Is CSR here to stay? Or will it disappear into the mists of time as just another fad?

The face of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is changing day by day. It is slowly getting
embedded itself into the daily work of corporates, without itself getting pronounced. The theme
itself is definitely not a new concept but having its place since many years either with different
names or no name. But in recent years it has been changing rapidly due to over enthusiasm and
interest of not only corporates but also of different organizations, either governmental or nongovernmental. Every day we are hearing a good CSR report from any of the above said groups or
from a society. With this trending, we can clearly prospect that CSR will change into one name
or other concept, but it will not entirely disappear.
There is a recent trending of calling CSR as corporate responsibility and environmental, social
and corporate governance (ESG). There is a sustainable common understanding emerging around
the world. The corporates social responsibility record is running parallel with their financial
success in the long run. The corporate ethics and environmental stewardship are taking their part
in corporates routine life. It all recently started as an urgent damage control to environmental
accidents, child labor issues, and corruption scandals. These responses evolved into
comprehensible and proactive global movement. All have come to know the difference between
the costs to society in getting in right and to getting it wrong. Corporate social responsibility has
gone global due to recent advancements of businesses going global due to latest technologies and
liberty in trade and investment.
There was an article published by The Guardian, in 2014 which shows us five trends in the
current world that tells us that CSR is here to stay as a passing trend which reshapes the business
profiles.
Transparency, which is an irreversible force coming with technological change. Higher public
interests and easy information access made over 5000 corporations reveal their ESG
performance data and this number is bound to increase on annual basis.
Trust, which is shown between corporates and consumers or citizens is ever growing with
proportionate increase in exertion of power in return by the corporates. Citizens more often
challenge authority and so the corporates should keep building their trust. Hence from managing
its operations, corporates are proactive in learning the impacts of and on society and in sequence
their responsibilities.
Community participation, is more and more increasing trend to increase ones business, from
health to education. A good example of this is environmental participation. Due to decrease in
availability of natural resources which are finite, there are many issues challenging mankind and
being addressed by the corporates in collaboration with scientists and civil society along with
public regulators. Hence companies are showing that they are in attempt to find solutions to
future problems.
Accessing new markets responsibly, is major task of all current corporates as businesses are
trending from resource taker rapidly to market builder. Due to globalization and economic

growth, businesses are moving southward and eastward in new markets with foreign direct
investments. This makes businesses show their interests in unsustainable energy, overcome civil
violence and uneducated workforce, and design their responsibility to address them.
Initiatives to engage companies, is becoming part and parcel of every business CSR, with
increasing consultancies and standards and global and national levels. More than 8000
companies in 145 countries are engaged by UN global impact to address issues in labor
standards, human rights, environment and anti-corruption. This is evident from the phrase which
says that collective work brings is better output.
With majority of the companies yet to join the bandwagon, these trending shows us that
corporates will be on the right side, only if they include CSR in their manifesto and I hope that
this will stay in the long run for mankind to attain sustainability in all sectors, social and
environmental.

References:
Friedman, M. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2015, from
http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/0073524697/910345/Appendices.pdf
Hopkins, M. (2007). Corporate social responsibility and international development is business
the solution? London: Earthscan.
Kell, G. (2014, August 13). Retrieved May 31, 2015, from
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/five-trends-corporate-socialresponsbility-global-movement