The profit maximization is the classical objective of the commercial organization activities, but, recently, the ethical component of the business conducting has been given more and more attention. The ideas of the necessity of the moral and ethical values and the corporate social responsibility, as the basis of the long – term stability of the economic subjects, are the worldwide tendency. So, the modern business ethics principles are based on the informal social contract between the firm and the society, concerning the common norms of the behavior. The social business responsibility, having implied, that the company is being strove to be satisfied its own needs, its partners’ and the whole society’s needs, as well as to be minimized all the negative consequences of its activities, have already been included, in particular, in the given contract.
Even in the ancient times, the corporatism sense had already been led to the relevant internal norms, rules, and regulations formation, which, in their turn, that were strictly adhered to and, subsequently, they were transformed into the corporate values and the principles, which, necessarily, had to be separated and to be taken by those, who wanted to become the member of the corporate association [2]. Then, in the Middle Ages, such corporate norms, rules, and regulations have been existed in the quite different and various occupational groups: students, artisans, craftsmen, and merchants. So, in Russia, the corporatism ideology has been evidently revealed for the majority of the nobility, and later, at the merchants, entrepreneurs and business class, having combined in the quite different and various, and, consequently, the quite different and various statuses of the guild. The merchants guilds, the artisans and craftsmen shops, along with the technological secrets of their trade, had had the certain «codes of the honor», the work ethics, that were passed down from the father to the son and the violation of which had been led to the exclusion from the shop (e.g. guild).
In the recent decades, the significant cultural impact on the economic activities of the person has, increasingly, been recognized by the economists. This has not been in the mainstream areas of the economic theory. So, the economy has been studied, as the joint activities of the people, as the social reproduction, during which the objective relations are emerged between its participants, that are, primarily, depended on the development level of the production material conditions, in the traditional political economy. The economic entities and the subjects’ behavior have been considered, as due being conditioned to their place and the role in the social production, which is the dominant type of the social and economic appropriation.
Thus, in «the mainstream» of the modern economic theory, having presented by the economics, the presentation on the man is the fundamental idea, as «the homo economicus» – «the economic man», the rational subject, having made the economic decisions on the basis of the individual interest absolutism. But the economic behavior motivation of the subject of the subject, is conditioned due not only his to his personal economic interest, but also the general social and economic conditions, the institutional environment, the spiritual, moral, and cultural his settings of the selected, as the member of the society. «Being motivated, as the purposeful ones, and, having the real choice possibility, the people, at the same time, are, practically, being formed by the surrounding their cultural and institutional environment» [4, 118–119].
The institutional theory is being extended the frameworks of the economic analysis by the effect study of the non – economic factors on the economic processes. The elements of the state and legal system, having insured the specification and the property rights protection, the social norms, the traditions, and the cultural peculiarities have been considered, as these factors. So, the economic organization has been considered, as the social Institute, which is concentrated in itself the certain order, which is given by the individual organizational structure, the existing legislation, and the external Institutes. Some stable regulations and the patterns, which are formed the firm’s culture, and are made its influence on the interpersonal relations, and, subsequently, on the resolved solutions, are being acted inside this system.
At the firm’s culture determination, the researchers have been cited, most often, for the behavior and the value orientation patterns, which are adhered the company’s staff members just in their actions. Having used the terminology, being adopted in the Institutionalism, it can be defined it by us, as the informal rules set (e.g. having not recorded in the laws and the contracts), the semi – formal rules (e.g. having fixed only in the internal documents and the codes), and, partly, the formal rules (e.g. having included in the laws and the contracts), which are reflected the firm’s participations collective presentation (e.g. the principals and the agents, or the agents coalitions) on their interaction, behavior, and the firm’s appearance.
Thus, the following main advantages, having achieved by the firms and companies with their high level cultural development have been identified and then, summarized on the basis of the scientific sources analysis: the company’s stability is being increased, in the case of the external environment deterioration; the transaction costs are being reduced; the economy is being generated on the cost savings management, as the formal structure of the organization is simplified; favorable conditions are being created for the improving of the human capital quality; the sense of belonging and identity with the company is being developed at its workers, which is increased their incentives to the labor activities; the relationships stability of the principals and the agents is being enhanced, as the company’s members, the social partnership is being strengthened; the inconsistency is being eliminated in the actions of the employees, resulting in the greater productivity is increased; the quality of the labor and the products is being increased; the unique look of the company is being created, which is the significant factor in the non – price competition in the markets, the quite serious competitive advantage of the firm. So, the culture has been becoming the quite significant feature and the specific asset of the efficient firm [1].
The modern business ethics [3] is implied the certain entrepreneur’s behavior, at which, to the same extent, the interests are respected of both, as his own company, well as its partners, clients and customers, and society, as a whole. The ethics norms are aimed at the benefits obtaining of the economic agents by the maximum number, while any harm infliction is completely excluded: the violation of the proper rights; the assignment of the classified information (e.g. insiderazation); the misleading advertizing; the freedom infringement of the consumer choice; the commercial espionage. Besides all these ethical considerations, these standards implementation in the Russian business community and the world economy has been explained, due to the fact, that all these enumerated manifestations of the opportunistic behavior, ultimately, will be led to the economy destruction, and, moreover, the risks and the transaction costs will be raised.
According to the classical definition of the European Commission, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – is the concept, that is reflected the voluntary solution of the companies to be participated in the society life improvement and the environmental protection. The companies, having adhered to the framework of its corporate culture of the social responsibility policy, should be aware of their responsibility: to the customers and the partners – for the quality of the provided services and the complete disclosure of the information; towards its employees – for the provision of the favorable working conditions, and, as far as possible, the opportunities for the occupational growth; to the society – for the implementation of the social, charitable, and environmental natural conservation projects.
The globalization process is brought also the Russian companies and firms to the necessity comprehension to be complied and observed the international standards of the corporate governance and the esthetic standards of the modern business conducting. So, the growing ethical requirements and the motives are the core, of the so – called corporate social responsibility ideology. Thus, the business ethics further improvement and the corporate social responsibility expansion are contributed to the negative attitude changing of the public, investors, and consumers to the big business, what is in dire and the Russian companies are needed.
As it has already been noted above, the corporate culture further improvement the economy management under the contemporary conditions is one of the tools to be enhanced the functioning efficiency of the modern company. Thus, the main task of each modern Russian company – is to be found their own culture, to be found its face, and the social responsibility must be become the significant part of the corporate culture of the modern firm. All the members of company’s team should be involved, as much as possible, for the maximum positive effect achievement from the CSR principles introduction in the company’s corporate culture, to the social programs’ further development and their successful implementation.
The work was submitted to International Scientific Conference «Problems of safety, modeling and forecasting of economic processes», Israel, April 25 – May 2, 2014, came to the editorial office оn 05.03.2014.