Paper Writing Competition

College Name:
Management Institute for Leadership and Excellence- MILE
(University: University of Pune)

Topic:
CSR- Corporate Social Responsibility or Coercive Social
Responsibility









Team Members:
Gurnoor Kaur Kohli
Shruti Janghu
Abstract:
The world at large has seen a spurt of revolutions coming through its way all along, ranging
from culture based revolutions like the Renaissance to the much awaited Industrial
Revolution. The latter introduced the common man to the concept of various kinds of
activities involved in the creation of a product or a service. But over a period of time, this
Industrial Revolution while making the society very progressive brought some bottlenecks.
Pollution (air, water, soil, noise, etc) being one of the major hindrances. In order to have a
check on these impediments, in the year 1960 the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) was for the first time thought about.
In this paper we have discussed how various organisations after spending all these years in
the system perceive Corporate Social Responsibility, whether these activities are a boon for
the society or a bane for the corporate establishments. Therefore, we have examine whether
the CSR activities are actually taken seriously by the organisations or whether they are just a
facade taken up by the companies to cover up their murky business activities.
The paper also contains the facts pertaining to the topic, i.e., whether it is a Corporate Social
Responsibility or Coercive Social Responsibility, which essentially means whether the
companies are voluntarily carrying out these CSR activities or they are being forced to do so.
The latter part of the paper consists of the research methodology, findings and conclusion of
our entire research. We have based our conclusion on the result of the findings carried out
under the aegis of secondary survey. Here, we realised how certain firms if they are not a
very active participants in carrying out massive advertising campaigns for their brands are the
one who take up CSR activities seriously. Whereas there are certain companies who carry out
CSR activities in such a way that it is nothing less than a promotional campaign.
Therefore, it can easily be interpreted that the definition of CSR is perceived differently by
different organisations.

Introduction:
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a core part of the corporate culture now.
This essentially happened because the Government realised that desperate measures need to
be taken in order to curb the unjust done to the environment by the corporate sector. With a
boom in the pharmaceutical, chemical as well as metallurgy industries in the past two
decades, the condition of the environment was getting worse day after day. That was the time
when the Government intervened and proper CSR guidelines were prepared for all the
companies to be followed without fail. Recently the lower house of our parliament passed a
new Companies Bill that requires companies above a certain size to make sure that they
spend at least 2 percent of annual profits on CSR activities. The upper house passed this bill
after a long wait on 8
th
August. After the assent of the President, the companies which would
fall in this bracket would be the ones having either a net worth of Rs. 500 crore or more or
turnover of Rs. 1000 crore or more or a net profit of Rs. 5 crore or more. This would the first
time in the history that a Government has implemented compulsory CSR spending for a large
number of companies. Ernst & Young, the audit and advisory, has estimated that the law
would cover about 3,000 companies in India and a further expenditure of about $ 2 billion on
CSR activities.
This made the companies wake up and face the harsh reality pertaining to their responsibility
towards the society. Once this was realised there was no looking behind, organisations
volunteered in order to be of some service to the society. This is when the big players in the
industrial sector like- the Tatas, the Birlas, the Mahindras came up and yet again became
the shining examples for the rest of the corporate fraternity in following CSR activities.
For Example-
1. Tata Group- They are considered as the pioneers in the area of CSR. The CSR
initiatives by Tatas are managed by three of their own organisations, namely- Tata
Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), Tata Steel Family Initiatives Foundations
(TSFIF) and the Tribal Culture Society (TCS), with this Tatas aim is to conserve,
sustain and renew the environment to encourage sustainable socio-economic
development of the community as well as to improve the quality of life of the people
living in the areas in which it operates.
2. Aditya Birla Group- Their CSR initiatives are carried out under the guidance of
Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, there main
area of interest being all round development of the communities around their plants.
3. Even in so many housing societies it is mandatory for the builders to reserve a certain
section of the entire construction for the Economical Weaker Section (EWS) of the
society.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in a literal sense refers to a particular companys
responsibility towards the well being of the society, regardless of how small or big the act is.
For example- companies usually go and organise fun events as well as teach kids in
orphanages, cleanliness campaigns are carried out throughout the respective cities, tree
plantation drives are organised, etc. Unfortunately the concept never gained any ground in its
initial stage as it never garnered any importance from the side of the management or the
Government. It was only in the year 1998, when Shell became the first company to adopt
CSR activity officially. Since then CSR has become an integral part of the corporate world as
people working there took cognisance of the fact and started practicing it rigorously.
Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave
ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the
workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large
-Making Good Business Sense by Lord Holmes and Richard Watts
Corporate- It means organised business
Social- It meaning everything dealing with the people
Responsibility- It means accountability between the two
And it is not just India where recently CSR activities have been made mandatory for all the
organisations, there are countries like- Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, France and
Australia. Because one thing we can never forget is that-
We have not inherited our planet from our forefathers but borrowed it from our children
Therefore it becomes the responsibility of every business to engage in CSR activities for the
general good of the society.

