Responsabilidad social

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY - STRATEGIES IN EUROPEAN STYLE
Grigore Georgeta Universitatea din Piteşti, Facultatea de Ştiinţe Economice , Bd. Republicii, E3a, G, Apt.7, Piteşti, Argeş, georgeta_grig@yahoo.com, tel. 40 0744 38 90 46 Social responsibility approaches mainly actions of improving the quality of life at the level of community and presupposes integrity, strong values and a balancebetween the long and short term management. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Romania is represented by more and more initiatives in the last years. New corporative foundations have been set up, new corporative programmes have been developed, specific marketing campaigns, donor programmes and even social campaigns supported by companies. This paper approaches CSR from the perspective ofsmall and medium enterprises (SMEs) providing the advantages and limitations of adopting the voluntary CSR practices in the business strategy. Key words: social responsibility, corporate social responsibility, SMEs CSR has also become an integral part of the debate over globalization. Governments and pressure groups argue that companies should develop policies to tackle the downsides to the expansionof international trade, particularly in developing countries. They share the belief of multinational companies are becoming even more powerful actors in the world economy. Consequently, businesses must also accept greater responsibility for the by-products of globalization – such as environmental degradation and social dislocation. Thus, CSR provides one means by which businesses could help manageglobalization. At the same time, globalization has increased competitive pressures on businesses and made multinationals more vulnerable to consumer boycotts and campaigns – as Shell, Nestle and Gap have found out to their cost. CSR campaigners have learnt that they can often achieve results by pressuring a company to modify its behaviour, rather than appealing to governments to legislate. Somebusinesses, particularly those working in politically sensitive industries such as oil pr pharmaceuticals, now prefer to anticipate the complaints of critics. For these companies, CSR is becoming a central element of their business strategies. In the last few years, governments have also begun to promote CSR as a means of enlisting business help in raising social and environmental standards.However, most businesses remain adamant that CSR must be a business –led and voluntary process. They argue that government intervention should be limited to ‗soft‘ policy measures184, such as information provision and the spread of best practice. But corporate social responsibility cannot easily be disentangled from broader issues of public policy. CSR touches on subject as diverse as labour market andenvironmental law, intellectual property laws, international trade and even foreign policy. Governments must decide when businesses should be encouraged to tackle voluntarily social or environmental problems, and when legislation is required. A number of EU governments, most notably in Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands, regard CSR as way as reconciling their aspirations for higher social andenvironmental standards with a pro-business agenda. Corporate social responsibility should form an integral part of the EU‘s efforts to find innovative and flexible solutions to long - standing social and environmental problems, while maintaining the competitiveness of European business. The promotion of CSR does not necessarily imply the dilution of existing standards, nor the full scale withdrawalof governments from social and environmental policy. Governments will continue to set strategic goals –but they must then consider whether voluntary or legislative measures provide the most suitable means of achieving them. Policy-makers employ a confusing array of terms to debate corporate social responsibility. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for instance, uses the phrase...