Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is the principle that companies should contribute to the welfare of society and not be solely devoted to maximizing profits (Social Responsibility | Define Social Responsibility at Dictionary.com). According to Dictionary.com, socially responsible companies can act in a number of ways to benefit society. For example, companies can give money to the arts, fund academic scholarships, support community-building initiatives, and other community involvements (Social Responsibility | Define Social Responsibility at Dictionary.com). They can also commit to not pollute or to reduce the pollution they put out, to not build weapons, and so forth (Social Responsibility | Define Social Responsibility at Dictionary.com). To work responsibly and ethically should be the values of a business because social responsibility can be directly associated with a good profitable business.

The United States company that I chose to use as my main example and that is international is Wal-Mart. In 1991, Wal-Mart became an international company when they opened a Sam's Club near Mexico City (Walmartstores.com: International). Just two years later, Wal-Mart International was created (Walmartstores.com: International). Although Wal-Mart may not be the first firm that comes to mind when investors think of "socially responsible" firms, I think the company has been trying to do the right thing for some time now, and it deserves some credit. After all, "socially responsible" is a process, not a destination.

One way that Wal-Mart is socially responsible is the company measures "community involvement" by how much it gives in local cash or in kind donations. For one of my high school classes, we had to go around and receive donations for a children's Christmas party we were having. I went to Wal-Mart and they gave me almost two garbage bags full of toys and they even gave me two bicycles. Every time I have gone to Wal-Mart to ask for a donation, I have always gotten something, rather it is just a small amount on a gift card or those toys. The only circumstance that is usually required is that you have to have a written letter stating what the donation is for and make sure it's reasonable. Wal-Mart also adopted a scorecard program to review the way each product is made, its merchandising, and its recycling availability. The only thing that Wal-Mart is lacking as far as being socially responsible is its construction sites continue to produce toxic run-off that pollutes groundwater and streams, and the retailer continues to pay fines for such environmentally unfriendly practices.

Going green is another example of Wal-Mart being a socially responsible company. According to Wal-Mart they would create what is called a sustainability index that would be implemented over a series of three phases (Walmart Going Green?). This would include analyzing over 100,000 of its suppliers and understanding how they operate, where a product is made, and its environmental policies (such as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and solid waste disposal)(Walmart Going Green?). Promoting and selling products that are less dependent on the use of fossil fuels would be another good thing for Wal-Mart to do to improve their social responsibility.

I wouldn't say that Wal-Mart's actions has either improved or harmed its public image because Wal-Mart is such a huge company and everyone still goes there. Wal-Mart continues to make best ranked lists of all sorts of things. For example, it ranked 9 out of 50 for World's Most Admired Companies in Fortune 500 in 2010 (World's Most Admired Companies 2010: Wal-Mart Stores Snapshot - FORTUNE on CNNMoney.com). It has also ranked number one in general merchandisers in the past two years in Fortune 500 (World's Most Admired Companies 2010: Wal-Mart Stores Snapshot - FORTUNE on CNNMoney.com).

Being socially responsible in a global market you must be more responsible when it comes to ethics,