Responsibility of Business towards Different Interest Groups

A business's social responsibility is best understood concretely, in terms of its obligations towards each of the different groups whose interests it affects:

Towards shareholders/owners: to ensure a fair and reasonable return on their investment, to safeguard their capital through prudent and honest management, and to provide them timely, accurate and transparent information about the business's affairs.

Towards employees: to pay fair and timely wages, to provide safe and healthy working conditions, to offer opportunities for training and career growth, to respect workers' right to organise, and to treat all employees without discrimination.

Towards consumers: to supply goods and services of the quality, quantity and price advertised, to avoid unfair trade practices such as adulteration, black-marketing, hoarding and misleading advertising, and to provide an accessible mechanism for handling consumer complaints.

Towards the government: to comply honestly with all applicable laws — payment of taxes, labour laws, environmental regulations, company law — and not to seek to influence government policy through improper means.

Towards the community/society: to be a good corporate citizen by supporting community welfare (education, healthcare, sanitation, disaster relief), by creating employment opportunities, and by not engaging in activities that harm the wider public interest. …