Why do companies behave irresponsibly? -1

It just dawned on me that instead of sitting in these conferences, always talking over and over again about why CSR is so good and why everyone should do it; it might be better to question first why are companies NOT doing it, since it is good business.

Is it a case that these people are stupid? or bad businessmen? Maybe it is. But also maybe it is much more complicated. I really do not think that the managers of mining companies in China want to kill their workers, but many of them end up hurt. Why?

It seems there are 2 main areas for discussion here: the external framework (that is often location specific) and the internal environment of a company/organisation.

At one event I went to recently, the GM of a state-owned railway company, spoke about the pressures he faces: he says a project will take 4 years, the government says to do it in 2 years! How can you implement a prject sustainably when you have to do it in half the time you expected it to take? The private companies also said that when they bid for a project they expect it to cost a certain amount. Then they are told that if they want the project they will have to do it for 25% less. How can they do that? If they do not accept then they have no business -if they do accept they will have to make some short-cuts to save on costs!

It is no wonder that there are health and safety problems: pressures to use cheaper materials, pressure to do things quicker and take less safety precautions. In this short-term situation it is hard to use the normal CSR lines to convince the company. On one hand there will be extra costs if there are injuries or problems with a bridge collapsing for example, but maybe you can complete the project without any of these problems.. and so the company tries to do this. In this case the solution seems to be about the development of the external framework to be more ameniable for CSR.

Thus, NGOs or government will pressurise the organisation awarding the contract, so make sure that all the companies that bid must meet certain minimum requirements. This means there will be a certain cost that no-one can go below, and the awarding body will have to accept that it cannot continue to force down the cost. Alternatively customers will actually start to care about CSR: so they will choose the best company for the project, not the cheapest. Right now costs is always the most important factor. I believe some companies like Shell take other factors into account to some extent, but when you make billions in profits you can afford some luxuries like this!