Objectives:
The objectives of this paper are:-
To study/analyse the various kinds of CSR activities being carried out by companies.
To understand whether the CSR activities being followed by the companies are done
by force or by sheer concern towards the society.
To analyse the current scenario of the CSR activities in the corporate world.

Literature Review:
Article on Mandatory CSR by Aneel Karnani:-
In this article, the writer has discussed how making CSR activities mandatory for the
corporate entities is a bad idea. He has even quoted the Minister of Corporate Affairs
of India Mr Sachin Pilot, where the Minister says that firms to undertake social
welfare voluntarily instead of imposing that through 'inspector raj' and [to] make India
an attractive and safe investment destination. There is nothing voluntary about this
The writer has started his topic by saying that among organisations it has become a
competition now to outdo each other as far as conducting CSR activities is concerned.
Despite all this the writer has even mentioned the fact that concept of CSR has
garnered publicity from its supports as well as from its critics, in the form of
academics, executives, social activists and NGO officials. Here the writer even talks
about the law and how they have made CSR mandatory for all the organisation. Here
according to the writer has contradicted itself. According to the article making CSR
compulsory and the implicit tax will put India at a competitive disadvantage in the
global marketplace and slow its growth rate.

Talks on CSR by leading entrepreneur honchos:-
In this article the various heads of companies, like Mr N.R. Narayan Murthy, Mr.
N.R. Sheth, Dr. R.K. Dave, etc have given their opinion about CSR activities and
what is their take on it. They have all spoken as per their experience in the corporate
world and how they all think that CSR is indeed a boon for the society. Just like the
great leader and a visionary Mr. Jamshedji Tata once said- give back to the people
what you have earned from them. Moreover for any business enterprise to do well
they have to look beyond business.

But the one thing which we felt was a little bit lacking in Mr. Aneel Krananis article
was that it was too pessimistic as far as taking CSR as an influx of positivity was
concerned. The writer here was not ready to realise that people in India are very
emotional and any activity happening in the society carried out by an organisation
definitely has an empathetic factor attached to it, which influences the employees to a
very great extent.

Research Methodology:
The series of events that is used to gather information and data which is required for making
business decisions is known as Research Methodology. The methodology consists of
surveys, interviews and various other research techniques and could also include both present
and historic information.
Research Methodology is of 2 kinds:-
PRIMARY RESEARCH:-
Primary Research is a new kind of research and generally includes surveys, questionnaires,
etc. It is done to answer some specific questions and issues.
We contacted 3 organisations for the same:-
1. KPMG- Employees were consulted and results generated henceforth.
2. First Source Solutions Limited- Assistant Manager was spoken with and consulted
with.
3. Hewlett Packard- Conducted the process with an employee and result was generated.

SECONDARY RESEARCH:-
Secondary research makes use of information previously researched for other purposes and
publicly available. It includes previously researched reports, articles and journals.
We referred to various magazine articles and reports.

