Political Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility: Enhancing the Role of the Moral dimension

Abstract

Society is currently facing profound crises which threaten the stability, development, and individuals' well-being. Specifically, health, environmental, and social crises have become topics of great interest among academics and scholars of Governance.  In this transformative environment, companies fulfill a vital role: they need to be responsible to the community by rethinking the maximization of interests. Indeed, businesses should operate by maximizing stakeholder interests and respecting social development. Failure to achieve these priority objectives can have major implications for society.  In achieving these ethical goals, Governance covers a crucial role. However, the debate on Governance and management has focused on purely control and administrative aspects. The present research offers a reinterpretation of Governance through a political lens. By examining Shareholder Theory and Stakeholder Theory, it emerges how in corporate management the political approach is superordinate to the ethical approach. This relationship between politics and ethics is analyzed in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility. Indeed, the research argues that Corporate social Responsibility is political and not ethical fact. The ethical roots of Corporate Social Responsibility can only be rediscovered through the enhancement of the moral dimension of management. In addition to Shareholder theory and Stakeholder Theory, the research explores Easton's model of political systems.