INTRODUCTION

Some years ago, one sociologist asked business people, "What does an ethic mean to
you?" Among their replies were the following: "Ethics has to do with what my
feelings tell me is right or wrong." "Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs." "Being
ethical is doing what the law requires." "Ethics consists of the standards of behaviour
our society accepts." "I don't know what the word means."
DEFINITION
The term "ethics" is derived from the Greek word "ethos" which refers to character or
customs or accepted behaviour’s. The Oxford Dictionary states ethics as "the moral
principle that governs a person's behaviour or how an activity is conducted". The
synonyms of ethics as per Collins Thesaurus are - moral code, morality, moral
philosophy, moral values, principles, rules of conduct, standards. Ethics is a set of
principles or standards of human conduct that govern the behaviour of individuals or
organizations. Using these ethical standards, a person or a group of persons or an
organization regulate their behaviour to distinguish between what is right and what is
wrong as perceived by others
BUSINESS ETHICS Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional
ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a
business environment. It is also known as Corporate ethics. It applies to all aspects of
business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.
SOURCES The various sources from where ethical values have been evolved. The
main sources are ◦ Religion ◦ Society ◦ Legal System ◦ Genetic inheritance ◦
Marketplace ◦ Nature ◦ Culture.
CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS ETHICS
1. Business ethics are based on social values, as the generally accepted norms of good
or bad and ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ practices.
2. It is based on the social customs, traditions, standards, and attributes.
3. Business ethics may determine the ways and means for better and optimum
business performance.
4. Business ethics provide basic guidelines and parameters towards most appropriate
perfections in business scenario.
5. Business ethics is concerned basically the study of human behaviour and conducts.
6. Business ethics is a philosophy to determine the standards and norms to make
mutual interactions and behaviour between individual and group in organisation.
7. Business ethics offers to establish the norms and directional approaches for making
an appropriate code of conducts in business.
8. Business ethics may be an ‘Art’ as well as ‘Science’ also.
9. Business ethics basically inspire the values, standards and norms of professionalism
in business for the well-being of customers.
10. Business ethics is to motivate and is consistently related with the concept of
service motives for the customers’ view point.
11. Business ethics shows the better and perspective ways and means for most
excellences in customization.
12. Business ethics aims to emphasize more on social responsibility of business
towards society.
ELEMENTS OF BUSINESS ETHICS
A Formal Code of Conduct:
Code of conduct is statements of organizational values. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act,
2002 made it important for businesses to have an ethics code, something in writing
which will help the employees know – with both ease and clarity – what is expected of
them on the job. The code should reflect the management’ desire to incorporate the
values and policies of the organization.
Code of Ethics:
For every new business incorporated, it is important for the management to have a
code of ethics for his business. It is usually unwritten for small businesses. It is
basically a buzzword for the employees to observe ethical norms and form the basic
rules of conduct. It usually specifies methods for reporting violations, disciplinary
action for violation and a structure of the due process to be followed. A code of ethics
must summarize the beliefs and values of the organization. For a large business
empire, it is important to hire talent to assist existing personnel with regards to
integrity, understanding, responsibility, and cultural norms of the country.
Ethics Committee:
Ethics committees can rise concerns of ethical nature; prepare or update code of
conduct, and resolve ethical dilemma in organization. They formulate ethical policies
and develop ethical standards. They evaluate the compliances of the organisation with
these ethical standards. The committee members should be conscious about the
corporate culture and ethical concise of the organisation.
The following committees are to be formed:
a. Ethics committee at the board level- The committee would be charged to oversee
development and operation of the ethics management programme.
b. Ethics management committee – It will be charged with implementing and
administrating an ethics management programme, including administrating and
training about policies and procedures, and resolving ethical dilemmas.
(iii) Ethical Communication System:
Ethical communication system helps the employees in making enquiries, getting
advice if needed and reporting all the wrong done in the organisation.
Objectives of ethical communication system are:
a. To communicate the organizations values and standards of ethical conduct or
business to employees.
b. To provide information to employees on the company’s policies and procedures
regarding ethical code of conduct.
c. To help employees get guidance and resolve queries.
d. To set up means of enquiries such as hotlines, suggestion boxes and e-mail
facilities. Top management can communicate the ethical standards to the lower
management which can be further transferred to the operational level.
(iv) An Ethics Office with Ethical Officers:
The job of an ethics officer is to communicate and implement ethical policies amongst
employees of the organisation. Ethics officer should develop a reputation for
credibility, integrity, honesty and responsibility.
Functions of ethics officer are:
a. Assessing the needs and risks that an ethical programme must address.
b. Develop and distribute code of conduct.
c. Conduct ethical training programme.
d. Maintain confidential service to answer employee’s questions about ethical issues.
e. To ensure that organisation is in compliance with governmental regulations.
f. To monitor and audit ethical conduct.
g. To take action on possible violation of company’s code.
h. To review and update code in time.
(v) Ethics Training Programme:
Any written ethical code will not work unless supported and followed by a proper
training programme. Some companies have an in-house training department while
others may opt for an out-source expert. To ensure ethical behaviour, a corporate
training programme is established which deals in assisting employees to understand
the ethical issues that are likely to arise in their workplace. When new employees are
to be recruited, the induction training should be arranged for them. Training will help
them to familiarize with company’s ethical code of behaviour.
(vi) A Disciplinary System:
A disciplinary system should be established in the organisation to deal with ethical
violations promptly and severely. If unethical behavior is not properly dealt with, it
will result in threatening the entire social system. A company should adopt fair
attitude towards everyone without any discrimination.
(vii) Establishing an Ombudsperson:
An ombudsperson is responsible to help coordinate development of policies and
procedures to institutionalize moral values in the workplace.
(viii) Monitoring: To make an ethical programme, a successful monitoring programme
needs to be developed. A monitoring committee isformed. Monitoring can be done by
keen observation by ethics officer, surveys and supporting systems.
SCOPE OF BUSINESS ETHICS
Ethical problems and phenomena arise across all the functional areas of companies
and at all levels within the company.
Ethics in Compliance
Compliance is about obeying and adhering to rules and authority. The motivation for
being compliant could be to do the right thing out of the fear of being caught rather
than a desire to be abiding by the law. An ethical climate in an organization ensures
that compliance with law is fuelled by a desire to abide by the laws. Organizations that
value high ethics comply with the laws not only in letter but go beyond what is
stipulated or expected of them.
Ethics in Finance
The ethical issues in finance that companies and employees are confronted with
include: • In accounting – window dressing, misleading financial analysis. • Related
party transactions not at arm’s length • Insider trading, securities fraud leading to
manipulation of the financial markets. • Executive compensation. • Bribery,
kickbacks, over billing of expenses, facilitation payments. • Fake reimbursements.
Ethics in Human Resources
Human resource management (HRM) plays a decisive role in introducing and
implementing ethics. Ethics should be a pivotal issue for HR specialists. The ethics of
human resource management (HRM) covers those ethical issues arising around the
employer-employee relationship, such as the rights and duties owed between
employer and employee. The issues of ethics faced by HRM include:
• Discrimination issues i.e. discrimination on the bases of age, gender, race, religion,
disabilities, weight etc. • Sexual harassment. • Affirmative Action. • Issues
surrounding the representation of employees and the democratization of the
workplace, trade etc., • Issues affecting the privacy of the employee: workplace
surveillance, drug testing. • Issues affecting the privacy of the employer: whistle-
blowing. • Issues relating to the fairness of the employment contract and the balance
of power between employer and employee. • Occupational safety and health.
Companies tend to shift economic risks onto the shoulders of their employees. The
boom of performance-related pay systems and flexible employment contracts are
indicators of these newly established forms of shifting risk.
Ethics in Marketing
Marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles
behind the operation and regulation of marketing. The ethical issues confronted in this
area include: • Pricing: price fixing, price discrimination, price skimming. • Anti-
competitive practices like manipulation of supply, exclusive dealing arrangements,
tying arrangements etc. • Misleading advertisements • Content of advertisements. •
Children and marketing. • Black markets, grey markets.
Ethics of Production
This area of business ethics deals with the duties of a company to ensure that products
and production processes do not cause harm. Some of the more acute dilemmas in this
area arise out of the fact that there is usually a degree of danger in any product or
production process and it is difficult to define a degree of permissibility, or the degree
of permissibility may depend on the changing state of preventative technologies or
changing social perceptions of acceptable risk. • Defective, addictive and inherently
dangerous products and • Ethical relations between the company and the environment
include pollution, environmental ethics, and carbon emissions trading. • Ethical
problems arising out of new technologies for eg. Genetically modified food • Product
testing ethics. The most systematic approach to fostering ethical behaviour is to build
corporate cultures that link ethical standards and business practices.

