SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE MANAUS INDUSTRIAL SECTOR ELECTRO-ELECTRONIC MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Abstract

The increasing level of information and social awareness has been producing changes in the management of companies and impelling them into assuming new commitments which go beyond the market-centered economic order, in which cost minimization and profit primacy are the sole objectives. Within such a vision, society began to increasingly demand the supply of useful information on social and environmental issues from the companies. Such demands have been producing in the organizations the concern of linking their image to the notion of social responsibility as such term has been gaining increasing visibility and popularity, as a contribution towards the transforming action of the entities in benefit of society in which they are inserted. Thus, the transparency of companies’ social actions has allowed the strengthening of their image and credibility vis-à-vis society, the understanding being that their relationship with the community represents a guarantee factor, a financial strategy and an entrepreneurial survival has become fundamental, since no economic unit is capable of remaining without the acceptance by society for much time. With a basis on these assumptions, social responsibility actions, which have been carried out and divulged by the Manaus Industrial Sector companies have been analyzed through a case study involving three industries operating in the electro-electronic sector so as to make possible an understanding of the following questions: What are the types of social responsibility actions which have been executed by the companies under study, in 2002 and 2003? Do these companies make the array of their social-oriented activities public? Do the entities in question follow a standard model as a parameter for the advertising of the social responsibilities? It is expected that the results of this work may contribute towards the formulation and implementation of social responsibility policies.