Corporate social responsibility has been enormously defined as a concept where companies combine both social and environmental concerns in their activities while integrating with the stakeholders. The article “the real corporate responsibility” was written by Crystia Freeland and appeared on Washington Post on July 18th, 2010. In this article, the author argues that blame should not be passed on to the two individuals but the person to bear the responsibility is the one responsible for corporate social responsibility. To further support his argument, the author goes ahead and points out the outcomes that resulted from the spill the major one being the economic loss. In the past 24months, there have been many business disasters that have occurred as a result of reluctance in the department tasked with corporate social responsibility.
The author builds a convincing argument for the use of speech persuasion and figures to bring his point’s home and reach a big audience of the United States. For instance, he uses the instance of the BP spill which later formed a campaign dumped “beyond petroleum.” By use of this slogan, the author points out how those responsible can utilize such an incidence and overturn the ugly face that it has brought to the corporation into a more promising venture.
To further his argument, the use of emotions is applied in this article where he supports the idea of funding more women businesses more so those who are underserved. The Gulf oil spill can be used as a lesson in the society and business around deserve each for the betterment of the region. The author points out the number of projects that he thinks could be of benefit to the community as 10,000. This number projects the large portion of less economically privileged women or homes in the area something which is not appealing.
According to Cherry & Sneirson (2010), corporates do charitable deeds that seem good in the eyes of the world, but what they do in their daily day work depends on whether it builds or hurts those around them. In this case, the author uses imageries such as mockery and sarcasm to explain that corporates hide behind charitable programs, but at times the harm caused by daily work is beyond what the charities can repair. To further his arguments, the author notes that many are times when corporate communications do not matter, and the only thing that matters is corporate activities.
The author uses many arguments in this article to portray how organizations fail in their task of social responsibility. Another such illustration is where he compares the story painted in the 2007-2008 Wall Street journal’s pointing how the corporate assisted the less fortunate. However, the journal failed to speak on the extent of damaged that the corporate caused to the 10,000 women. The author assumes that people have the right to know what is best suited for them in such case like of Gulf spill. Business leaders should never forget their core goal of corporate social responsibility.
The use of criticism used by the author points out that people tend to forget the past good deed once a calamity perceived to have resulted from negligence hits a company. For instance, in April 2010 when the oil spill in the gulf hit deadlines, any luster and goodwill that the company had enjoyed in the past hit a free wall. There was the decline in sales, and the company became a punching bag in the Obama administration causing Hayward to resign from the company.
This case sound convincing as the author uses many examples to bring his point’s home and give alternatives of what ought to be done by big companies whose business might be a health risk to the communities. The author points out that government should enlist private businesses together with their enormous financial resources into a worldwide private-public partnership to alleviate poverty, improve health as well as protecting the environment. This will go beyond the traditional business definition of just making profits but bringing societal benefits combined with environmental sustainability.
- Cherry, M. A., & Sneirson, J. F. (2010). Beyond profit: Rethinking corporate social responsibility and green washing after the BP oil disaster.