NATURE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Egoism – is a theory that suggests that an action is morally right if in a given situation
all decision makers freely decide to pursue their own self interests. In such it is okay
to make a decision that bene ts oneself. Important to ensure oneself does not confuse
self-interest with selfishness. Enlightened self-interest, we are well aware that any act
of self-interest will 8 reap future benefits for self-interest. Egoism limitations – Relies
on an external mechanism to control individual egoists, it can result in significant
short-term harm, an egoist persona may know what they want but not what they need.
Utilitarianism –is a theory that seeks the greatest happiness for the greatest number,
the maximum pleasure with the minimum pain. The ultimate consequentialist theory,
as it focuses clearly on the consequences of a decision
Ensure legality of business activities: Business activities must be legal and a business
man should not do any kind of illegal activity.
Customer orientation: All of his operations must be customer oriented. He must bear
in his mind that the “customer is the kinds” So, he should produce and distribute that
types of goods and services which can satisfy the customers.
Supplying good quality product: A businessman must have to ensure the supply of
good quality products and services. He has to maintain minimum standard of his
product and service.
Price: Businessman has to claim a reasonable price for has products or services that is
under buying capacity of the customers.
Following rules and regulations: A businessman must have to follow all
businessrelated rules and regulations that is formulated by the government.
Employer-employee relationship: This is an important issue to build up a friendly
relationship between employer and employees in an organization because a success of
the organization largely depends on it.
Avoiding fraud and cheating: A businessman has to avoid unfair means. He should not
try to cheat or fraud the customers or general public. He should always practice
honesty and sincerity in his activities.
Environmental issues: in the present world, environmental issues are considered a
vital matter. A businessman ensures healthy environment for the insiders as well as
the outsiders for running the organization smoothly.
Avoiding artificial shortage: Some dishonest businessmen create artificial shortage of
products and thereby they want to gain more profit. This is not acceptable.
Avoiding harmful competition: In order to survive in the market successfully, each
and every business organization should co-operate with each other. They should avoid
harmful competition.
COMPANIES WITH BEST ETHICAL CORPORATE POLICIES
• Google • Microsoft • Intel etc.
Principles of Business Ethics

