Corporate social responsibility, sometimes referred to as corporate citizenship, is the idea of conducting business in an ethical and socially responsible manner. Commitment to corporate social responsibility requires an organisation to be considerate of its social, economic and environmental influence.A socially responsible organisation maybe involved in activities such as:

CSR has become increasingly important to organizations in order to satisfy the growing demands of employees, customers and government bodies trying to establish whether they reach and qualify acceptable standards of business practices.Companies interested in pursuing corporate social responsibility and in enhancing their social and environmental influence as part of their business have a variety of tools available to them. Tools can vary in terms of purpose, scope, costs, extent of stakeholder liaison, and in several other attributes.

Corporate Social Responsibility Tools

Companies have choice in how they can use these CSR tools. For instance, they can use tools developed by other organizations or attempt to develop their own - either independently or in cooperation with other stakeholders.

CSR tools can be categorized into the following groups:

Corporate Social Responsibility Jobs

Due to the variety of roles in this career area, corporate social responsibility employment opportunities exist within the private, public and non-profit sectors. In the larger private sector organizations, there may be separate CSR departments or functions linked to particular areas including marketing and communications, public relations, investor relations, human resources etc. There are corporate and social responsibility jobs in consulting firms, which advise organizations on being socially responsible and review their business practices with an outsider's view. In the public sector, CSR jobs may exist in government departments and international organizations, focused to regulate businesses. In the non-profit sector, there is a wide range of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and research institutions involved in learning and advocating corporate social responsibility. Such groups support the CSR concepts and their application within private and public sectors.

CSR Skills And Competencies

It is hard to specify what skills or competencies would be required for a CSR job due to the diversity of roles and range of fields involved. However, in 2004, the Department of Trade and Industry in UK (now the Department of Business Innovation and Skills) classified the skills and competencies required into three groups:

They also developed six key competencies for managers involved with CSR in organizations:

CSR Education and Training

Increasingly, business ethics, socially responsible investments, corporate governance etc. are being incorporated into existing business modules, MBA programs and finance and accounting certifications along with a number of postgraduate specialist degrees in CSR. There are independent training providers which provide specialist short courses in the areas of CSR.