CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ENGINEERING

A LITERATURE REVIEW

Farooq M. U.

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Engineering and

Technology, Lahore

Accepted on November 29, 2016, Written on December 6, 2016

Corporate social responsibility

or CSR has been defined as "Making Good Business Sense". Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is

a concept related to the need for companies to be not only competitive but also sustainable and

refers to and the relationship of the company with its social and environmental surroundings,

including labour issues. I will be discussing Corporate Social Responsibilities in Engineering and in

any business and will conclude with respect to the people who are living in the society.

Introduction:

N. van Hattum-Janssen from

University of Minho Braga, Portugal, M.

D. Sánchez Fernández from University

of Coruña, Spain were interested in

finding out whether the students were

familiar with the concept. Looking at the

contexts of the study, Spain, Portugal and

Mexico, a difference in focus can be

distinguished. The Iberian students

appear to be more worried about

ecological and economical issues at a

personal level, whereas the Mexican

students are more focused on the social

dimension of Social Responsibility and

take into account a wider context when

for example referring to Social

Responsibility and nature disasters. The

research team aims to find ways of

supporting institutions of Higher

Education that try to address Social

Responsibility in a comprehensive way,

not only through the relationship with

their stakeholders, but also looking at the

role of Social Responsibility in research

and teaching. Some students who were in

any charity or any other campaigns were

familiar. There should seminars on CSR

and we should add CSR as our course in

our curriculum. [1]

Deniella Tilbury in fact The

research team aims to find ways of

supporting institutions of Higher

Education that try to address Social

Responsibility in a comprehensive way,

not only through the relationship with

their stakeholders, but also looking at the

role of Social Responsibility in research

and teaching. The research team aims to

find ways of supporting institutions of

Higher Education that try to address

Social Responsibility in a comprehensive

way, not only through the relationship

with their stakeholders, but also looking

at the role of Social Responsibility in

research and teaching. Practices the

sustainability innovation in their

institutions. Senior Management teams at

the moment hold the key to transforming

HE so that it can play its part in

transforming social practices and

contribute to more sustainable futures. [2]

Egle Bileviciute from Mykolas

Romeris University and Inga Zaleniene

from Mykolas Romeris University

analyzed the new situation in higher

education in Lithuania in globalization

context. Higher education had long been

recognized as contributing to the social,

cultural and intellectual life of society by

improving the level of human capital.

Processes of globalization, knowledge

society development changed the

conditions for universities and brought for

home management the new requirements.

In many countries of the world is

increasing rapidly the number of students.

This trend is characteristic for Lithuania

too. The number of interested groups - the

students themselves, employers, public

authorities, and the general public rears

the new requirements for universities’

management. Knowledge and technology

has become a major economic and social

development factor. Competition in

higher education, new challenges have

arisen due to the fact that the university

has begun reforming its management. The

European Council considers that higher

education institutions have a wealth of

scientific and educational potential, but it

is not sufficiently exploited for economic

governance processes, society and

business. Managerial take over the

business management techniques,

leadership, payback criteria, investments,

marketing strategies have become

commonplace in higher education. The

university management efforts to include

more stakeholders, highlights the

cooperation between the public and

business value. Universities have become

immediate the part of the national

innovation system, and able to contribute

significantly to the edge of economic

progress. Lithuanian high-education

institutions also received a substantial

change. The article presents the analysis

of the development of higher education in

Lithuania according European trends. [3]

Alexander Dahlsrud from

University of Science and Technology,

Trondheim, Norway stated despite

numerous efforts to bring about a clear

and unbiased definition of CSR, there is

still some confusion as to how CSR

should be defined. In this paper five

dimensions of CSR are developed

through a content analysis of existing

CSR definitions. Frequency counts are

used to analyze how often these

dimensions are invoked. The analysis

shows that the existing definitions are to a

large degree congruent. Thus it is

concluded that the confusion is not so

much about how CSR is defined, as about

how CSR is socially constructed in a

specific context. Copyright © 2006 John

Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP

Environment. [4]

DIRK MATTEN from York

University, Toronto and JEREMY

MOON University of Nottingham

suggest the implicit-explicit frame work

for CSR because we think that it

contributes to the debate on three levels:

descriptive, instrumental, and normative.

On a descriptive level, the distinction

between implicit and explicit CSR allows

for a better understanding of what CSR

consists of, it’s specific institutional

underpinnings, and the national contexts

in which corporations operate and whose

perceptions of appropriate social

responsibilities they seek to live up to.

This is closely related to our contribution

at the instrumental level. Corporations

choosing to assume their social

responsibilities have to take into account

how different national backgrounds

influence their CSR agenda. Corporations

on both sides of the Atlantic ignore this at

their peril. While McDonald’s prides

itself for being a leader of the U.S. CSR

movement, it is regularly criticized for its

infringements on workers’ rights in its

European subsidiaries and for

circumventing elements of implicit CSR

in European employment law (Royle,

2005). Bayer, on the other hand, an MNC

generally regarded as responsible in

Europe, has met with criticism and legal

action for its mishandling of consumer

and product safety in the United States

where these are regarded as elements of

explicit CSR. In Europe, these are

generally treated as implicit in the legal

framework. The recent proliferation of

CSR in Europe and beyond provides a

descriptive, instrumental, and normative

laboratory where each NBS will play out

a rebalancing of corporations’

relationships with societal institutions,

which we expect to be revealed in

changing balances of their implicit and

explicit responsibilities. It remains, of

course, open to future research whether

different social issues are more

effectively and efficiently addressed by

explicit than by implicit CSR; how the

social outcomes reflect fairness, social

inclusion, and equality of opportunities;

and how these values are balanced with

other norms of innovation, diversity, and

choice. [5]

