Corporate Social Responsibility. The question of real commitment or strategic window dressing and the example of Foxconn (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Essen, language: English, abstract: The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) becomes more and more important, as overcoming "the increasing environmental and social problems is one of the biggest challenges of this century". Over the last years the discussion about the duty of companies to assume responsibility for society is well underway. Not only in executive boards, politics or science the concept in gaining in popularity, also the media addresses the subject with increased regularity and presents responsible companies with its management approaches.

On the other hand, hardly a day will pass without having to deal with headlines of large organizations who have crossed borders of business ethical behavior and moral acting. One example is the electronics manufacturer "Foxconn", one of Apple's former suppliers and a big player in its branch: 2010, the suicides of 18 young employees, as a result of the bad working conditions at the Foxconn factory plants in China, shook the employer giant and the international community.

The illustrated dichotomy is a matter for reflection and therefore well suited for the present seminar paper. The following pages now then deal with the these main questions:

- What is the purpose of CSR and is it suitable for the intention of business?
- Do companies use CSR only as a calculated strategy to survive in this complex
marketplace? If so - is this morally right?
- How much worth do the CSR promises of companies in terms of today's times
of globalization and growing competition actually have?

The first chapters will give an overview on CSR as a theoretic basis for the following pages, referring to different concepts and definitions that exist.

After that, chapter 3 deals with the applied example of Foxconn. First there will be given some facts and figures about Foxconn and the occurrences in the year 2010 in particular. In the next step the CSR activities will be shortly analyzed in order to contrast the applied CSR intention of Foxconn and the actual outcome.