Baumgartner, Michael (Cleveland State University USA)

Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship - Business concepts for the future!? Baumgartner, Michael (Cleveland State University USA)

Diplomarbeit, die am 01.08.2000 erfolgreich an einer Universität in �sterreich im Fachbereich Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften eingereicht wurde. Abstract: In recent years, more and more people expressed their concerns about some companies' performance. Mainly not about their financial performance, but about their social performance. About their attitude towards the environment. About the treatment of employees. Consumers, governments, environmentalists, trade unions, but also managers felt that there is a need for change in business life. The concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Citizenship are seen as the way where business needs to go in the future. The basic idea of the concepts is that companies are a vital part of the society and that they cannot ignore this any longer. Business has both the power and the responsibility to behave in a way that satisfies not only shareholders, but also employees, customers, the environment, the community, and the society as a whole. In this paper I will give an overview of the new approach to business responsibility. It is an incredibly huge topic, related to many important issues. It would have been possible to write hundreds of pages about subtopics like the employee-employer relationship or environmental issues. I chose a different approach and will give a panoramic view of this fascinating and complex topic. Of course, I had to focus on some of the most important issues, but I consider a holistic approach as very important, as it shows the interrelation between business and its stakeholders. After a general introduction to the topic in Chapter 1, I will define the different areas of Corporate Social Responsibility and give a short summary of the history of CSR. Following this, I will present the reasons why the topic of socially responsible companies becomes more and more important. Chapter 4 will focus on an introduction of the main issues of CSR, including Human Rights, enviro...