기업의 사회적 책임과 한국의 기업윤리

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation laid stress on the necessity of 'creative capitalism' that refers to the cooperation of the governments of various countries and non-profit organizations to help the poor in the world. World-widely the movements to establish the systems for human welfare and economy for human-being for better future are observed. In line with this, new forms of corporations that assume non-profit policy are emerging and the existing corporations are attempting renovations and changes, stressing their social responsibilities and business ethics. Furthermore, some of non-profit organizations are performing difficult jobs that the nations and governments don't dare to do. In modern society, social contribution of corporations is assumed to be one of their duties. Especially, ethical management of corporations and their efforts for social contribution play a significant role in enhancing their corporate images and brand values, and help them greatly in getting consumers' reliability. Nowadays, social enterprise is not an isolated experimental concept, but the dominating trend of the world. Business ethics concern the members of corporations who make decisions and promote policies with moral value. These days, their concern, beyond the realm of social contribution, competes about the support of 'good enterprises'. A good enterprise pursues both profit making and social contribution, and so, it can be said to be a new attempt of capitalism to obtain social value on the basis of market force. Good enterprises are called social enterprises or social ventures. Both good enterprises and social welfare organizations provide public service for the underprivileged, but good enterprises are different from social welfare organizations in that they pursue business profits. Good enterprises are also different from civil business corporations in that they reinvest the profit for social welfare. Therefore, they are a third entity that is different social welfare organizations and civil business corporations. In addition, good enterprises perform continuous social contribution, so their contribution is different from temporary contributions or donations of ordinary people. In terms of corporate social responsibilities and business ethics, a lot of corporations still tend to confine social contribution to their temporary donations and employees' volunteer works. So, it would be necessary to estimate precisely how much and what kind of social development is achieved by the social contribution activities of corporations. In this context, it will be important for corporations to make an ethical and strategic approach toward their social contribution from the phase of planning social contribution activities.