Industrial Social Work to Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

The transformation from industrial social work to corporate social responsibility points out a definite shift in the realm of social work vis-à-vis goal, objective and priorities of business. Over the past several decades social workers around the world have successfully been able to integrate with the modern production and business processes, particularly in addressing the emergent needs of the industrial population like those arising out of the psychosocial impact of workforce alienation, over-specialization, competitiveness, and stress and fatigue on their life. Over all these years, as there has been a major transformation in defining human beings in the context of business from human resource to human capital, the corporate has also been restructuring its role in revitalizing its human resources alongside taking care of the vast external stakeholders (customers) through its new slogan of 'corporate social responsibility'. But this new configuration lends itself to the process of self-examination and the litmus test remains: Is corporate social responsibility a new area structured to delineate the corporate's idea of greater variety of social services for humankind; or just one more catchphrase used to establish the fact that business houses are doing 'a lot more' than mere expansion of industrial social work; or has there been a change in the principal objective and priority of the corporate at the back of starting these programmes-from curbing loss to 'just making profit'?

A Business Paradigm for Corporate Shubh–Labh: An Inquest Study

“…Dharma -oriented tasks lead us to the concept of loksangraha , that is, welfare of all and represent the socialistic approach. Nowadays we are seeing this in the corporate as “corporate social responsibility” (Sarkar, 2008). Artha means wealth or the material resources (Bakshi, 2014).…”

Sustainability policies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

“…What characterizes CSR is its clear top-down application. Codes of ethics are often formulated without the participation of workers, the recipients of such improvements, in the process and, usually, only the corporation's economic interest is hence prioritized (Healey, Isles 2002;Barrientos, Smith, 2007;Sarkar, 2008). Among the authors discussing this aspect, Béthoux et al (2007) perceive that the principles of decent work are only marginally present in all the codes of conduct.…”

O trabalho para a sustentabilidade: alinhando a estratégia com a operação através de tarefas sustentáveis.

“…Este, antes da disseminação do conceito de sustentabilidade corporativa era a maneira como as organizações tratavam da questão da responsabilidade social, sem provocar mudanças estruturais. Uma das principais razões para o fracasso do Industrial Social Work foi falta da agregação de valor ("lucro") para as corporações (SARKAR, 2008).…”

“…Esse problema foi resolvido com a introdução do CSR, utilizado pelas empresas como uma estratégia corporativa para ganhar reputação, reduzir as pressões de organizações da sociedade civil e conter as barreiras aos novos entrantes em um mercado mundial em desenvolvimento (SARKAR, 2008). Essa evolução teve como resultado uma mudança do trabalho desse tipo de trabalhador (SARKAR, 2008).…”

“…Essa evolução teve como resultado uma mudança do trabalho desse tipo de trabalhador (SARKAR, 2008). Hoje o assistente social pode ter ainda um papel importante, sendo questionável o envolvimento deles em políticas de sustentabilidade corporativa (BOEHM, 2009).…”