It's essential to understand the underlying principles that drive desired ethical behavior
and how a lack of these moral principles contributes to the downfall of many
otherwise intelligent, talented people and the businesses they represent.

There are generally 12 business ethics principles:

 Leadership: The conscious effort to adopt, integrate, and emulate the other 11
principles to guide decisions and behavior in all aspects of professional and
personal life.
 Accountability: Holding yourself and others responsible for their actions.
Commitment to following ethical practices and ensuring others follow ethics
guidelines.
 Integrity: Incorporates other principles—honesty, trustworthiness, and
reliability. Someone with integrity consistently does the right thing and strives
to hold themselves to a higher standard.
 Respect for others: To foster ethical behavior and environments in the
workplace, respecting others is a critical component. Everyone deserves
dignity, privacy, equality, opportunity, compassion, and empathy.
 Honesty: Truth in all matters is key to fostering an ethical climate. Partial
truths, omissions, and under or overstating don't help a business improve its
performance. Bad news should be communicated and received in the same
manner as good news so that solutions can be developed.
 Respect for laws: Ethical leadership should include enforcing all local, state,
and federal laws. If there is a legal grey area, leaders should err on the side of
legality rather than exploiting a gap.
 Responsibility: Promote ownership within an organization, allow employees to
be responsible for their work, and be accountable for yours.
 Transparency: Stakeholders are people with an interest in a business, such as
shareholders, employees, the community a firm operates in, and the family
members of the employees. Without divulging trade secrets, companies should
ensure information about their financials, price changes, hiring and firing
practices, wages and salaries, and promotions are available to those interested
in the business's success.
 Compassion: Employees, the community surrounding a business, business
partners, and customers should all be treated with concern for their well-being.
 Fairness: Everyone should have the same opportunities and be treated the same.
If a practice or behavior would make you feel uncomfortable or place personal
or corporate benefit in front of equality, common courtesy, and respect, it is
likely not fair.
 Loyalty: Leadership should demonstrate confidentially and commitment to
their employees and the company. Inspiring loyalty in employees and
management ensures that they are committed to best practices.
 Environmental concern: In a world where resources are limited, ecosystems
have been damaged by past practices, and the climate is changing, it is of
 utmost importance to be aware of and concerned about the environmental
impacts a business has. All employees should be encouraged to discover and
report solutions for practices that can add to damages already done.

Why Is Business Ethics Important?

