The Aims Of Corporate Social Responsibility Commerce Essay

The Aims Of Corporate Social Responsibility Commerce Essay In 1960s, people were more concern about ethics in business and feel that company should respond in environment and social more than before. At that time, the aim of company was only maximize profit for investors. As a consequence, a new principle about more responsibility in running business was established. Business ethics are the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of business people. Kim Y. lecture (2009) The most common issues engage employee, human right and environmental regulations. After that, it was developed to Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR in 1970s. The entirety of CSR can be discerned into the three words contained within its phrase: corporate, social, and responsibility. Therefore, in broad terms, CSR covers the responsibilities corporations have to the societies within which they are based and operate. The University of Maimi (2009) The word corporate means a company that run an activities in order to gain the profit from an investment. Social means a group of people more than 15 people who have relationship or the same goal. The most important word is responsibility which means acceptance both of good and bad effect that occur by the company including the responding to prevent and correct the effect. The real definition of CSR has still discussed although there is considerable common between all of definitions. There are the different definitions. The social responsibility of the firm is to increase its profits. Friedman (1970) The social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time. Carroll (1979) In the Commissions policy Communication, CSR was defined as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. It is essentially to prepare to take to the lead and show the board and stakeholders voluntarily that they take CSR seriously. CSR is a win-win situation that companies increase their profitability and society benefits at the same time. The EUs Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs aims to build a business-friendly environment, so EU CSR policy is consequently compatible with this. Europa press releases (2009) The early CSR models represented by Sethi had three tiers for classifying corporate behavior which he labeled corporate social performance. First level is a social obligation which base on responding to legal and market constraints. Next level is social responsibility which is addressing societal norms, values and expectations of performance. The last level is social responsiveness which base on anticipatory and preventive adaptation to social needs. Sethi, S.P. (1975) Building on the former model, Carroll presented his CSR model as a pyramid that had four classes (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) in 1991. Carroll, A.B. (1979) The first class is economic responsibilities. It is a normal objective of company that is being profit. The next step after being profit is legal responsibilities. Law or rule controls the activities of the company. If the company does not obey the law, it might be charged or has to pay penalty fee or tax. These two steps are common in the business. Ethical responsibilities are the next level. The company can choose to do what is right and fair and avoid harm. For example, a company decides to donate some of profit to poor children. The highest level is philanthropic responsibilities which is a voluntary action no rule or no force to command. In 1980s, a new concept of CSR, stakeholder theory, was raised by Freeman. In the traditional view of the company, the shareholders or the owners of the firm get the most importance priority to achieve their need. In this model, the company converts the input of investors, suppliers and employees into salable outputs which customers buy in order to gain returning some capital benefit to the company. By this model, the companies only take in hand the needs of those four parties (investors or shareholders, suppliers, employees and customers). However, stakeholder theory argues that there are more other parties involved such as governmental agents, competitors and civil society. All of stakeholders get effect and take influence by the company. The stakeholder theory like a combination of traditional company and CSR which balances a maximize profit of investors and social responsibility in order to achieve business sustainability. Classifying by business process, there are two steps: CSR in process and CSR after process. Campaigns of reducing emissions or reducing the carbon footprint in production are examples of CSR in process which is not only following CSR campaign but also cost reduction. Other well known campaigns are mostly CSR after process. Europa press releases (2009) According to Wettsteins article about Beyond Voluntariness, Beyond CSR: Making a Case for Human Rights and Justice, CSR is a normative perception dealing with what corporations should do and how they ought to act. It is an inherently moral in nature. It is more than mere compliance with given laws and regulations. So it must automatically be voluntary, not be mandated by laws. WETTSTEIN F. (2009) There are many debates on CSR which is focus on recording of donating a share of their profits to charity by corporation. The core of CSR used to be seen as philanthropic responsibilities, so companies try to represent their social responsibility by increasing donating share of their profits to social. CSR was seen as external force in running a business. It was not a basis for legitimate business conduct but it was an equipment to give something back to the society that was neither commanded nor expected, but rather merely appreciated. Werrstein F. (2009) The examples of CSR Company There are a lot of companies that adopt CSR in their strategy and also a lot of ways to integrate CSR into the company both in process and after process such as donation, producing green products, improvement of human resource and protection an environment. The examples of CSR companies help to