Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Textile Engineering
Assignment on
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
Course code: TE4212; Course title: Specialized Apparel Manufacturing
Submitted by:
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First I express my heartiest thanks and gratefulness to almighty Allah for his divine
blessing, which makes me possible to complete this assignment successfully.
I fell grateful to and wish my profound indebtedness to our honorable Teacher Mr.
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ABSTRACT
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the business firms and enterprises has
evolved as an indispensable part for greater business and economic successes. In the context of
free market economy, corporations are increasingly operating business across boundaries where
sensitivity to social and environmental issues and accountability to society at large are
considered pivotal for corporate performances. This paper seeks to explore the corporate
perception, practices and current trends of CSR in the export-oriented apparel industry in
Bangladesh.
This assignment briefly reviews theoretical and practical aspects of CSR. The goal of
this assignment is to obtain a better understanding on CSR and to relate these findings to focus
on the implementation and outcome in textile sector in Bangladesh. This report will also
investigate the interaction between the CSR and its the impact on environment and society along
with the business. Moreover it will let me see through the corporate social responsibility in a way
better manner.
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List of tables:
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CONTENT
II.
III.
IV.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
LIST OF FIGURE & TABLE
CHAPTERS
PAGE NO.
1. INTRODUCTION.01
2. THE CONCEPT OF CSR .....02
2.1 CSR02
2.2 History of CSR..02
2.3 Classification of CSR.03
2.4 Way of developing.....03
3. DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF CSR.04
3.1 Goals of CSR.04
3.2 Key issues in CSR..04
3.3 Key drivers of CSR....04
3.4 Coverage area..05
3.5 Carrolls pyramid of CSR...05
3.6 CSR: UN 10 principles............06
4. CSR IN TEXTILE INDUSTRIES........07
4.1 CSR in textile industries ...07
4.2 Initiatives for the implementation of CSR in textile industries.08
5. CSR IN APPAREL INDUSTRIES IN BANGLADH.12
6. CSR AND ITS IMPACTS.....14
6.1 Survey impacts..14
6.2 Profit of CSR............14
6.3 Arguments for CSR..15
6.4 Arguments against CSR15
7. CONCLUSION......16
REFERENCE.17
1. INTRODUCTION
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is popularly perceived as corporate donations to a
socially acceptable area such as education, religious institutions, community care etc. Over the years it
has been deep rooted in our mindset that business should donate part of their profit in social and
community investment since charitable giving is encouraged as a means of salvation by most religions
practiced in Indian subcontinent. In the early stage of business development, particularly in Indian
business culture, entrepreneurs perceived charity as a means of satisfying the goddess to business
prosperity but without any strategic planning of business development it is difficult to classify such
activities as CSR.
Corporation should not focus only on profits as principles and ethics is also crucial to remain in
business, hence business requires meeting their responsibilities both as an economic and social agent.
Donations to build mosques, temples without improving the workplace condition of the workers,
exploiting minimum wages or overtime hour work, irregular payment of wages is a question of ethics. On
the other hand, digging wells for community or supporting education or feeding babies without ensuring
safe drinking water for the workers or supply of reliable and safe products to the consumer at fair prices,
exploiting shareholders from reasonable benefits might not be considered as prior agenda for business.
Business ethics is about being answerable to the stakeholders where investor, employee, supplier,
customers, government, trade unions are considered important. Customers want quality product and
services, employee want safe and healthy work environment and reasonable benefits etc.
Here comes the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Concept of CSR emerged in the 1950s
and gradually developed over the last five decades. In the recent years CSR concept has come across
many debates and shaped with a strong theoretical and empirical base. Corporate performances are not
confined on economic or financial performance of business firms as the stakeholders want to see that
companies are sensitive to social and environmental issues and accountable to the society at large beyond
its direct stakeholders.
The concept of social responsibility is a fairly recent one in the business world.
Awareness about the social responsibility of business organizations is rapidly on the rise and
firms are also accepting this concept. The textile industry is no exception. Textile producing and
trading firms are also realizing their responsibility towards the society and the environment.
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Within the next few years, a consensus was growing suggesting that beyond meeting their
legal obligations, companies needed to take certain responsibilities towards the society
Environmentalism started brewing up in the face of growing concern over climate
change, depletion of earth's resources, over-consumption etc
2.3 Classification:
Social responsibility can be broadly divided into two parts: human responsibility and
environmental responsibility.
