SOSC 3040 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Corporate Social Responsibility

• School: York University
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOSC 3040
• Professor: Allan Greenbaum

Document Summary

The reading by cynthia a. williams talks about the issue of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance from a shareholder and stakeholder point of view. Shareholders argue that a corporation"s only social responsibility is to use its resources to make profits. And that trying to create other social benefits will affect the management"s focus and performance and eventually reduce social welfare. Furthermore, they argue that advancing social policies are job of the government, not business". On the other hand stakeholders argue that managers in a corporation should take into account the stakeholders" interest in governing a successful firm. Some of the active stakeholder preferences are: consumers willing to pay more for goods produced in socially responsible fashion; employees being selective of their workplaces and investors considering the social parameters of a corporation before investing.