understand the step in the global strategic planning process. The first example is fashion field firm. In report about How ethical is your fashion?, Jane Shepherdson, who became chief executive of the Whistles womenswear chain, give her view that we need to be tempted into buying beautiful, ethical, sustainable clothes BBC News website (2008) In report about Primark fires child worker firms, there is more concern about CSR in fashion industry. For example, Nike has responded to consumer concerns about ethical standards by publishing details of all suppliers. Primark, the UK clothing firm on high street, has fired three Indian suppliers due to using child labors to make goods. The sub-contracted suppliers of Primark used child labor to carry out embroidery and sequin work. BBC News website (2008) The next example is in the pharmaceutical field. In 1987, Merck, the second-largest pharmaceutical company in the world and a global leader in consumer products and animal care, lunched the Merck MECTIZAN ® Donation Program (MDP) which is the largest on-going medical donation program. The MDP provides MECTIZAN for the treatment of river blindness in endemic countries. Since 1987, the MDP has approved more than 530 million treatments of MECTIZAN. With only one annual dose, MECTIZAN is well suited for distribution in isolated areas and the only well-tolerated drug known to halt the development of a disease. The company hoped that transmission of river blindness will be interrupted and the disease will be virtually eliminated by the continued use of MECTIZAN. Merck (2006) Marks Spencer (MS) is one of the UKs leading retailers of clothing, food and general merchandise such as womens clothing, menswear, lingerie, beauty and home. The founders of MS believed that building good relationships with employees, suppliers and wider society was the best guarantee of long-term success so they implement CSR in all business unit that have own CSR strategy. Their CSR strategies based around the brand value of trust and balanced with customer needs and all stakeholder expectations and are grouped into three areas which are people products and community. In 2004, MS launched The Marks Start community program focusing in preparing people ready for work. Target groups are the young unemployed, disabled people, parents returning to work and school students. The program provided individuals a taste of life in a working atmosphere and the confidence and ability to achieve employment. MS allocate their employees as a buddy. The program has improved staff morale and contr ibuted to make MS as a great place to work and they felt that they had increased their skills. The philosophy of MS is helping others to help themselves so MS provide knowledge and experience in order to let them stay in the world buy themselves. Article 13 (2005) In 2008, Exxon Mobil Corporation, the U.S.-based energy giant, provided a combined $189.1 million in cash, goods and services worldwide. Rex W. Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil, said that the goal of our Corporate Citizenship Report in 2008 is to detail our performance and commitment in our most significant citizenship areas: corporate governance, safety and health, environmental performance, managing climate change risks, economic development, and human rights and security. The company pays attention to many social responsibilities such as education, environment, health, womens economic opportunity initiative and worldwide giving. Exxon Mobil received Malaria Award from Global Business Coalition in 2008. Malaria is one of the successful projects. It has fight with Malaria in Africa where the firm operates for more than eight years. The company recognized through their employees in Africa what an impact of malaria on their lives and the economic development. So Exxon Mobil decided to fight against malaria through the companys Africa Health Initiative. Exxon Mobils website (2008) Last but not least, Nestlà © UK has provided assistance to improve farmers livelihoods through productivity and quality improvements including setting up an eco-friendly, post-harvest treatment. Nestlà © is currently helping over 3,500 of the poorest coffee farmers in El Salvador and Ethiopia where has benefited of fair premium prices in trade for high quality Arabica coffee beans. The Partners Blend project helps farmers grow higher quality coffee, develop communities, increase yield and achieve a higher standard of life. With this program, Nestlà © applies sustainable approach to particularly poor producing communities in those areas. After successful in the UK, Ireland and Sweden have followed up that will be launching fair-trade certified coffee products. A long term commitment of Nestlà © is developing sustainable agricultural practices in order to help relieve hardship and poverty for poor farmers. Supporting their farmers also helps Nestlà © to assure continuous supply hi gh quality of coffee beans. This program increases a good reputation and brand of Nestlà © in social responsibility area. Nestlà © (2006) The impact of CSR in the business In tracking the impact of CSR by Jeffrey Marshall, Geoffrey Heal, Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility and professor of economics and finance at Columbia University, was interviewed about impact of CSR. According to the interview, companies are for-profit entities but there is a change going on in terms of the pressures that society puts on businesses to address social and environmental issues. He gave example of companies that pay attention to society and environment. He noted about green company that there are two issues going on this topic. In the one side, customers are willing to pay more if they can buy green product which is likely another factor quality of product. At the same time, the firms are able to increase product price due to insensitive price customer in green products. An argument about short term of financial position of CSR companies was issued in the downturn economic. However, the companies recognize that CSR is long term investment in the brand and reputation. The recruitment is a bunch of different issues. This issue was raised by Mark Tercek, senior executives of Goldman Sachs. It is increasingly critical in recruitment and retention to have a really positive social and environmental profile. New hires concern not just salary or the status of the firm but they want to work for the company that makes them proud to be in that company. CSR is a factor that encourages new hires to work with that company. Jeffrey M (2008) In 2000, the trend of CSR boomed. