Corporate Social Responsibility and Law

Using the responsibilities and accountabilities of a manager wherein the manager may be an identified individual in a senior management position in a company / organisation, examples might be a manager involved in a corporate scandal, collapse or other crisis – Tony Hayward the CEO of BP at the time of the Gulf Oil Disaster comes to mind, or for some current ideas given what’s in the news at the time of writing this: the managers responsible for the decision to take the production of Nana’s/Creative Gourmet Berry production offshore, firms who have contracted to run offshore detention centres, the members of the Boards of any of the Greyhound Racing governing bodies in the light of recent revelations about live baiting, coaches and management of sporting teams that have been involved in investigations by ASADA….

1. Identify areas in which there is potential for conflict or inconsistency between the Managers legal responsibility or the firms legal responsibility.

2. Analyse the decisions already taken or planned to be taken and based on design thinking skills, design an approach or framework for decision making

It is not necessary to identify every law or regulation that might apply, rather the objective is to Identify the areas where there is potential for conflict or dilemma to arise and to analyse the approach to decision making in respect of affected areas.

Example of affected areas are as below

1. Privacy laws – particularly in the context of big data

2. Employment related issues

3. Activities/laws impacting on the vulnerable – consumer protection, animal protection, child welfare, asylum seekers etc

4. Conflicts of interest (perceived or real) in contracting or procurement