Findings and Analysis:
The conclusion we came up with after conducting the entire research is that there is definitely
a very positive response generated in the corporate world regarding the CSR activities. CSR
activities are done wilfully in order to correct the previous mistakes committed or rectify the
harm done to the environment. The companies have realised the harm done to the
environment by them and also the fact that it is now onus to replenish the environment to its
past glory. Towards the society also, the organisations have gained consciousness and putting
their best foot forward towards the upliftment of the society. Like in the case of KPMG,
which is a tax and audit firm, the company does not believe in unnecessary advertising
strategies therefore, all the CSR activities performed by KPMG by on the basis of sheer
goodwill. The various CSR activities carried out by KPMG are- Organising kids friendly
activities in SOS Village as well as employees going to orphanages to teach children on their
day offs.
Even in Firstsource Solutions Limited, the response we got was the same, that the companies
are going out of their way to carry out CSR activities. Regular charity marathons and sports
events are organised by the employees for everyone. And the money generated out of it is
given to charitable trusts or is donated to orphanages.
Hewlett Packard is also equally active as far as conducting CSR activities is concerned.
Organising fetes for orphanage kids, plantation drives and cleanliness campaigns are a
regular part of the HP way of working. The employees working there are also of the opinion
that in their organisation employees are all the more pro active in organising such events.
With all this one can conclude that more than being labelled as a coercionCSR activities are
indeed treated as a responsibility by most of the organisation and their employees have no
qualms in taking out time from their busy schedules and offer a helping hands towards the
betterment of the society. This is evident from the fact that every organisation

Results and Discussions:
1. KPMG- When we had a word with the employees of KPMG, they were of the view
that for the Company as an entity CSR is a Corporate Social Responsibility but for the
employees on the other hand is a Coercive Social Responsibility. So, here we got a
mixed feedback.
2. First Source Solutions Limited-The Assistant Manager in this organisation revealed
that in their organisation it is volitional. They celebrate the Joy of Giving Week from
2-8 October every year and they also have a tie up with a Non Governmental
Organization (NGO) named Unnati where they go ahead and teach kids there and
organise various kinds of fetes for them.
3. Hewlett Packard-In this organization, the company as well as the people follow CSR
activities wilfully and go ahead and themselves volunteer for the same. They have a
special team of employees who takes care of all these activities. They also celebrate
Joy of Giving Week each year and this year it was extended from 2-8 October to 2-10
October. They also organise various marathons, plantation and cleanliness drives in
their respective cities. They also have a tie up with an NGO where they teach the
special kids out there and conduct various fun events for them.

Conclusion:
On the basis of the entire paper presented above we can easily conclude that even after being
a mandate by the law, CSR activities are carried out rampantly by the organisation and the
employees are the ones who are more than happy to be a part of it. CSR has its share of
cynics sitting out there in the public, who generally have an opinion about everything. But the
above mentioned data has even put stop sign on their mouth. And just for arguments sake
even if we consider that CSR activities have been coercive for the organisations then that is a
misnomer, as for the organisations have always taken the CSR activities seriously and very
sincerely performed them without any kind of hindrance. And if there has been a problem
with following the mandate then it has been from the side of the employees and not the
organisation per se. All the companies and their promoters, who are real philanthropists, will
continue with their charitable work without any compulsion. Notable examples in this regard
include N.R. Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Ratan Tata, to name a few from the Indian
corporate world. Notable names from West include Bill Gates, Warren Buffet to name a few,
who had CSR ingrained in their DNAs and worked for social good without any legal
obligation thrust upon them. The act of compelling voluntariness by the government is
similar to mere shifting of its burden of providing of public goods on to the corporates.
Scope for future work:
The scope of future of CSR activities is very bright, not just in India but all over the world. In
the past two decades only, CSR has been able to gain this much of credibility that every
organisation in the current scenario has a separate committee assigned for carrying out CSR
activities on behalf of the company.
The scope of CSR activities in the future is very wide. As apart from the current activities
being carried out by the companies their area number of other social causes which can be
taken care of by various other organisations. The causes for which the corporate houses have
worked a lot have been pertaining to the development of women and children especially in
the rural areas.
But now since CSR activities are gradually picking up speed, lot of other causes can be taken
care of, for example- small scale industry development, upbringing of the backward sections
of the society, adherence to the traffic rules of the country, etc.
References:
www.csrworld.net
www.forbes.com
www.ssirreview.org
www.witnesslive.in
Interaction with various corporate in the organisations
www.csrtimes.com
Why do companies follow CSR (June 21
st
2013 retrieved from Economic Times)
Books on
1. Corporate Social Responsibility by Sanjiv Agarwal
2. The changing profile of corporate climate change risk by Dr. Marx Trexller