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentHYPERLINK http://www.oecd.org/ releases guidelines for multinational enterprises. The richest countries in the world launched the rule for their member of blocking company that does not adopt CSR. So without CSR program, lots of traditional company cannot trade with companies in OECD. OECD (2009) Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) or green investment in the past is a new impact from CSR to investment. Ethical Investment means avoiding invest in bad things such as cigarette, alcohol drinks or weapons. There have investment funds which invest only in CSR companies. It is clear that CSR is one way of non tariff discriminations in the modern world. It does not stick as a law but it effect doing business in international environment. The consequences of adopting CSR Learning about the consequences of CSR help to understand the purpose of mission of CSR. What should they do? what have they done? There are many arguments about the consequences of concerning of Corporate Social Responsibility. In this part of report, the advantages or benefits and disadvantages or risk of adopting CSR are discussed. Philip Kotler, Marketing Guru, gave an opinion about benefits of CSR. He mentioned that the first benefit is increasing sale volume and market share. He noted that it is not directly relate between CSR and profit. But CSR provides more opportunity for company that concern about CSR. Philip K. 2005 At lease, Working with CSR is better than does not. Reduction on cost of goods sold is another benefit. In the business process, if the firm can drive out more quality of employees or cut out some substances from processes that means reduce cost of process as well. Philip K. 2005 There is often a direct benefit to profitability. CSR is not only for external society but also internal responsibility. If the companies pay attention to their employees such as training , environment in work place and work-life balance, this increase satisfaction and loyalty from their employments. This also helps productivity and product quality. Europa press releases (2009) However, Public relationship which is the way that companies communicate with public and marketing are the next issue. If the companies present their CSR news, it encourages and sparks correspondents and investors to pay attention in the company. Philip K. 2005 Moreover, an advantage of company image, brand and reputation is another advantage of CSR. Europa press releases (2009) The benefit is brand positioning and reputation. Philip K. 2005 In Philips perspective, CSR is a challenge of the company. It is not easy or too difficult to achieve CSR. He recommended three step of developing CSR. First is choosing the suitable topic and then pick the popular or innovation way. Last step is implementing and present the success. Finally, evaluation is important to be a lesson in the future. Philip K. 2005 In Business green website, it raises the issue that green consumer spending defies the downturn. In this difficult economic climate, consumer spending generally drops. But a major report shows that green market products and services grow by a recession-busting five percent or  £6.4 billion in value. According to the report by Guardian newspaper, customer expenditure rose on a various range of green products and services such as green energy tariffs, energy-efficient appliances and small-scale renewable energy projects. However, it noted that while the green market has defied expectations and continued to grow steadily in recent years, this sector still accounts for less than one per cent of total consumer expending. Cath E. (2009) Even though, this is an economic downturn or economic crisis but CSR remains a priority for the companies being part of long-term strategy. Although, in this situation, the companies might be pressure to reduce their CSR projects. As the same time, in short-term strategy, the board should advocate that companies especially in financial department pay more attention on ethics and social needs. Overall, thoughtfulness of short-term social needs and long-term strategy should persuade companies to keep to their CSR strategies through this downturn time. Europa press releases (2009) Many of the global problems we are facing today cannot be solved by any single actor alone anymore. They require joint action of a variety of actors and sectors, all with a genuine interest in truly global solutions. Multinational corporations must offer their support where their expertise is key for improving the global human rights situation. New forms of governance such as public policy networks or other forms of public-private partnerships have become increasingly effective in addressing complex global problems. WETTSTEIN F. (2009) Conclusion From the past, the traditional view of the role of the company is only maximizing their profit for investors. If the company avoids destroying environment or hiring child labor, it only causes by the law. In the new view of the role of the company or CSR program, the company concerns more in their employees, human rights, environment and corruption. CSR is not rule; the companies do not have to follow but them willing to do the good thing to society and respond for the effect of their actions. As can be seem in examples, there are more and more companies that adopt CSR in their strategy. The biggest advantages of being with CSR are reputation and reduce cost of goods sold. There also are a lot of issues around CSR and CSI that should be research in detail for impact of concerning on social.

