The objective of this work is to present a different way to discuss social responsibility as a way for companies' strategic interests. We discuss the roots of what social responsibility is called, assuming a questioning position towards the performance of companies. The starting point used is that companies are generating most of the problems in society and they act together with the State in favor of the maintenance of the status quo. The result of this joint is the existence of mediations of second order - originally contained in the analyses of Marx concerning the alienation of the worker - from social responsibility, with the use of palliative actions that maintain effective order. As an alternative, self-consciencness in critical studies is called for where the mediations of second order would be substituted by the recognition of the current situation.
Critical management studies; Social responsibility; Marxism; State; Society