Corporate Social Responsibility in Mitsubishi Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility in Mitsubishi - Essay Example However, Kotler and Lee (2004) defined CSR as the â€Å"commitment to improve community well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of the corporate resources† (Kotler &Lee, 2004, p.3). In any case, the importance of CSR was established in the corporate world only at the beginning of the twenty first century. Big companies realized that profit making is no more an easy task, if they fail to contribute something to the community in which it operates. Some companies have good track record of exhibiting their social responsibility whereas some other companies are still neglect the needs of the community in which they operate. Mitsubishi Company is a reputed Japanese company as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. â€Å"The origin of Mitsubishi goes back to 1870, when the founder, Yataro Iwasaki, started a shipping firm with three aging steamships† (Mitsubishi: Origin, 2010). After Second World War, the original Mitsubishi Company d isbanded to become separate independent companies as we witness today. The growth of Mitsubishi Company was along the growth of Japan. Whenever, Japanese economy faced troubles, Mitsubishi Organization also faced problems and vice versa. Mitsubishi selected London for opening its first international office in 1915 because of Japan’s better relationships with Britain at that time (Rudlin, 2000, p.8). Since then Mitsubishi opened many international offices at different parts of the world. â€Å"Mitsubishi International Corporation (MIC) conducts business in accordance with the three Corporate Principles established by its parent, Mitsubishi Corporation: corporate responsibility to society, integrity and fairness, and international understanding through trade†(Mitsubishi international corporation: Corporate Social responsibility, n. d). Even though, Mitsubishi is contributing heavily to the communities in which it operates, there are certain allegations also against them. This paper briefly analyses the case in favor and against Mitsubishi Company as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. The case against Mitsubishi Robert Guest, British free-lance writer based in Hiroshima who contributes business and other articles to The Far Eastern Economic Review and The Independent, has mentioned that an Indian Worker Sue against Mitsubishi citing racial discriminations. The plaintiff alleged that â€Å"whereas Japanese employees at Mitsubishi are given English-language lessons at company expense, and Caucasian staff are provided with the best Japanese-language teaching available, he has been given no assistance whatsoever in his efforts to learn the Japanese language†(Guest, n. d). Racial discrimination is one of the major problems existing in the premises of most of the international companies. Globalization has brought many opportunities to the corporate companies to for international businesses; however, most of the companies like Mits ubishi, try to give more preferences to their local workers even while operating in overseas countries. Such business practices will always cause severe problems to a company if it decides to operate internationally. On 9 April 1996, the US Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in Illinois against Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc which claimed that over 300