International corporate responsibility is a voluntary effort to ensure companies act in a manner that benefits society. ISO 26000 is the most widely accepted standard. The triple bottom line prioritizes people, planet, and profit. Approaches include philanthropy, community-based participation, and social responsibility. Critics argue it’s a business strategy, but it can bring benefits such as increased funds for social causes and corporate involvement in communities.
International corporate responsibility is an ethical theory that integrates acting conscientiously into a business model to ensure that companies act in a manner that is generally beneficial to society as a whole. The goal of International Corporate Responsibility is to encourage companies to take responsibility for all of their actions, in terms of their impact on the environment, community, employees, consumers and the general public. International corporate responsibility promotes the inclusion of the public interest in all business decisions.
No international legislation obliges companies to comply with certain corporate social or ethical standards. Rather, international corporate responsibility is a voluntary effort that many countries, international organizations and companies promote. While there are no established international standards for corporate responsibility, there have been some efforts to draft such standards. For example, more than 100 countries participated in drafting ISO 26000, a draft standard for corporate responsibility that the International Organization for Standardization issued in November 2010. ISO 26000 is probably the set of most widely accepted corporate responsibility standard available internationally.
A central point of international corporate responsibility is the triple bottom line, which translates into people, planet, profit. The triple bottom line is the set of priorities that companies should strive to embody in order to conform to accepted standards of corporate responsibility. While not part of any mandate, it is a common thread that runs through nearly every version of international corporate responsibility.
A company can take different approaches to international corporate responsibility. A common approach is philanthropy, where a company gives back to the community in the form of monetary donations to non-profit organizations and community foundations. Another less used approach to corporate responsibility is community-based participation. In this approach, company representatives immerse themselves in community projects in an attempt to learn from the culture of the community in which the company is located. A company might also incorporate elements of social responsibility into its corporate culture, such as purchasing environmentally conscious supplies or providing employees with paid time to participate in community activities.
Some scholars criticize international corporate responsibility as motivated by a desire to increase profits, or even as a business strategy to divert attention away from certain unethical behavior or actions on the part of a corporation. Corporate responsibility, however, often translates into many benefits. Additional funds can be spent on socially responsible causes and corporate involvement in the communities where businesses operate can increase.
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