Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Policy
For this project component, you generally assess the impact of corporate social responsibility policy on
the workplace and corporate America.
To complete this assignment:
� Assess how, and to what extent, corporate social responsibility can be meshed with a corporation’s
obligation to maximize profits for its shareholders.
� Then, assess the ethical nature of the company you selected.
� Next, with regards to the issue you chose for the project, assess the impact on the chosen company
and other stakeholders�including monetary, legal, and reputation-wise�of continuing the status quo
versus addressing your issue via corporate policy.
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Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Policy
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is achieved when an organization is able to
incorporate social and environmental concerns into its business operations and other interactions
with stakeholders. It is a way of allowing an organization achieve triple-bottom-line – balancing
environmental, economic and social goals of an organization, without compromising shareholder
and stakeholder interests (Ruggie, 2014).
Increasingly, Corporate America has appreciated the importance of CSR to the operations
of the organization – triple-bottom-line. This has changed the psyche of corporate America to
appreciate that maximizing economic returns alone is not sustainable in the long-run. Corporate
America is not tripping over itself in an effort to maximize the returns that accrue from engaging
in CSR. This should not be confused with philanthropy or charity. CSR is a policy that is
engrained into the organization’s psyche such that all stakeholders understand it; appreciate why
it is engaged in and the value to the organization and community benefiting from it (Ruggie,
2014). It is not an afterthought, but a deliberate well-thought out decision.
American Express is a one of the leading credit card companies in America. It permeates
all aspects of American lives given the American love for credit. This being the case, American
Express discovered that given the extent of their reach in the society, a CSR policy would give
the organization more benefits that the cost it would incur to implement the policy. Thus, at
American Express, they believe that community service is not only key to the organizations
operations, but is actually central to the organizations survival. Thus, American Express has
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY POLICY 3
endeavored to permeate good corporate citizenship by supporting communities so that the
organization’s reputation is enhanced among its various stakeholders and shareholders.
One of the areas that American Express has chosen to focus on is preservation and
sustainability of unique historical places for the future. This aspect of CSR was borne out of a
realization that preservation assists communities understand whom they are while shaping
relationships with other communities around the world. American Express thus seeks to ensure
these historic places can be easily accessed by communities because, this is the only way their
history will survive in addition to increasing the public understanding of their significant
contribution in sustaining communities presently and for posterity (Ruggie, 2014).
By choosing to tackle corporate social responsibility in this way, American Express seeks
for its stakeholders and shareholders to associate it with America the country. American are very
proud of their history and view those who their history positively. To an outsider looking at the
Corporate Social Responsibility Policy of American Express could be forgiven for not
immediately establishing a connection with preservation of historical sites. However a critical
look at it reveals a calculated and deliberate decision by American Express. By associating
American Express with the history of the United States of America, consumers have a positive
view of the organization.
This positive view of the organization, translates to increased business and by extension
growth in its profits. When viewed in this light, American Express becomes by default the legal
custodian of American historical sites. For American Express, the embedding of Corporate
Social Responsibility as a policy changes the status quo and the results are positive with regards
to the triple-bottom-line.
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References
Ruggie, J. G (2014). Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights, W. W
Norton & Company, Inc, New York, NY.
