It’s an age-old question of loyalty: Are corporations loyal first and foremost to their shareholders or should they have a responsibility to the public? And, is that corporate responsibility to the public necessarily a good thing? 

Google’s famed mantra, “Don’t be evil,” represents a trend in modern business. With this mantra, there’s an implied ideology: corporation success done correctly results in a happier community and, in return, a happier communities mean higher revenues.  

But Google isn’t the only business with this type of thinking. Whole Foods market is popular for its organic food and social consciousness. In fact, because of corporate connections, many business schools across nation have accepted the ideology of corporate social responsibility (CSR), according to University of Virginia Professor of Media Studies, Siva Vaidhyanathan who argued against CSR at the panel, “Be Evil: Does Corporate Responsibility Matter?”

Vaidhyanathan argued that corporate social responsibility might actually be harmful for the public in the long term because it creates a sort of a false dependency. To corroborate his claim, he made three main points: 

1. CSR is often shallow and creates “feel good consumerism;”
2. CSR is anti-political, as to say it dampens public interaction in politics; and
3. CSR creates a conflation of public and market and creates confusion as to what our needs are as oppose to our desires

In a larger context of the argument, Vaidhyanathan says that CSR allows for acceptance of “public failure” or the public tolerance of government inaction. 

“Barnes and Nobles opens late because public libraries close earlier,” said Vaidhyanathan. And vice-a-versa the public has become lax about government funding cuts of public programs because there’s a dependence growing on corporations to take charge. But as one audience member pointed out during Q&A, “What happens when businesses don’t feel like helping out anymore?” 

There are two important points to take away said Vaidhyanathan: a political discussion must be had to address important social issues and the government responsibility and a balance must be created between corporate and government social responsibility.  

“The question is do we have the right level of government intervention to get what we want?” said Vaidhyanathan in an interview after the panel. “We want the dollar tacos but don’t want to get sick.”

 

Contact Reporter Jacob Chung here.