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| A doTERRA employee holds a girl she met through the company's CSR program |
[Historical Component]
- Romantic Era Empathy
During the Romantic Era, a theme that emerged was increased empathy. In reaction to the empiricism of the Enlightenment, a shift was made from hard-cut systems and skepticism to an emphasis on feelings, compassion, and identification with the plight of others. Moreover, during the Romantic Era society became more concerned with looking after more vulnerable groups rather than just the elite few. In many ways, the Romantic Era’s push for empathy is mirrored as Millennials and Generation Z-ers demand that their workplace goes beyond their normal business to helps vulnerable groups. Just as in the Romantic Era, individuals are expecting the businesses they work for to consider the plight of others and then use the profits and resources they have to help those individuals in the form of CSR programs. - I don't have any solid sources for this yet, so I would appreciate suggestions. I'd love opinions: Is this theme even worth talking about for my topic? If I don't include this, I might include something on the study of social science during the Industrial Era.
- Industrial Era’s Push for Workers’ Rights During the Industrial Era, workers’ unions began to emerge. These unions demanded that their employers respect the rights of employees in ways such as giving them fair wages and ensuring safety on the job. Similarly, today, individuals are starting to expect more from their places of work. It is not enough for their company to simply donate to kids in Africa; their company also has to pay men and women equally, incorporate diversity into the workplace, and so on.
- I'd love to refer to the Newsboy strike of 1899 here to show the way individuals have demanded rights in the workplace before. This is likely where I'll bring in a contemporary source such as one I found on the history of Newsies from the New York Historical Society (http://historydetectives.nyhistory.org/2012/07/blast-from-the-past-newsboy-strike-of-1899/).
- Enlightenment Study of Inequality
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French Enlightenment thinker, pondered the nature of inequality Discourse on Inequality. In considering the origin of inequality, Rousseau imagines a state of nature before society where men have limited needs and are largely equal. However, humans soon abandon their simple and pleasant ways as they specialize, creating a society where individuals are highly unequal. In many ways, many CSR reflects these thoughts of Rousseau. First, specialization is largely what makes businesses today successful, which gives them the resources to help others in big ways. Second, the study of inequality is crucial to many CSR programs. Most, if not all, CSR programs attack inequality in some way, requiring companies to have a better knowledge of where inequality comes from and the more effective ways to raise those in poverty. Or, put differently, if there was no inequality, there would be no need for CSR programs. - Source I'll use: Jean Jacques Rousseau, “On the Origin of Inequality among Men” (1755).
- I'd also like to bring in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in somehow and bring in how capitalism can both make the world better off and create a lot of disparity.
- Oratory
CSR is media-centric. Much of the advocacy and publicity for these programs is conducted through social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. Much like the popular press of 18th century Europe, journalism and social media are used for the individuals to call for businesses to be more involved in social issues. As millennials and Generation Z-ers call for more virtuous organizations, they often invoke deliberative oratory, which is communication for or against future action. In this case, individuals use deliberative oratory to persuade that business should be for the good of society. - Audience
Without communicating the impact that they are having, companies’ CSR programs do little do for themselves. So, companies today are learning how to storytell their impact effectively as they consider the audience that they are speaking to. This is crucial because each audience requires different media mediums and rhetorical skills in order to grasp the story the company wants to tell well. For example, if the primary intended audience is potential donors, a company may want to us more flowery language and pictures than if they audience is their employees who want to know what impact the company is making. - Ethos Companies’ CSR programs are crucial in increasing the ethos of the company. Give-back programs increase the evident character of a company in making the company more compassionate, trustworthy, and ethical. For example, Cotopaxi proudly gives 1% of all its profits to its foundation, which in turn uses those profits to alleviate poverty in especially vulnerable places of the world. As a Cotopaxi customer, I feel more inclined to chose them over similar companies because they come off as incredibly concerned for others and like the type of company that does what they say they will do. Thus, although Cotopaxi is giving up millions of dollars to this foundation, they are likely better off because of the increased business that comes from individuals that are attracted to the company’s character.
- Persuasion in my Claim
I will be arguing that though it good to have CSR programs, it is inadequate if the core business is not addressing more basic issues such as sustainability or diversity of employees. A rhetorical aspect will be brought in as I use persuasion to make this point.
- Story about visiting Mexico When I was 10 or 11, I went to Mexico for the first time. One afternoon, my dad--a highly determined mango-addict--took my family from the heavily tourist-populated area of Mexico where we were staying to an area several miles away, all in quest for good mangos. What I saw there dazed me. I had never seen such living conditions in my life: the houses were small and falling apart, the streets were lined with garbage, but what shocked me the most was how desperate the people seemed to get us to buy the trinkets they offered us. As a Utah born-and-raised kid, I had no idea that such inequality could exist. This experience, along with several others throughout my life, has helped me see the need for those with power--such as profitable businesses--to help alleviate problems such as poverty.
- Working at Rising Star I have been able to work at the nonprofit Rising Star Outreach this summer. This nonprofit is an amazing organization that supports health, education, and the community for those affected by leprosy. In working with this nonprofit, I’ve seen how difficult it is for these kind of organizations to get funding to do work that seriously needs to be done. I’ve also seen the power that businesses can have when they donate profits or time to help those affected by leprosy in India.
- Working at Virtue Labs
This past year I have worked for individuals at BYU who are creating classes, books, conferences, and a business supporting this idea of making business more virtuous. We have conducted a lot of research to support the notion that CSR programs are not enough; businesses need to be good by simply existing. The product mix should have positive effects on the world, the company should minimize its carbon footprint, the employees should feel valued, and so on. This has led me to want to make this kind of work my future career.
I think it would be really cool to include something from both Adam Smith and Karl Marx. I think ideally, both the ideology of both their systems could work, but specifically in regard to your section on inequality and the persuasive rhetorical sections.
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