Ethical investing is either “the screening out of particular investments that fail to meet certain specified ethical criteria” or “a positive choice of investments that fulfill certain social objectives” (The Corporate Ethics Monitor, Volume 5, Issue 3, page 43). In other words, values-based or ethical investors make personal choices on what criteria they will boycott,
In short, it does not. Because attitudes toward social responsibility evolve and change, as does technology and society, EthicScan relies on a technique called the Modified Delphi Process (MDP) – a democratic expression of opinion by respected panellists that meet every 3-4 years to debate and update the definitions of corporate social responsibility through cycles
Ombudsmen can address internal (staff) or external (client and customer) problems. Internal ombudsmen – the more common of the two – serve two major functions in a corporation: they provide impartial advice to employees with all types of issues and dilemmas and they assist management with cases of legal and ethical violations of codes of
Employee share ownership purchase plans are one type of gainsharing. They exist in many corporations but mainly in larger ones. At every pay date, employees have the option to automatically withdraw a prearranged percentage of their wage in order to buy shares of the company they work for. Most employers cap the percentage the employees
Profit sharing is a type of gainsharing. At the end of each quarter or fiscal year, an employee gets a percentage of the company’s profits based on a number of factors. These factors vary from company to company but some are employee performance, company profits, stock prices, department performance, and the general health of the
An organization that exhibits corporate social responsibility performs so that it is both “directly and indirectly sensitive to the reasonable needs of various sectors in society” (The Corporate Ethics Monitor, Volume 1, Issue 1, page 1). In other words, it is – and is seen to be – responsive to various stakeholders’ needs. Companies that
A minority shareholder is exactly what it sounds like: an individual or organization who holds shares in a corporation but does not control a majority of the votes. In companies that are widely-held (as opposed to majority held companies), no one holds more than a 10% share. The voices of many minority shareholders get lost
Gainsharing is any program in which employees have opportunities to earn money separate from wage compensation. Such programs include profit sharing, employee share ownership purchase plans (ESOP), and stock option plans. Profit sharing is a program that gives employees an established percentage of the company’s profits at the end of a fiscal year. ESOP plans
A stakeholder is an individual or group with a stake in the actions of a corporation. “It has become clear in recent years that the shareholder is no longer the sole or even the primary stakeholder in a corporation. The concept of the shareholder and profit maximization is being replaced by the concept of stakeholders,
Direct childcare and programs that make family care responsibilities easier to achieve come in many different forms in the public institutions and private companies that are taking on the more responsibility for helping their employees with work-family issues. For instance, “some organizations directly subsidize daycare centres or private home daycare placements. Others underwrite the cost