ABSTRACT
S. Waddock indicates that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the ‘subset of corporate responsibilities that deals with a company’s voluntary and discretionary relationships with its societal and community stakeholders’. W. C. Frederick suggests that the history of CSR can be divided into four phases: CSR 1, CSR 2, CSR 3 and CSR 4. Responsiveness also came to mean stakeholder engagement and management with the main stakeholder being the shareholder. As J. Burchell and J. Cook state, the business discourse of CSR ‘appears to complement the structural setting, which arguably includes governments seeking to withdraw from certain areas of social provision’. The business discourse on CSR has been more successful because business has been able to frame its programme in a way that has had more appeal to policy-makers and citizens. The new eco-social paradigm points to environmental destruction, widespread poverty and unacceptable employment conditions.
