Why corporate social responsibility matters Essay

Why corporate social responsibility matters - Essay Example Corporate companies are setting up fully fledged CSR departments focusing on the social issues of contemporary relevance. A complex chain of various stakeholders of the company including the community; vendors, customers, investors and the concerned government will be involved in a CSR decision of the company. In other words, a CSR decision of particular company will affect its varied range of stakeholders. The stakeholders will have either comply with the CSR decision or in cases, they will benefit from the CSR initiative of the company. Johnson & Johnson is a multinational company with its presence over 60 countries. It has more than 250 subsidiary companies with human resource strength of 116,000 people. Being a large company and having been using the governmental and natural resources for long years, it becomes the responsibility of Johnson & Johnson to be responsible to issues of social relevance. The objective of this essay is to critically analyze the Corporate Social Responsi bility initiatives of Johnson and Johnson. Managerial Structure of Corporate Social Responsibility Wing The company claims that CSR has been included in the mission statement of the company 60 years ago. Interestingly, in that period CSR was not a point of discussion as a responsibility to be fulfilled by Corporate Companies. The CSR initiatives of the company were started by General Robert Wood Johnson (CSR Globe, 2006) He was the Chairman of the Director Board of the company then. The first initiative taken up by the company in this regard has been claimed by the company to have taken up way back in 1906. The company supported the government to source medical supply for the victims of the earthquake that happened in San Francisco. The CSR representative for the company is the Executive Committee. This makes it clear that the CSR initiatives of Johnson & Johnson is planned and controlled by its top level management. The involvement of senior level management in thus ensured in the process of planning and implementation. The governance of Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives is centrally based from its headquarters. This central approach in governance makes sure that the policy is oriented and focused on the central policies suggested by the Executive committee of the company. This further ensures the top management’s control over the CSR mechanism. The comprehensive Strategy Johnson and Johnson have developed a comprehensive strategy that clearly defines the limits of implementation of CSR. The CSR priorities of the company have been clearly defined to be limited to four sections. First of it is to cater to the company’s responsibility towards nurses, patients, doctors, mothers fathers and others who use the products of Johnson and Johnson. The second priority area is employees all across the world. The third is communities and the fourth one is stockholders. On careful analysis of these priority areas, it is cl early observable that the company has clearly defined the reach of its CSR initiatives. Interestingly, most of the beneficiaries from all the four priority areas belong to their customer base and direct dependents of the company. For instance when the patients who use their products refer to their customer base, the 116,000 people employees who are direct dependants of the company are included in within the limits of the activity. In conclusion, it can be observed that the CSR policy of Johnson and Johnson comprises of a comprehensive strategy clearly defining its limits to business development, human resource welfare, supply and sourcing chain wellbeing and community welfare. Specific CSR Programs The CSR programs of the company focus on three large areas including Environment, Social and Governance and Economic. The