RISULTATI RICERCA

Corporate Responsibility: social or political? ABSTRACT: The question of responsibility is certainly a topical matter. Here Dr. Piero Bassetti sets out to explain why this is, attempting at the same time to avoid the usual, conventional responses. Contrary to what it might appear, the central problem is not moral but pragmatic. We should not therefore ask whether a business should respond to social problems with a sense of social responsibility, but rather concern ourselves with the ability of a business to respond to changes which are necessary to provide punctual, efficient and effective responses for its position. Getting to the bottom of this problem is not simple because its premises are complex, both in content and in terminology. Certainly real social responsibility lies in the ability to responsibly fulfil the task of pursuing socially valid objectives rather than ‘coexisting with stakeholders while carrying out worthy, socially acceptable actions’. It is precisely the choice of objectives, therefore, which is at the centre of our discussion and which inevitably raises the issue of innovation: that is, knowledge combined with capital. The world is changing, and it is changing by the process of innovation, which is to say the developing alliance of knowledge with capital. Knowledge is assuming ever-increasing importance in business, and businesses, sharing a leading role in innovation, have inevitably met with politics. The role of a business, therefore, is no longer politically subordinate but equal. As such, a business must take on responsibility much greater than that of ‘worthy actions’. A business cannot define itself as neutral, but must rather recognise the fact that it has played a part in guiding the processes of innovation. In short, a business must admit to having taken part in, and continuing to take part in, politics. The business person must therefore assume responsibility for the morals or, better, the ethical values of these actions. Modern politics is not only a battle of wills and of power but also of knowledge and when these are intertwined in a decision everyone involved must recognise the ethical imperative.

Corporate Social Responsibility ABSTRACT: It is popular opinion in Italy that economic and business thinking represent a minor component of the national culture. This is a decidedly anomalous way of thinking compared with that met in other European countries, the USA and the Far East. This situation derives from various factors and conditions linked to ideological and religious considerations. Although removed from the protestant and Calvinist context Italy has attempted to respond to the expectations of social responsibility that supporters of laissez-faire assign to the economic system. So began a powerful process characterized by the forming of public economic corporations and of companies with state participation: a very atypical situation compared with the systems of other democratic regimes. Only recently does this process seem to have changed direction in Italy, moving towards a comforting, if gradual, reversal of trend. There are three factors which support this turnabout. First of all attention should be drawn to the evolution which has challenged the concept of the economy and the concept of business. The progressive internationalization and interdependence of markets and increasing globalization have made it very obvious just to what extent economic growth is a vital condition for social, civil, cultural and political growth. The second element is none other than the negative aspect of these same circumstances and is connected with the free circulation of people, goods and capital. This has, in fact, also demonstrated and made us appreciate the negative social effects which arise in cases of poor management. The third factor is linked to the commitment, capability and initiative of business people who have been among the first to try to create a relationship of continuous dialogue and active involvement with the community which they are part of. It is certainly evident that from the beginning the process of assimilation has been the fruit of acts of imitation more than of autonomous initiatives consciously adhering to the concepts of social responsibility. It is also true, however, that imitation is, in itself, a positive mechanism of diffusion and a powerful tool for co-optation. Clear and notable steps forward have been recorded where business people have proved themselves more sensitive to the deeper issues, seeking to respect the virtuous dual concept that guarantees not only the well-being of the company but also that of the entire social body. It is in this way that the search for profit assumes an ethical dimension. In a context such as this it is important to understand that there are no techniques, models or processes of a specific ethical mould that ensure greater earnings. Anyone can, and must, understand that the bottom line of the best results are people. Ethics are a part of the best people and they make them even more capable. It is the heads of companies and their excellent human resources that can take firms to the top. A clear and important example can surely be found in the media. The most common conviction is that the media are as the name itself suggests simply means of transmission; vehicles. This concept is linked to another traditional concept, according to which their level of correctness depends exclusively on the use one makes of it. In reality no medium is only a tool or a technical phenomenon. Telephone, newspapers, radio, television and internet to all effects connect people to the world through their description and representation of the facts, as they happen or as they decide to report them. They are not, therefore, simply methods of transmission; they produce modifications and shape their users. Consequently, for the media, it is the acknowledgement of this fact that leads to the equation of rights and duties which holds the resolution to every ethical issue.

