Interventions of Business to Fulfill Social Responsibilities
We all know that people engage in business to earn profit. However, profit making is not the sole function of business. It performs a number of social functions, as it is a part of the society. It takes care of those who are instrumental in securing its existence and survival like-the owners, investors, employees, consumers and government in particular and the society and community in general. So, every business must contribute in some way or the other for their benefit. For example, every business must ‘ensure a satisfactory rate to return to investors, provide good salary, security and proper or king condition to its employees, make available quality products at reasonable price to its consumers, maintain the environment properly, etc.
However, while doing so two things need to be noted to view it as social responsibility of business. First, any such activity is not charity. It means that if any business donates some amount of money to any hospital or temple or school and college, etc., it is not to be considered as discharge of social responsibility because charity does not imply fulfilling responsibility. Secondly, any such activity should not be such that it is good for somebody and bad for others. Suppose a businessman makes a lot of money by smuggling or by cheating customers, and then runs a hospital to treat poor patients at low prices his actions cannot be socially justified.
Social responsibility implies that a businessman should not do anything harmful to the society in course of his business activities. The obligation of any business to protect and serve public interest is known as social responsibility of business. Thus, the concept of social responsibility discourages businessmen from adopting unfair means like black marketing, hoarding, adulteration, tax evasion and cheating customers, etc. to earn profit.
Instead, it encourages them to earn profit through judicious management of the business, by providing better working and living conditions to its employees, providing better products, after sales-service, etc. to its customers and simultaneously to control pollution and conserve natural resources.
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