There are several reasons business ethics are essential for success in modern business.
Most importantly, defined ethics programs establish a code of conduct that drives
employee behavior—from executives to middle management to the newest and
youngest employees. When all employees make ethical decisions, the company
establishes a reputation for ethical behavior. Its reputation grows, and it begins to
experience the benefits a moral establishment reaps:

 Brand recognition and growth

 Increased ability to negotiate
 Increased trust in products and services
 Customer retention and growth
 Attracts talent
 Attracts investors

When combined, all these factors affect a business' revenues. Those that fail set
ethical standards and enforce them are doomed to eventually find themselves
alongside Enron, Arthur Andersen, Wells Fargo, Lehman Brothers, Bernie Maddoff,
and many others.

Types of Business Ethics

There are several theories regarding business ethics, and many different types can be
found, but what makes a business stand out are its corporate social
responsibility practices, transparency and trustworthiness, fairness, and technological
practices.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the concept of meeting the needs of

stakeholders while accounting for the impact meeting those needs has on employees,
the environment, society, and the community in which the business operates. Of
course, finances and profits are important, but they should be secondary to the welfare
of society, customers, and employees—because studies have concluded that corporate
governance and ethical practices increase financial performance.

Transparency and Trustworthiness

It's essential for companies to ensure they are reporting their financial performance in
a way that is transparent. This not only applies to required financial reports but all
reports in general. For example, many corporations publish annual reports to their
shareholders.
Most of these reports outline not only the submitted reports to regulators, but how and
why decisions were made, if goals were met, and factors that influenced performance.
CEOs write summaries of the company's annual performance and give their outlooks.

Press releases are another way companies can be transparent. Events important to
investors and customers should be published, regardless of whether it is good or bad
news.

Technological Practices and Ethics

The growing use of technology of all forms in business operations inherently comes
with a need for a business to ensure the technology and information it gathers is being
used ethically. Additionally, it should ensure that the technology is secured to the
utmost of its ability, especially as many businesses store customer information and
collect data that those with nefarious intentions can use.

Fairness

A workplace should be inclusive, diverse, and fair for all employees regardless of
race, religion, beliefs, age, or identity. A fair work environment is where everyone can
grow, be promoted, and become successful in their own way.

How to Implement Good Business Ethics

Fostering an environment of ethical behavior and decision-making takes time and

effort—it always starts at the top. Most companies need to create a code of
conduct/ethics, guiding principles, reporting procedures, and training programs to
enforce ethical behavior.

Once conduct is defined and programs implemented, continuous communication with

employees becomes vital. Leaders should constantly encourage employees to report
concern behavior—additionally, there should be assurances that if whistle-blowers
will not face adversarial actions.

Monitoring and Reporting Unethical Behavior

When preventing unethical behavior and repairing its adverse side effects, companies
often look to managers and employees to report any incidences they observe or
experience. However, barriers within the company culture (such as fear of retaliation
for reporting misconduct) can prevent this from happening.

Published by the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI), the Global Business Ethics
Survey of 2021 surveyed over 14,000 employees in 10 countries about different types
of misconduct they observed in the workplace. 49% of the employees surveyed said
they had observed misconduct and 22% said they had observed behavior they would
categorize as abusive. 86% of employees said they reported the misconduct they
observed. When questioned if they had experienced retaliation for reporting, 79% said
they had been retaliated against.

Indeed, fear of retaliation is one of the primary reasons employees cite for not
reporting unethical behavior in the workplace. ECI says companies should work
toward improving their corporate culture by reinforcing the idea that reporting
suspected misconduct is beneficial to the company. Additionally, they should
acknowledge and reward the employee's courage in making the report.

Ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have become watchwords for the
governance industry in recent years. Growing pressure on businesses, coupled with
companies' ambitions to 'do better' regarding ethical and corporate social
responsibility, has pushed the issue to the top of board agendas. Despite this, the
concepts of corporate social responsibility and ethics are not always fully understood
by businesses.

What is the connection between ethics and corporate social responsibility? How
should boards approach the two, and what are the crucial steps on the path to
operationalizing your CSR and ethics strategy? This article explores the issues.

What is Corporate Social Responsibility in Business Ethics?

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is used to describe initiatives or strategies

organizations put in place to make themselves more socially accountable. Practicing
corporate social responsibility can make an organization more aware of its impact on
society.

CSR can be one side of an organization's wider business ethics; as, it is 'a broad
concept that can take many forms depending on the company and industry.'

CSR is often erroneously used interchangeably with ESG (environmental, social and
governance), a term that describes a more tightly defined set of criteria around which
businesses build their ethical strategies. While CSR and ESG are connected — and
more on that connection later — they are not the same.

