Corporate Social Responsibility. An effective way of raising labour or environmental standards?

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,0 (distinction, 77 Punkte), London School of Economics (Department of Management), course: graduate course ID440: "Corporate Social Responsibility and International Labour Standards", language: English, comment: 1.995 words, 61 references. Essay feedback: "Clarity of Arguments: Your overall argument is clear and well-grounded in the literature." "Use of Materials: Excellent use of literature, showing wide reading and a sophisticated understanding of the materials." "Quality of Writing: Excellent." "Referencing: Excellent." "This is a thoughtful, intelligent essay, showing an excellent understanding of the limitations of CSR and the contradictions inherent in its application. Your points regarding the preconditions of effective monitoring are well-founded. Well done!" , abstract: For the non-binding character of private CSR regulation and MNCs' substantial resources to shape employment (for the better or the worse) in their subsidiaries, I argue that a necessary precondition for CSR policies to be effective, that is to raise working standards substantially and sustainably, consists in firms' serious commitment to its enforcement and that firms' level of commitment will be determined mostly by economic imperatives. However, CSR policies will only be sufficient to improve working conditions in combination with their 'embeddedness' in a particular political and institutional context that is conducive to solve technical problems (e.g. regarding monitoring, governance of supply chains) and that enables labor to manipulate potential conflicts of interest between financial and social priorities in favor of of the latter.