Agenda

Evolution of Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR)
For now what is CSR??????


A concept thats deals with role of the
business in society
History of the construct
Pre-formalisation of CSR construct

Formalisation of CSR
Pre-formalisation of CSR construct

Genealogy of these ideas and practices can be
related to
Ancient Mesopotamia
Greek
Roman times.
For instance, King Hammurabi of Ancient
Mesopotamia developed a code of conduct
for workers (including builders, innkeepers
and farmers). At that time workers were put
to death if their negligence caused harm to
others, or major inconvenience to local
communities.

In Ancient Greece, it was expected from better
off to help and contribute to the social well
being of less fortunate .
Ancient Roman senators were not happy and
complained regarding failure of businesses to
contribute sufficient taxes to fund their
military.
Religious roots
Ancient Hinduism text Vedic and Sutra and
Buddhism text Jatakas address ethical
dimensions of charging excessive interest
Islam corporations are considers as group of
individuals responsible and answerable to God
and their (organisational) resources should be
used for social good
The Bible explicitly condemns charging of
interest, and emphasise on sharing of wealth
Industrial Revolution
At the time of industrial revolution in the
Western Europe the concept of corporate
philanthropy emerged.

welfare including better working condition,
better housing, reduce drunkenness and
recreation facilities at work place.
Adam Smith (1776)
If businesses are free to earn profit without any
restrictions, they would bring common good to
shareholders and society.
Generally, Adam Smith is misread and it is
believed that he advocated ethics less economic
rationale of morality.
However, with economic rational he also
emphasised on the ethics of mutual trust and
confidence during production and exchange of
goods and services (see for example Sen 2002).

19
th
Century
Andrew Carnegie (Charity and stewardship

Ford Motor Company legal case in Michigan
(US)
Adolf A. Berle and Harvard professor E.
Merrick Dodd presented an interesting series
of articles featured in the Harvard Law
Review on the managerial role.
Nationalisation in the UK
1953, a shareholder of Standard Oil
Formulisation of CSR
Bowen (1953)
the obligations of businessmen to pursue those
policies, to make those decisions or to follow
those lines of action, which are desirable in terms
of the objectives, and values of our society
(1953, p.6

according to sanctioned rules of conduct and
emphasised that it is important that managers
should follow those principle of morality, which
are not covered by law (Bowen 1953, p.13).