An Inquiry Into the Ethics of Corporate Social Responsibility: a Case of the Kenyan Banking Industry

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has gained a lot of popularity amongst businesses in recent times. Many businesses today will not make any presentation without highlighting their corporate social responsibility initiatives. While this trend has almost become mandatory amongst the business community, scholars and business practitioners hold divergent views on the exact nature and meaning of the term corporate social responsibility. These opposing opinions create confusion as to whether what businesses claim are their CSR initiatives indeed qualify as CSR activities. It is this controversy that this research explores and seeks to reconcile. Our findings are formulated from a process of literature review, analysis and theoretical arguments, while our illustrative references are drawn from the Kenyan banking industry. The research has identified three main definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility – the Profit Maximization definition, the Stakeholder definition and the Philanthropic definition. Each of these definitions is underpinned on unique ethical issues. We have isolated and evaluated these issues and advanced arguments for and against each. In conclusion, we found that what are today touted as CSR initiatives, particularly those in the Kenyan banking industry, lack the elements of CSR and as such cannot be termed CSR programmes. Further, we established that the character traits of most managers and staff of businesses are in tandem with the attributes of ethical egoism. Such attributes promote the objective of profit maximization. Finally, we were persuaded by the arguments of the Stakeholder Approach and therefore adopted the claim that CSR refers to expectations that various stakeholders have of a business at any given time