I was giving a lecture on emotional intelligence in the family in a group of mothers at a charity. One of them told me that she beats her daughter if she gets a score below ten (i.e. the perfect grade) in any of the subjects and told me that her daughter is very smart and superior and she does so out of concern for her daughter and her future and because she wants her to maintain her superiority. I praised the mother’s keenness on her daughter and her interest in her and told her I expect your daughter to be psychologically stressed and that love and trust between you is almost non-existent. The mother shook her head in astonishment and told me: How do you know that? Here I began to explain to the mother how treating her daughter in this way would establish in her mind that her value (i.e. the value of the daughter) is equal to the value of the score she takes in the exam – which is not true, of course! – Thus, this child will be frustrated and low self-esteem if her mark decreases, and this will cause her severe stress before each exam, and she gave her several examples of people who failed in their lives despite their academic excellence and their many certificates that can cover an entire wall and explained to the mother how the child’s sense of self-esteem and good relationship with her is more important than the full mark. The mother was very affected by my words and her eyes were teary when she realized the mistake she was committing against her daughter and it was clear from her questions and the short dialogue that took place between us that she is a very intelligent lady, It’s just that she didn’t have the opportunity to learn the correct rules of parenting. After that lecture, I heard many sad stories resulting from ignorance, and I thought to myself that these mothers, who belong to a social segment, do not have the economic means to attend a course in human development, in education and dealing with children, or in dealing with couples. These mothers are more in need of these courses than people who usually attend our courses and are often from a well-to-do social segment who are more aware and less likely to make terrible mistakes in their dealings with themselves and others. If someone were to fund courses in human and family development in that social segment, how much would the state of our society change, how much would family disputes and divorces decrease, and how many people would come out into life psychologically complicated and socially failed because of the poor education to which they were subjected? I want to refer from this story to the concept that I have dedicated this article to talk about, which is the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this concept was born in Western companies about ten years ago, and it means that each company allocates part of its profits to finance projects that benefit the society that embraces this company, especially projects that lead to human building and social development. There is no doubt that the first thing that comes to the mind of a person who hears about this concept is that private companies exist to profit and that they are not charities and that the successful businessman is the one who invests his money in a field that brings him the largest possible profit, This is true, and indeed the concept of corporate social responsibility was created in order to increase corporate profits and is today very popular in Western companies as they compete among themselves in the number of development projects they adopt in their societies.

How does CSR increase its profits?

• Through direct publicity for these companies whose name and brand will be associated with every development project they finance, Propaganda here will be more effective than ordinary propaganda because it will be associated with benefiting people and meeting their needs.
• When development projects are directed at the employees and workers of these companies and their families, it will increase the loyalty and giving of these employees to their companies.
• Educating people and raising their awareness will reduce the problems and tensions that occur in society and in homes due to ignorance and misbehavior, and all this will reflect positively on the lives of employees in those companies in general and on their professional lives in particular. Imagine, for example, the amount of stress and problems in the home of the woman whose story was presented at the beginning and how negatively this will reflect on her husband and his psychological well-being, and consequently on his work and production.
• Companies get their employees and workers from the community, and the higher the cultural level in a society and the greater the awareness thereof, the better the quality of the people that this society exports to those companies and thus their performance.
• Increasing awareness in society in general will lead in the long run to an increase in the productivity of society, i.e. to an improvement in its economic level, which in turn will reflect positively on people’s ability to buy products and services provided by these companies.

In addition to the above, the financing of human development projects contributes directly to the protection of society from drugs and moral problems, and a person working with the United Nations told me that the United Nations today considers human development courses as one of the most important factors in preventing the spread of drugs among young people, and that many countries of the world finance these courses under the heading of drug prevention programs.

Financing human development courses is one of the forms of application of the concept of corporate social responsibility and there are other forms such as environmental protection projects, scholarships for outstanding students, soft loans for small entrepreneurs, etc. The state can encourage private companies to adopt this concept by exempting them from part of the taxes in exchange for spending this part on beneficial social projects.

Finally, In addition to the financial benefit that companies derive from adopting the concept of social responsibility, There is a cultural benefit that the whole society will derive as it will increase in that society the sense of social responsibility among all its members and components, including the State and its institutions, Learning and training in different life skills will be appreciated and will help create the right environment for the advancement and progress of society.

Yasser Al-Aiti