Evaluating the CSR practices of America’s richest companies

Abstract

Over time, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained popularity, with people accepting the fact that companies have a responsibility to help the community in which they do business. Gone are the days when the sole objective of business was profit maximization. Companies are said to possess stakeholders whose interests they have to understand and try to satisfy. Stakeholder theory is thus closely linked with CSR. An interesting question is how companies are supposed to satisfy these needs. This paper attempted to evaluate the CSR best practices of America’s richest companies of 2010 as determined by Fortune Magazine: Wal-Mart, Chevron and Bank of America. This evaluation was done using a CSR best practices guide obtained from the CSR activities of the top 3 most socially responsible companies of 2010. Content analysis was utilized to explore the CSR reports of these companies, focusing on activities related to 4 key stakeholders, 1) Employees, 2) Customers, 3) Community and 4) Environment. Results of the analysis revealed that Wal-Mart, Chevron and Bank of America performed very well in discharging their responsibilities towards the community and the environment, but did quite poorly towards employees in particular. These companies were advised to focus more on the welfare of their employees, given their vital importance to the success of each company. Companies were also advised to provide customers with forums and mechanisms for feedback and comments. These would provide valuable information to the companies on how to improve their services so as to maintain existing customers and garner new ones.