Toyota: a Glimpse of Leadership, Organizational Leadership, and Organizational Structure

Toyota: A Glimpse of Leadership, Organizational Behavior, and Organizational Structure Courtney Berry Organizational behavior is the study of application of individuals’ behaviors within structured groups within an organization (Robbins & Judge, 2007). The field of study identifies behaviors within specific groups and individuals in organizations and how the structures of organizations play a role in behaviors (Robbins & Judge, 2007). In the past several months, the leading company in the car industry has been experiencing a quality control and consumer product safety issue. Toyota is not only encountering a quality control issue but also a senior management crisis issue. The corporate leadership team of Toyota did not recognize the importance of addressing the consumer safety issue with the sticking accelerator and not to mention the huge public relations blunder that came with it. Does this failure to address a quality control issue and a real senior management public relations issue have anything to do with Toyota’s leadership, organizational behavior, and organizational structure? Leadership, organizational behavior, and organization structure Toyota’s thought on leadership is to empower employees and develop their people. If the employee has not learned a specific task, the leader has not done a good job (Womack & Shook, 2007). Plan, Do, Check, and Action (PDCA) Cycle is something that Toyota implements (Womack & Shook, 2007). This cycle engages employees to question products and processes and implement new action. Senior leadership is also expected to perform this. In fact, senior leadership regularly makes visits to the plant floors to engage with people and help with processes. This type of leadership employs mutual adjustment and interaction from both the employees and leadership. Leadership has much to do with behaviors within an organization. Organizational behavior looks at behaviors on an individual, group, and organizational level and how the levels are interelated. According to Henry Mintzberg, organizational behaviors can be grouped into three primary categories: interpersonal, informational, and decisional (Robbins & Judge, 2003). These behaviors are found at the managerial role but play an mportant and predictive role at determining the behaviors of an organization and its structure. When Toyota led the way in the car industry the organization was firing on all cylinders in their organizational behavior. At the individual level, job satisfaction empowers the employees to make decisions on the line and create effcient processes that lead to high production. At the group level, communication and decisions are made across multiple teams and employees to engineer the highest level of product leadership (Womack & Shook, 2007). The organizational level mirrors the individual and group level that creates a culture of pride within Toyota. This organizational pride creates a culture of employees with a belief that Toyota engineers the best products. Organizational structure is the backbone to the strategy of an organization. It helps carry out new strategies by differing structure designs and parameters in which individuals and groups communicate within organizations (Mintzber, Lampel, Quinn, & Ghoshal, 2003). The car industry typically mirrors the machine organizational structure. The work is highly standardized and is designed to run by a large technostructure to formalize behaviors and actions (Mintzber, et al, 2003). The structure of this design typically limits power at the operator level. This type of horizontal structure ends up not engaging the people at the organization and does not benefit the customer as a whole (Mitzber, et al, 2003). Toyota, while a machine organization, does not place value vertically and rather creates power horizontally. The organization has a history of empowering their operators with knowledge and career paths. Toyota is noted for this. Conclusion Toyota’s leadership and organizational structure does not predicate the failure for senior management to fail to address a quality control and product issue as well as a public relations issue. The organization’s role of interpersonal communication and decisions made both vertically and horizontally within its structure would lend to fix a problem and engineer the best product. All employees are empowered to ask why an accelerator should be engineered with a certain spec and require certain raw materials. The leadership and structure creat high quality product processes. The organizational behavior could have explained the blunder on senior management to fail to address a quality control issue based on the culture. According to Benjamin Heineman, Toyota’s culture of, â€Å"We did it right, the problem is small, the critics are wrong† (paragraph 5, 2010). Toyota’s culture and pride of engineering the best could have predicted this public relations blunder that has striped consumer confidence and may lead to a business failure or a chief executive officer stepping down. References Heineman, B. W. (2010). Flunking Crisis Management 101. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://views. washingtonpost. com/leadership/panelists/2010/02/crisis-management-recall. html Mintzberg, H. , Lampel, J. , Quinn, J. B. , & Ghoshal, S. (2003). The strategy process: Concepts, contexts, cases (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Robbins, S. P. , & Judge, T. A. (2007). Organizational behavior (12th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Womack, J. P. & Shook, J.. (2007, October). Lean Management and the Role of Lean Leadership [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://www. lean. org/images/october_webinar_project_slides. PDF.

