Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) directly relates to sustainable business relations and aims to encourage businesses to make positive impacts on the environment, employees, consumers and all other stakeholders. In order to honour a triple bottom line of people, planet, profit, organisations need to include the community and public in corporate decision making. CSR is holding businesses accountable for their behaviours and although has been called a clever PR exercise, can also make an organisation an employer of choice.

On the 27^th of January Murdoch University aimed to broach the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21^st Century through a panel of four presenters. The main focus was discussing what CSR meant in today’s working world and also how it related to ethical business practises. The panel covered CSR in multinationals relating to profit, government regulations of CSR and explored how it is becoming more influential in promoting a workplace to employees.

In my opinion the most interesting element of the discussion was the direct link between community engagement and CSR. It is the organisations responsibility to find out what the community expects of them and to try and deliver, therefore not simply acting in isolation. Moving forward, the shift away from directing and delegating business practises towards a collaboration of sustainable practises that give back to the community, will strengthen relationships and improve the quality of life.

As I left the evening, I thought of my role within Western Power and how it will contribute towards ethical business practises. It is the responsibility of organisations to make sure they represent the community accurately and ensure their actions and behaviours meet the future generations needs. I aim to be part of this within Western Power through my work in Edge of Grid communities.