Responsibility of corporations: An assessment in the light of social policy and social responsibility concepts

Responsibility of companies interests both social policy science and business management science. Companies form up just one of the subjects of social policy whereas they constitute the centrum of business management science. But, with the emerging of stakeholder concept, two sciences came closer to each other.In this study, contents for the concepts of social policy and companies? social responsibilities are handled in a way to compare one with the other. In the first part headed as ?Social Policy as the Source of Responsibility?; concepts like social, social problem, social isolation, morale, social policy, social protection, social state and social world have been remarked in order to provide this comparison. Then, history of social policy, its tools and its content (stakeholders) are handled.In the second part headed as ?Social Responsibility as the Source of Responsibility?; companies, ethics, responsibility are examined as the basic concepts related with social responsibility. later on, history of social responsibility, stakeholders, models for social responsibility, its types and tools are evaluated. The third part named as ?Standards ( Documents) Related With Social Policy and Social Responsibility? deals with the studies of some international institutions which form up the content of companies? responsibilities. These studies cover the documents that are accepted by United Nations, International Labor Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Council of Europe, World Trade Organization, European Union and some international non-governmental organizaitons.In the fourth part of the study; legal regulations upon strategical and philanthropic social responsibility are explained under the heading of ?Opportunites Presented by Turkish Social Law Regulation Related With Social Responsibility?. We see that there are judgements for the disabled, young, female workers and researchers in our legislation which protect them and foster their employment. Making use of these judgements brings benefits to the employer. On the other hand, some activities of Development Agencies and Employment Agency (İşkur) enable the employers to undertake strategical social responsiblity.Protection of the poor people, children in need of preservation, young people, women, old people, disabled people and other individuals ,which form up the subject of philanthropic social responsibility, are under the obligation of the state. This responsiblity which is belonging to the Social State is shared by private sector. This sharing can be realized by the way that companies commit via their own foundations, non-governmental organizations or directly while getting in touch with offical institutions that provide social help and service.Concepts of social policy and companies social responsibility are clarified in this thesis. After explaining the international and national legislation which form up its context, a qualitative research covering two companies has been executed in the last (fifth) part. In this research, social responsibility perception and applications of both companies have been examined.