Human responsibility refers to the responsibility of the organization towards the various
parties associated with it, which are known as stakeholders in business parlance. These
parties include employees, shareholders, the government, customers, investors, suppliers,
competitors and the society at large.
Environmental responsibility refers to the organizations responsibility towards
environment protection.
Labour rights:
Child labour
Forced labour
Right to organise
Environmental conditions:
Climate change
NGO Activism
Responsible investment
Litigation
Developing Countries
Foreign customers
Domestic consumers
FDI
Government & IGO
Poverty Alleviation:
Job creation
Public revenues
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Carroll indicates that businesses should focus on satisfying expectations of shareholders
and delivering profits, obeying the law, being ethical and engaging in the philanthropic
responsibilities, which create a positive value for the society (1991). These responsibilities
however, should be fulfilled simultaneously rather than in a sequence (Cooke and He 2010,
p.356).
Principle 2: Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses
Labour Standards
Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective
recognition of the right to collective bargaining
Environment
Anti- corruption
Principle 10: Business should work against all forms of corruption including
extortion and bribery
Towards shareholders:
By making payment of the due taxes and duties at the proper time
By abiding by the laws and regulations of the area in which the firm operates.
Towards customers:
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Towards investors:
By giving the investors a true and fair picture of the financial condition of the
business.
Towards suppliers
Making competitive payment to the suppliers for the products purchased from them.
Towards competitors:
Towards society:
Towards environment:
Social Accountability
Administered by
In operation since
1997
Initiative
Focus
Sector
In operation since
2004
Initiative
Focus
Sector
verification/certification
Audited/certified companies
Participating textile brands
10
WRAP organization
In operation since
Initiative
Verification/certification
2000
Industrial associations initiative (American
Apparel and Footwear Association, other industry
association). Academia and NGOs in board.
Social (Labour/ILO conventions)
Apparel (programs for other sectors are under
development)
Third party audits leading to certification
Audited/certified companies
Focus
Sector
FLA organization
1999
Multi stakeholder initiative (brand companies, NGOs,
Universitise)
Focus
Sector
Verification/certification
Audited/certified companies
11
ETI organization
In operation since
1998
Initiative
Focus
Sector
Verification/certification
1989
Network of national standards institutes of 157
countries
Improving working condition and support the
empowering workers
Sector
Verification/certification
Audited/certified companies
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ILO that covers freedom of association, right to collective bargaining, no forced labour,
minimum age, no discrimination and equal remuneration (NGLS UNRJSD, 2000).
In addition, health and safety, maximum hours of work, wages for living, security, and
proper employment contracts are mentioned. UN Global Compact principles on human rights
and labour standard supported the above mentioned areas as measurement tools of CSR. Major
stakeholders i.e. employees, workers and the buyers of the apparel industry perceived business
firms should practice the above mentioned codes of conduct as the social responsibility of
business firms.
Over the years the sector understood the importance of addressing issues like
elimination of child labour, safety and security measures at workplace after a lot of incidence of
burning and death of numbers of workers, health as well as environmental hazard are threats to
exist in and expand the export market as well.
Analyzing the trend of CSR practices in RMG sector, it can be said these practices
were adopted due to pressures either externally or internally or both which is still a dilemma of
the sector to practice CSR voluntarily.
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Environmental (Planet)
Economic Profit:
15
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7. CONCLUSION
The concept of social responsibility is gaining popularity in todays times. Companies
are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibilities towards the various stakeholders
associated with them. More and more companies are trying to work in a way so as to protect the
interests of the employees, customers, suppliers and other parties and the society at large. The
concept of a business firm working only with the motive of earning profit is gradually becoming
outdated.
Most of the case we see, buyers demands are conflicting. They want their suppliers to
comply with high quality and work standards (such as 8-hour shifts), while at the other hand they
demand supplier to keep prices low and work through just in time management. Along with the
pressure towards the suppliers for CSR buyers have to really think about the fair prices for what
are they asking.
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7. REFERRENCE
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/2/179/corporate-social-responsibility1.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/16/csr-doesnt-pay-lead-corprespons08cx_dv_1016vogel.html
Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral
management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizon, 34(4), 39-48.
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/bangladesh-factory-collapse-csrimportant
http://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA%3A1900/datastream/OBJ/view
Wills, J., & Hale, A. (2005). Threads of labor in the global garment industry. In A. Hale
& J. Wills (Eds.), Threads of labor: Garment industry supply chains from the workers
perspective. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.