Maimunah ISMAIL concluded

corporate social responsibility (CSR)

refers to strategies corporations or firms

conduct their business in a way that is

ethical, society friendly and beneficial to

community in terms of development. This

article analyses the meaning of CSR

based on some theories available in

literature. It is argued that three theories

namely utilitarian, managerial and

relational theories of CSR supported by

works of other scholars in the area could

be used to suggest that CSR becomes an

international concern due to globalized

nature of business that knows no border.

CSR is evolving in its meaning and

practice. The article then discusses the

role of CSR in community development

because the very logic of CSR is towards

seeing its impact in community socially,

environmentally and economically.

Competencies required by CSR managers

are also analyzed in order to have a better

understanding of the practical aspects of

CSR. Finally, conclusions and

implications for future research are

discussed. [6]

Elisabet Garriga, Dome`nec

Mele concluded that The Corporate

Social Responsibility (CSR) field

presents not only a landscape of theories

but also a proliferation of approaches,

which are controversial, complex and

unclear. This article tries to clarify the

situation, ‘‘mapping the territory’’ by

classifying the main CSR theories and

related approaches in four groups: (1)

instrumental theories, in which the

corporation is seen as only an instrument

for wealth creation, and its social

activities are only a means to achieve

economic results; (2) political theories,

which concern themselves with the power

of corporations in society and a

responsible use of this power in the

political arena; (3) integrative theories, in

which the corporation is focused on the

satisfaction of social demands; and (4)

ethical theories, based on ethical

responsibilities of corporations to society.

In practice, each CSR theory presents four

dimensions related to profits, political

performance, social demands and ethical

values. The findings suggest the necessity

to develop a new theory on the business

and society relationship, which should

integrate these four dimensions. [7]

Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, PhD

Sam Houston State University Huntsville,

Texas Wendy B. Dickinson, PhD

Ringling College of Art and Design City,

State Nancy L. Leech, PhD University of

Colorado Denver Annmarie G. Zoran,

PhD Higher Education Centre Novo

mesto and University of South Florida

published that Despite the abundance of

published material on conducting focus

groups, scant specific information exists

on how to analyze focus group data in

social science research. Thus, the authors

provide a new qualitative framework for

collecting and analyzing focus group

data. First, they identify types of data that

can be collected during focus groups.

Second, they identify the qualitative data

analysis techniques best suited for

analyzing these data. Third, they

introduce what they term as a micro-

interlocutor analysis, wherein meticulous

information about which participant

responds to each question, the order in

which each participant responds, response

characteristics, the nonverbal

communication used, and the like is

collected, analyzed, and interpreted. They

conceptualize how conversation analysis

offers great potential for analyzing focus

group data. They believe that their

framework goes far beyond analyzing

only the verbal communication of focus

group participants, thereby increasing the

rigor of focus group analyses in social

science research. [8]

Conclusion:

We should support higher

education and try to address social

responsibility in a comprehensive way,

not only through the relationship with

their stakeholders but also looking at role

in students. The European council

considers that higher education

institutions have a wealth of scientific and

educational potential, but it is not

sufficiently exploited for economic

governance processes, society and

business. CSR is eventually very

important for both the students and the

teachers, for employers and for

employees. There should be some steps

on higher level taken for the

implementation of CSR.

References:

[1] Fernández Sánchez, M.D. (2011), La

Responsabilidad Social Organizativa:

Stakeholders Futuros Directivos [transl.:

Organizational Social Responsibility:

future managers as stakeholder], Revista

International Administración &

Finanzas, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 87-101.

[2] Wright, T, (2004), The evolution of

sustainability declarations in Higher

Education, In PB Corcoran and AEJ Wals

(Eds), Higher Education and the

Challenge of

Sustainability: Problematics, Promise

and Practice, pp. 7-19. Dordrecht:

Kluwer Academic Publishers.

[3] Hill, R (2004). The socially

responsible university: Talking the talk

while walking the walk in the college of

business, Journal of Academic Ethics,

Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 89-100.

[4] Dahlsrud, A. (2008). How Corporate

Social Responsibility is Defined an

Analysis of 37 Definitions, Corporate

Social Responsibility and Environmental

Management, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-13.

[5] Matten, D, Moon, J (2008), “Implicit”

and “explicit” CSR: A conceptual

framework for a comparative

understanding of Corporate Social

Responsibility, Academy of Management

Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 404–424.

[6] Secchi, D (2007), Utilitarian,

managerial and relational theories of

corporate social responsibility,

International Journal of Management

Reviews, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 347–373.

[7] Garriga, E and Melé, D. (2004),

Corporate Social Responsibility theories:

Mapping the territory. Journal of

Business Ethics, Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 51-

71.

[8] Onwuegbuzie, AJ, Dickinson, WB,

Leech, NL, Zoran, AG (2009), A

qualitative framework for collecting and

analyzing data in focus group research,

International Journal of Qualitative

Methods. Vol. 8, No. 3, 1-21.