Levi's: Corporate Social Responsibility

Essay by satyriconUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, February 2008

download word file, 15 pages 4.0

1.0IntroductionAs recently as a decade ago, many companies viewed business ethics only in terms of compliance with legal standards and adherence to internal rules and regulations. Driven by a range of new challenges and opportunities, the field of business ethics is fast breaking out of that compliance-based silo. Beyond legal compliance and government regulations, consumer, shareholder and stakeholder expectations also compel companies to address ethics effectively.

This paper sets out to investigate Levi's Strauss's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through its citizenship program, management, actions and commitments to determine the task of balancing bottom line concerns with social responsibility.

In addition, Levi's duty as a conglomerate has the responsibility alike other Multi-National Companies, to operate as a socially responsible entity due to the aspects of ethics and social responsibility becoming major concerns in the global economy.

2.0Findings2.1Globalization - The Rise of Multinational CompaniesThe economy of the past has a few basic rules to sustain prosperity;•Effective standards of corporate governance to ensure that managers and the controlling shareholders to do the right thing by other investors;•A high degree of corporate transparency and adequate external auditing;•Efficient stock exchanges;•Legal frameworks that are efficient and transparent, with judicial systems to enforce the rules credibly and without favor;•A clear distinction between regulators and the regulated;•Banking systems that are independent, transparent, and competitive; and•A well-resourced, inquisitive, and independent media.

(Backman, 1999)But the economy in the 21st century, powered by the liberalization of world trade, privatization, breakthroughs in information technology and reduced transportation costs, the number of multinational corporations (MNC) has increased from 37,000 in 1990 to more than 60,000 in 2006 (Perdersen and Huniche, 2006).

Globalization can stimulate economic, social, and environmental growth in developing countries through industry development, job creation, technology transfer etc (Deresky, 2002). But on the other hand, globalization makes it difficult for governmental...