Corporate social responsibility: An integrated development perspective

Abstract

The author searches for an answer to the question of how to improve awareness about CSR not only among companies but other stakeholders as well. While it is convincing to emphasise that CSR might be the source of competitive advantage, this alone does not suffice. To promote CSR in the business environment, a set of professed values that are shared by all stakeholders are necessary. These values can be derived from the natural striving of each human being to achieve a harmonised implementation of aims and functions in all spheres of human existence. For methodological reasons, the author distinguishes in addition to economic, political and social spheres, the spheres of technology, consumption, nature, biology as well as the special role of the human capital and spiritual spheres. The chapter critically questions actions related to the function of aims specific for a given sphere of human existence and suggests replacing them with functions typical of other spheres. It refers in particular to the commercialisation of the spiritual sphere that leads to destructive competition and consequently to a limitation of advantages in free market systems. The author emphasises that the company has to operate within the expectations of a CSR-orientated environment. Improvement of these expectations is the function of a holistic modernisation of human capital. This aims to provide the competencies which enables internal reflectivity to stimulate people to defend against emotional manipulation. Moreover, integrated external reflectivity is necessary to teach people to appreciate changes in the environment. Linking the business strategy with integrated development throughout the policy of this integrated approach to development stimulates employees to better understand the aims, targets and missions of a company. Consequently, this growing trust impacts positively on the integration of targets of companies and employees, and thus, the engagement of staff to promote the success of a company.