thus separate a corporation from the community in which it operates and as such, whatever it does should be for the collective good of that communities for happiness to be achieved. A corporation in this case is itself a citizen and has an intrinsic responsibility as a social entity; that is, it should be socially responsible. This is in contradiction to economists such as Milton Friedman who viewed corporations as individual entities whose sole responsibility was to make profits. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) was traditionally associated with philanthropy and charity but later came to be associated with stakeholder interests. Carroll and Shabana consider it a post-World War II phenomenon defined as the â€Å"economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations that a society has of organisations at a given point in time† (2010: 89). For McGuire (1963), CSR extends beyond those four expectations such as reputation and company image. Whatever the case, suc cess of CSR depends on commitment from senior management as well as low-level staff and its implementation varies from company to company depending on its context. The aim of this paper is to critically discuss and evaluate an environmental issue that an organisation addresses using the framework presented by Wood (1991). In this case, the orgnisation to be discussed is Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The first section will give a brief background of the organisation. The Second section will be a brief background of CSR. Third section will discuss the business case for CSR followed by analysis of the environmental issue using the corporate social performance model and finally, a brief summary will be given. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc is the world’s number one retailer with 100 million U.S. shoppers a week visiting their stores. It was founded in 1962 with a commitment to make a difference in the lives of its customers. It has 11,000 stores with 71 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce in