REINVENTING SOCIAL ETHOS [THE DIALECTIC OF ORGANISATION AND SOCIETY IN SOCIAL
WORK CONTEXT]
Author: MS. MONA SINHA, ASST. PROFESSOR , DR. ANJALI KALSE, PROFESSOR
Category: Human Resource Management
Abstract:
The form and content of the world economy is fast evolving and we find capital being increasingly concentrated and centralised as the battle of market competition intensifies. Companies have to keep
running just to stay in the same place so intense is the competition. One of the factors that make the
critical difference between the companies is the public perception of a business's value systems that are best
exhibited by initiatives in discharging its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, there is a great deal of
ambivalence and uncertainty about what CSR really means as well as what drives businesses to pursue it. We have
undertaken a detailed literature review to delineate the various positions taken in understanding and explaining
the concept of CSR especially how business relates to society and vice versa. In the process, we have examined the
conceptual evolution of CSR and explained some of its critical facets. Then we have tried to relate these facets to
the objective social reality, as we perceive it and posited our definition of CSR giving both the reason and
rationality of what we say and why we say so. We have found that there has been a shift in the paradigm with both
the academia and the industry moving from the altruistic standpoint to the strategic standpoint on CSR
interventions. Finally we have seen how this has moulded the science and the art of social work.
