Constructing Ethical Corporate Social Responsibility and Citizenship in Auto-Industry Operations: Why Consumers Deserve the Best

Abstract

This article focuses on the need to accompany contemporary innovation and manufacturing with ethical management, operations and production. The investigation emphasizes operations in the automotive industry through the spectrum of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship. Corporate Citizenship is seen in a new light. In recent years, the profit versus consumer-safety problem has led to injuries and deaths of hundreds of consumers in the automobile industry, some of which are evidently the result of human negligence and abnegation of responsibility often in efforts to reduce overheads and maximize profits. This erosion of corporate social responsibility may not only lead to consumer death, injury or disillusionment but also to company ruination because it sets in motion a downward spiral in consumer confidence, followed by investigations, law-suits, and fines resulting in corporate disarray. The research draws a distinction between CSR and CC to help analyze the auto-industry.