Flexible Firm Hrm

Assignment 2 (a)Outline the main forms of flexibility as defined in Atkinson’s (1984) model of the flexible firm (b) What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Atkinson model? ANSWER PLAN: ?Introduction/Background oWhat are the aims of flexibility oGuest (1987) de-centralisation helps to create flexibility oWhat are the main forms of flexibility that modern organisation need ?Body: 4 types of flexibility oFunctional/Temporal/Numerical/Financial ?Body 2: Atkinson’s Model oCore group oFrist/Second peripheral groups How each of these differ oOutsourcing activities/ Agency / Self-employed/Sub-contracting ?Advantages / Disadvantages of Atkinson’s model ?Criticism ?Conclusion In highly competitive environment, organisations need to be able to react quickly and effectively to changes. David Guest (1987) in advocating de-centralisation emphasised the role it plays in increasing flexibility within an organisation. He cited flexibility as one of the keys to respo nding effectively to changes in the environment, and that it is essential for organisational success.The main forms of flexibility in modern organisation according to Blyton and Morris (1992) are four: Functional, Temporal, Numerical and Financial. Functional flexibility involves the task of multi-skilling where employees are required to possess one specific skill and many other generalist ones. This means a reduced specialisation of roles with individuals being trained to carry out a much wider range of activities than before. The purpose of numerical flexibility is to expand and contract the labour force according to specific demand for it.In times of expansion, more workers are required. Conversely a smaller workforce is needed if the business is decreasing. The third form is temporal flexibility. In this case the number and distribution of hours varies. It concerns different approaches to managing the time of employees, such as â€Å"annual hours contracts† where there is a total number of hours to be worked but actual hours will vary according to circumstances. Finally, financial flexibility involves the way that an individual’s payment varies in ways which best allow it to meet objectives.At the individual level this can mean pay-related-performance or multiple pay strategies such as bonuses, dividends and share options. Atkinson developed a model of what he called the flexible firm which brings together a number of aspects of flexibility. This model is shown below: The model consists of a core group, first and second peripheral groups and outsourcing activities. The core group include the full-time, generalist skilled workers who are expected to keep learning and adapting to changes.This is the permanent component of the firm’s workforce; they are the ones with the most job security, and they have better opportunities for training and promotion. They are relatively few in the organisation. This group provides flexibility through its commitment because they are the permanent ones. In contrast, peripheral workers provide a firm with numerical flexibility. The first peripheral group is normally full-time but does not have the same job security as the core workers. Their numbers increase or reduce with changing labour market conditions.The second peripheral group is employed on a part-time basis, with short-term contracts. They tend to be less well paid and have fewer rights and benefits than the first peripheral group. Less is invested in them as far as training and opportunities for promotion are concerned. As a final alternative if necessary, organisations can outsource functions as a means of generating flexibility. These are contracted to do specific work and are more expensive; outsourced flexibility comes at a premium price.An example of outsourcing services is office cleaning where an agency is contracted to carry out the cleaning of the office on a continuing basis. In times of recession, peripheral or no n-full-time workers are much more likely to be made redundant. The advantages of the Atkinson model for the organisation include: a more easily controlled and managed workforce; core employees being more committed due to enriched jobs (Soft HRM); the facility for bringing in skills as required and cost saving and low wage costs for part-time workers.The disadvantages include: risk of lack of specialist expertise due to multi-skilling and issues connected with loyalty and security. Firstly loyalty, because they are not bound by permanent contract, there is no guarantee that the worker will continue to be available. They may also lack necessary training as the organisation will be focusing more on the core workers because the more you move to peripheral workers the more you want to contain costs, therefore minimal training is offered.Atkinson’s model is criticised because many organisations will have core, peripheral and outsourced workers without having the Atkinson’s m odel in mind. In other words even when flexibility is practiced, it is not because of his model. The requirement for flexibility happened in organisations before he developed his model. In conclusion flexibility can take a number of different forms as proposed by Blyton and Morris. It helps the organisation react to changes faster and more effectively. The four types of flexibility link to The Atkinson’s model which illustrates how organisations are structured.Managers value the model to a degree of financial flexibility because it separates core workers from peripheral workers. It helps them taking decisions on who to contract. High level skills can be brought in when necessary and outsourced tasks can end up being less expensive, as the termination of the contract is simple. There are a number of potential advantages and disadvantages of workforce flexibility, depending on which group is considered. The flexible firm emphasises the need for organisations to be flexible and have the capability to adapt to constantly changing circumstances.

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