Business in communities refers to the relationship between the business and its stakeholders in an external environment. corporate social responsibility refers to recognising the responsibility of businesses towards the wider community. This way businesses work towards making the community a better place and in return their reputation is enhanced. Examples of corporate social responsibility involve offering goods or services to the members of the society who would otherwise be barred from some of the benefits of the society. For example: helping disabled consumers and employees by offering them high class access facilities. Corporate social responsibility benefits the business by developing the skills and experience of employees.

It also motivates the employees as they develop a sense of pride by representing their organisation in the community. Companies like coco cola and tesco are committed towards corporate social responsibilities. Further, business in the community bitc is an independent charity set up by leading business organisations to continually improve the impact they have on society. This organization works towards creating a responsible approach towards conducting business.

different ways in which businesses can work as a part of the community are: taking initiative to fight environmental issues to create greener environments. Provide educational assistance to schools by sponsorships or arranging industry visits. Creating employment opportunities social responsibility of business what is the social responsibility of a business? is it to increase its profits as milton friedman affirms? before starting any debate about this topic, first let’s see what its definition is. According to the business dictionary, social responsibility is an obligation of an organization's management towards the welfare and interests of the society which provides it the environment and resources to survive and flourish, and which is affected by the organizations actions and policies. Furthermore, according to the dictionary of finance and investment terms, social responsibility is the principle that businesses should actively contribute to the welfare of society and not only maximize profits. Never the less, i do think that any corporation can be social responsible in terms of these opposing points of view at the same time.

In this essay, i will first present a summary of the article of milton friedman then i will express my personal reflection on the topic and tell why a corporation can comply with both positions simultaneously milton friedman in his article the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits states that only people can have responsibilities, and that there is not such a thing like social responsibility of business. A corporation, according to friedman, is an artificial person and, therefore, may have artificial responsibilities. The individuals who are responsible of the corporation are business men, which are individual proprietors or corporate executives. And its responsibility is to conduct the business in a way that maximizes the profits while conforming to the basic rules of the society. A corporate executive, as any other person, may have many other responsibilities that he recognizes or assumes voluntarily, which can be.

In 1946, congress enacted changes in the tax code that permitted publicly held business corporations to deduct charitable donations in amounts up to 5 percent of their federal taxable income. Congress, of course, did not require companies to make charitable donations, but it did encourage them to do so. The legislation became one more landmark in a running controversy about corporate social responsibility. Simply put, this controversy concerns the question of whether publicly held business corporations sole proprietorships and partnerships must be treated somewhat differently have a duty to the communities in which they operate that goes beyond the duty to obey the law in the conduct of their operations.

If they have such a duty, questions remain about why they have that duty and what exactly it requires them to do. By contrast, the attention given to the study of business ethics over the last several decades has served to reinforce the conviction that business corporations have a social responsibility that requires them to use some of their resources to address needs in their communities. These resources may be cash, or physical property, or even the time and energy of their employees.

Ordinarily, the needs addressed are outside the scope of the normal operations of the company. As a result, corporations make significant contributions to the arts or to social service organizations. In doing this, advocates argue, they are merely being good corporate citizens and giving something back to the society. Many opponents of this view insist that business corporations have no responsibility to society beyond obeying the law as they go about their operations.

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Their principal and overriding responsibility is to shareholders, and it is a responsibility to conduct the operations of the company in such a way as to maximize the wealth of these shareholders. Perhaps the best known proponent of the weak view is milton friedman, the nobel laureate in economics. Over the last decade or two, as some version of the strong view has become the common opinion in business schools and executive suites, thinking about the nature of the business corporation and its relationship to the community has also changed. Quite often the moral quality of a company has been evaluated in terms of its commitment to social responsibility. In practice, however, this has created at least two kinds of problems, which on occasion have been serious and that, in any event, should provoke us to reconsider the wisdom and soundness of the strong view of corporate social responsibility. The first kind of problem is that the specific nature of corporate contributions sometimes becomes an obstacle to the successful conduct of business.

Several companies have received unwelcome publicity and have been the target of customer outrage because of their support for or opposition to controversial social programs. A few years ago, for example, berkshire hathaway decided to curtail its corporate giving after customers of one of its companies objected to warren buffett rsquo s own generous support of population control activities. More generally, socially responsible investment funds often screen stocks by examining the company rsquo s corporate giving. As these funds have become larger and more numerous, their impact on corporate giving practices is likely to be felt.

In many cases, a contribution approved by one fund will cause another fund to reject the investment. A second sort of problem is more subtle, but its effects have been displayed quite dramatically over the last two years. There can be a dark side to corporate philanthropy, as companies such as enron have demonstrated. Enron conducted a very generous corporate giving program, and this tended to make people reluctant to examine the company rsquo s business practices too closely. In enron rsquo s case, a member of the audit committee of the board was also a faculty member at a university that was a grateful beneficiary of the company rsquo s largesse.