Ethical Business and the Development of Civil Society: one introduction ABSTRACT: The great changes taking place in our complex society have inevitably called for businesses to act decisively to modify their role, a role that finds its strength in the growing interdependence which exists between businesses and society on the whole. The business objective must combine competitiveness and sustainability and in this context Corporate Social Responsibility becomes one of the most important governing objectives of a business. Corporate Social Responsibility is not some unreal, utopian ideal: on the contrary, it represents a real strategic component of business management, capable of ensuring long-term advantages for the business. Alongside actual codes of conduct which have institutionalized Corporate Social Responsibility, a new business culture has emerged: a culture which combines the factors of production and management with those of ethics. In this way, along with their economic responsibility, businesses have also assumed a social and political responsibility in the process of change and development which our society is living through.

Ways of self-empowerment: people development into organizations as CSR dimension ABSTRACT: The corporate social responsibility is a central challenge, that is articulated along various directions: the corporate ethical codes, the social balance next to the financial balance, the search for sustainable development strategies for the environment and the social context in which the companies operate, the certification of environmental quality, the ethical investments funds, the introduction of the Ethics Officer as a new professional figure inside organizations. Selfempowerment is a challenge for the organizations careful of all CSR aspects.

The Changing Work Ethic ABSTRACT: The aim of this essay is to speculate about the changing work ethic. It is divided in two synthetic parts. In part one I will discuss the changing workplace. In part two I will speculate about the changing work ethic hoping to stimulate further discussions. I do not pretend with this essay to include all the contradictions and work ethic changes of the workplace. It is well know that allover the world millions of workers do not have a job. For them the work ethic is not even part of their daily life. Lately the workplace is changing very fast thanks to the technological revolution and in social science we have to dedicate more attention to all these changes.

Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility: a Challenge for Capitalism ABSTRACT: The formalisation of ethical conduct or of behavioural norms at work in the texts of firms is not, in itself, a new phenomenon. Already the owners of businesses in the 19th century, in published rules for workshops, imposed a moral code on their workers. Over the past twenty years the charters published by multinationals, in a far more abstract and diverse form, have raised a new debate. The object of this contribution is to propose a certain number of routes for reflection and hypothesis on the subject of this tranformation. This is why we will start from the more contemporary examples by contextualizing the corporate social responsibility movement in a larger set of initiatives. In the second part this paper will rehearse, through an historical perspective, certain traits that characterise relative these contemporary transformations in the relationship between ethics and capitalism.

The Spotlight And The Microphone: Is A Socially Responsible Economy Possible or Necessary? ABSTRACT: The author explains how and why, after ten years of teaching at Leuven University, he has moved from a sceptical point of view towards corporate ethics (or corporate social responsibility, as many scholars prefer to define it nowadays) to a positive option, leading the same author to consider corporate social responsibility as one of the main instruments for a development process towards a more equal and fair society, together with participatory democracy.

Social aspects of ethics in economics. The moral philosophy contribution to the debate about corporate social responsibility ABSTRACT: Jean-Louis Laville Solidarity and Sustainable Development In the modern democracies the polysemic concept of solidarity has been one of the references allowing the construction of social rules and institutional frameworks in which the market economy has been embedded. The so-called fordist compromise between market and welfare state was an emblematic example of such an embededness. After the end of this compromise the text suggests the following hypothesis: the notion of sustainable development becomes central to imagine a new phase of compromise between economy and society. But this notion implicitly evokes two contrasted projects, one based one philanthropic solidarity, the other one based on democratic solidarity. It is possible to better understand the role of corporate social responsibility when referred to these two projects, reactualizing constant debates about solidarity.

Ethics and Economics: conceptual Backgrounds of Division and Unity ABSTRACT: Considering the recent financial capitalism development and the ethical ‘collapse’ in this specific sphere of economic action as the new figure of classical contest between ethics and economics, this paper is intended to be a record of the sources both of ethics and economics division and unity in the contemporary conceptual horizons. In particular, the aim is to show how difficult is for our dominant views in ethics, coming out from a long way of antithesis against the instrumental rational pattern of economic action, to focus attention on the real unitarian model the aristotelean one that embeds economics inside ethics. By this, also Amartya Sen proposal of an aristotelean connection between ethics and economics is analysed and criticized because of his subterranean link with the divisionistic contemporary positions.