CSR has been a recognized element of business ethics for many years; the publication
of Archie B Carroll's 'CSR pyramid' in 1979 is generally accepted as the advent of
today's definition of corporate social responsibility. Carroll posited that CSR and
business are not mutually exclusive, but companies must address their commercial
obligations before seeking ethical or philanthropic ones.

Sometimes, this interplay between commercial and ethical imperatives is referred to as

the 'triple bottom line,' an accounting framework that considers three aspects — social,
environmental (or ecological) and financial — to give organizations a fully rounded
view of their performance.
How Do Ethics Differ from Corporate Social Responsibility?

Generally, it's accepted that ethics is a broader concept than CSR. While business
ethics and corporate social responsibility are closely intertwined, CSR is focused more
specifically on an organization's obligations to society. Business ethics is a far broader
construct that can encompass obligations to employees, shareholders, customers,
suppliers and other stakeholders.

And corporate social responsibility itself is a pretty wide-ranging concept — which

brings us to a third construct, ESG.

When it comes to CSR, a key consideration is whether, as a term and a concept, it's
specific enough to home in on the core issues. ESG — environmental, social and
governance — is a term that is increasingly being used interchangeably with CSR. But
strictly speaking, the two are different.

Stakeholder intelligence experts Alva sum this up nicely, noting that: 'Without CSR,
there would be no ESG, but the two are far from interchangeable. While CSR aims to
make a business accountable, ESG criteria make its efforts measurable.'

In some cases, the potential breadth of issues covered under CSR and the lack of
tangible ways to measure CSR efforts have meant that companies' corporate social
responsibility initiatives have failed to achieve their potential. The number of projects
that potentially fall under the CSR banner can make it difficult to manage or quantify
in terms of value. ESG can offer a more defined and measurable focus for corporates'
ethical activity.

We have, then, three related but distinct terms: ethics, CSR and ESG. The three have
subtle differences that boards will want to understand and bear in mind when deciding
on the focus of their socially and environmentally focused activity.

Why Should Businesses Act Ethically?

Aside from the obvious answer that we all — individually and collectively — have a
moral duty to act ethically, there are some specific reasons that businesses should
aspire to the highest levels of corporate ethics.

The importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has undoubtedly grown over
the last decade. When looking at why corporate social responsibility is increasingly
important, the impact of CSR on all elements of corporate life should be considered.

Alongside the altruistic drivers — the growing recognition of the importance of

corporate social responsibility to society — organizations are also acknowledging the
importance of corporate social responsibility in business.
CSR's impact on a brand's image has been evident in recent years, with numerous
examples of a company's supply chain, employment practices and environmental
performance having the potential to derail its reputation.

The growing public awareness of CSR issues has led to an expectation that the
companies we spend money with are 'doing the right thing' regarding their social
citizenship. The value of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is demonstrated when
the approach of a business mirrors the priorities of its customers.

All too often, though, there remains a mismatch between public preferences and
corporate performance. The Telegraph reports that in 2019, while 59% of consumers
expected companies to take a stand on climate and environmental issues, only 16% of
business leaders cited CSR as their top three business concerns.

Because of mounting pressure on corporates in recent years to evidence the steps they
are taking to reduce their carbon footprints, positively impact the communities in
which they operate and ensure their internal practices meet the highest compliance and
governance standards, issues like environmental sustainability have risen to the top of
the board's agenda.

A more proactive approach to corporate social purpose is typically driven by a desire

to demonstrate a commitment to social purpose to shareholders ' and in turn, a belief
that this will impart a competitive edge. This is a key reason why companies engage in
corporate social responsibility.

Overlaying all of this is the growing practice of organizations being given ESG
ratings by third parties. Increasingly, third-party rating and reporting organizations are
providing these ratings as part of their assessment of businesses' investment
potential — giving companies another business-related imperative for improving their
ethical performance, specifically around environmental and social factors.

Better ethics can also drive better decisions. Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is one
aspect of corporate social responsibility that organizations are increasingly focused on
and vocal about — and one that can deliver real results in terms of decision-making.

A board and leadership team made up of similar people can lead to groupthink, where
poor decisions are made due to the similarity in thought processes and assumptions
among the people involved. Improving your board's diversity is therefore not just the
'right' thing to do; it can help improve your business performance.

The Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics

When we examine the principles of business ethics and corporate social responsibility,
the two concepts are clearly intertwined.
The ISO quality standard ISO2600-2010: Guidance on Social Responsibility includes
 'ethical behavior' among its seven key principles of socially responsible behavior:

 Accountability
 Transparency
 Ethical behavior
 Respect for stakeholder interests
 Respect for the rule of law
 Respect for international norms of behavior
 Respect for human rights
In their book Corporate Social Responsibility, David Crowther and Güler Aras posit
that 'There are three basic principles' which together comprise all CSR activity,' two of
which mirror the ISO principles:

1. Sustainability
2. Accountability
3. Transparency
The American Society for Quality defines corporate social responsibility as an
approach that 'pertains to people and organizations behaving and conducting business
ethically and with sensitivity towards social, cultural, economic, and environmental
issues.'

There's a consensus on ethics and corporate social responsibility and a strong overlap
between the two terms' underlying principles.

_________________________
ESG know-how can take your business ethics and CSR initiatives to the next
level

LEARN MORE ABOUT ESG

_________________________

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in Strategic Planning

Suppose a corporate social responsibility strategy's objective is to ensure that strategic

decisions are taken ethically. In that case, it stands to reason that strategic planning
needs to incorporate ethical considerations at its heart.

Embedding a code of ethics into your strategic decision-making is one way to ensure
your organizational strategy is aligned with your business values.
 This should apply to all aspects of your CSR activity; goals around environmental
sustainability and strategy need to work in tandem. For example, your investments and
operations need to mirror your stated commitments to the environment. Similarly,
strategic decisions about appointments need to reflect your goals around diversity and
inclusion, and planning for new premises needs to take on board local community
considerations.

Your strategic plans should be informed by your approach to CSR and ethics and
drive forward your ambitions to be a more socially conscious, sustainable and ethical
business.

Daniella Foster, Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility at Hilton, sums it up well

in a Forbes article: 'Sustainable and inclusive growth is good business and the
companies that have aligned their business growth strategies to their ethics will be a
step ahead in future-proofing their business.'
The Benefits of Organizational Ethical Behavior

From our analysis above, it's obvious that organizational ethics and a responsible
social obligation approach can demonstrate significant benefits. Advantages to the
business extend beyond the reputational benefits of a sustainable or socially conscious
strategy: there can be a tangible impact on the bottom line.

The benefits of corporate social responsibility and ethics can include:

 Enhanced corporate reputation

 Differentiation from competitors
 Better relationships with investors and other stakeholders
 More rounded strategic decision-making
 Improved ESG ratings from third-party rating and reporting organizations
 Easier access to investment
 Lower costs due to more sustainable approaches
 Closer alignment with customer and employee priorities
 Ease of compliance with TCFD (Taskforce on Climate-related Financial
Disclosures) and other reporting requirements

CSR as a Vehicle for PR

Can CSR be a vehicle for positive PR? Of course, you can use your achievements
around corporate social responsibility and business ethics to support your marketing
and PR efforts — improved corporate reputation is one of the recognized benefits of a
CSR strategy.
Businesses that are rightly proud of their CSR efforts should be encouraged to shout
about them as an example to others of what can be done as much as for their own
recognition.

For some businesses, though, CSR is seen only or primarily as a PR opportunity.

These are the businesses that are likely to come unstuck as their efforts are exposed as
'greenwashing,' the practice of overstating achievements for their own ends. It's
recognized today that ESG obligations cannot be met within a greenwashing report
that merely ticks the box for addressing environmental or social issues.'

As Prezly state, there's undoubtedly a 'complex relationship between corporate social

responsibility and PR.' The order of events is perhaps the most important aspect here:
While CSR provides an excellent story for corporates seeking positive publicity, the
story should be secondary to a genuine concern for ethics and a desire to fulfill their
social responsibility.

In other words, there's nothing wrong with publicizing your CSR wins, but seeking to
'do' corporate social responsibility only for the PR benefits, or exaggerating your
successes for PR purposes, is likely to backfire because consumers, investors and the
wider public see through your attempts.

Transparency: The New Normal

This need for honesty dovetails neatly with an ever-growing spotlight on business
transparency — which is supremely important when it comes to ethics and CSR. As
we noted above, transparency is recognized as one of the core principles of corporate
social responsibility.

The trend towards transparency is seen across the industry, from consumers
demanding provenance information on the clothes they buy, pressure on businesses to
declare their ownership, and fee transparency in the asset management sector. As
we've noted, when it comes to CSR, greenwash won't cut any ice; customers and
investors alike want to see honest evaluations of achievements, with candid reporting
on goals and progress.