2. • What areas would taxonomy of business
responsibilities cover?
• Is this a good way of approaching the
Corporate responsibility discourse?
3. What is taxonomy?
• Taxonomy is the practice and science of
classification
• Taxis meaning order or arrangement
• Nomos meaning law or science
4. Approaching the Corporate Responsibility
Discourse
• Corporate responsibility has been an issue
discussed by many scholars, it has been
described differently in various articles and
several definitions of it have been provided
but yet we do not have a specific one for it
5. Taxonomy of the areas of corporate
responsibility
• A taxonomy of the business responsibilities of
corporations means a classification of these
responsibilities in a technical order underlying
the most important categories of those
responsibilities
6. • The most important areas that CSR covers are:
• Legal Compliance,
• Philanthropy and Community Investment,
• Environmental Management,
• Sustainability,
• Animal Rights,
• Human Rights,
• Corruption and Corporate Governance.
7. • Legal Compliance
• The minimum responsibility towards the society from a
company is to operate according to the law.
• Philanthropy and Community Investment
• Philanthropy is not considered to be a legal duty, it is one of
the most important features of corporate responsibility.
Market leaders like Coca-Cola and Ford donated large
amounts of their annual profits to community investments
such as building water pipes and houses for those in
desperate need for basic life conditions.
• Environmental Management
• Many corporations have recognized the importance of
environmental management and protection.
• Sustainability
• Sustainability has been defined as the ability to sustain a
high quality of life for current and future generations.
8. • Animal Rights
• Animal Rights have been one of the primary
concerns of corporate responsibility in the
80’s, some scholars consider animal rights as
of the same level as human rights
• Human Rights
• The universal declaration of human rights has
been a very important approach setting out
the fundamental human rights.
9. • Corruption and Corporate Governance.
• Corruption has been defined as the abuse of
public power for personal gain. Corporations
always tend to bribe public authorities.
• Corruption always has consequences in the
economy of a state, which results in low
wages, unsafe working conditions, child labor
and unsafe products.
10. • Corporate governance has been seen as the
way in which rights and responsibilities are
shared between different corporate actors as
an essential part of corporate responsibility
• Considering the Enron case as an evidence,
since it was well known for its corporate
responsibility leadership but despite this
Enron did not succeed in Corporate
governance
11. Is this a good way of approaching the
Corporate responsibility discourse?
• Corporate responsibility does not stand still but it
evolves together with the society
• This taxonomy helps the Corporate responsibility
discourse in order for us to understand its importance
and values to our society as a whole.
• We can consider the categories of corporate
responsibility as a group of issues that show us the
worlds temporary concerns
• this taxonomy benefits the corporate responsibility
discourse since it opens our eyes to the importance of
corporate responsibility and its evolution.
