Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate Social Responsibility can be defined as the transparent business practices on the basis of ethical values, respect for the people, communities and environment in which the company operates and operating its business in compliance with the legal requirements (Agoes & Kristaung, 2008). Thus it is observed that the organizations in addition to making profits are also held responsible for the impact their actions and operations can have on the people and the planet. The term people refer to the stakeholders who have an interest in the business of the company and are affected by the actions that the company takes. It includes the customers, the business partners, the employees, the investors, the government, suppliers and the community. So it is observed that CSR is aimed at ensuring whether the companies are conducting their business in an ethical manner. Again CSR while evaluating the business of the companies on ethical grounds also takes into consideration the economic, social and environmental impact of the operations of the business (Roitto, 2013). Thus it involves activities that include looking to the facts:

Whether the company operates in partnership with the local communities

Whether it is making socially responsible investments

Whether it strives to develop effective relationship with the customers and the employees

Whether it takes care of the protection of the environment and sustainability

Stakeholders can be defined as the individuals or the organizations who have an interest in the business and who stand in order to gain or lose as a result of the success or failure of the business of an organization. Thus stakeholder analysis can be defined as an important tool that is used by the organizations in order t identify the key individuals or organizations who need to be win over for the benefit of the organization (Brugha & Varvasovszky, 2000). The stakeholder analysis involves the following steps:

Identifying the Stakeholders

The first step involves identifying the individuals or the organizations that have a direct influence over the business or have an interest in success or failure of the business.

Prioritizing the Stakeholders

This step involves identifying which stakeholders have high/low influence over the business and which stakeholders have high/low interest in the business.

The above figure shows that the stakeholders who have low interest but high power should be kept satisfied. The stakeholders who have low interest and low influence should be monitored i.e. the organization should not put much effort in keeping them satisfied. Again the organization should strive to manage the stakeholders who have high interest and high influence over the business (Varvasovszky & Brugha, 2000). Finally the stakeholders who have high interest but low power should be kept informed regarding he activities.

Understanding the Key Stakeholders

In this step the organization should strive to understand how the key stakeholders feel regarding the undertaken project and should also take into consideration their reactions towards the project. The organization also strives to engage the key stakeholders and establish effective communication with them.

Stakeholder Analysis

Taking into consideration the CSR aspects at Nike, the company has been criticized for making its workers work under poor working conditions and there have also been allegations against the company regarding harassment and abuse of the workers at its contract factories (Mallenbaker.net, 2004). Thu the issue that has been raised is “labour noncompliance in contract factories”.

In the recent time before the London Olympics, it was found that Adidas has violated the workers’ rights while managing nine locally owned factories in order to produce Olympics shoes and clothing for the company. The workers were made to work for around 65 hours i.e. 25 hours more than the standard working week and at a low wage. They also suffered from physical and verbal abuse and were punished for failing to meet the production targets (The Independent, 2005).

In addition Puma was criticized for the “Supplier’s Critical Conditions”. The workers at one of the supplier of Puma i.e. Surpassing were forced to work for excessive overtime and they were paid 64 cents for each regular hour, they were also fined if they refused to work overtime, poor residence conditions, poor food, unsafe working conditions and unethical procedure for waste disposal (Chinalaborwatch.org, 2006).

In the context CSR criticism Reebok has been criticized for disrespecting women through a campaign its campaign in Germany (Cook, 2004). The company suggested respecting the workout more than the woman in the life of an individual.

The complexity of the tasks makes it difficult on the part of an individual employee to complete it in affective manner. So the organizations strive to form teams consisting of individuals with complementary skills and a pool of experience that is essential for successful completion of the tasks (Jones & George, 1998). This drives the employees to coordinate their efforts which lead to enhanced performance. The enhanced performance depends upon following factors:

Espirit de Corps

Regular and continuous communication among the team members leads to the development of spirit de corps and thus establishes a sense of common interest, fellowship and commitment towards the accomplishment of the objectives of the team.

Satisfaction

Team consists of individuals with varied skills and experience and thus they try t complement each other. So it enhances the individual performance (Leonard, Graham & Bonacum, 2004). Thus they enjoy doing their work and gets motivated towards performing better in order to successfully contribute towards the achievement of the team’s objective.

Utilization of Resources

The formation team facilitates the company to involve multiple individuals for the completion of the tasks that not only reduces the time for completion but also increases the speed that leads to the accomplishment of primary objectives.

Creative and Learning Environment

Team formation brings toge5ther individuals with varied experiences and skills which enhances the creativity of the individual team members together with the creativity of the entire team (Tambe, 1997). Again it also facilitates the individuals to learn from the experiences of others which enhance the individual performance together with the performance of the team.

Identifying the Stakeholders

A team is formed in order to bring the individuals with varied skills and experience together which not only enhances the performance of the individual team members but also enhances the performance of the team as a whole through learning and knowledge sharing (Belbin, 2010). The Belbin Team role model provides guidance for making use of the talents and personalities of the team members. Belbin’s Theory describes the nine team roles and their talents as follows:

Implementer

The individual is disciplined; task oriented and acts as a practical organizer within the team. He is also responsible for putting the plans into actions (Prichard & Stanton, 1999).

Resource Investigator

He is expected to be an extrovert with lot of contacts within and outside the team and is capable of bringing new opportunities for the team.

Plant

He acts as an innovative and creative thinker and has the capability to solve complex problems.

Monitor

He acts as a team analyst and is capable of analyzing the situations and focuses upon making accurate and right judgements.

Shaper

He acts as a challenge loving individual and focuses upon completing the tasks within the specified deadlines.

Coordinator

He takes care of the procedures to be followed in order to complete the tasks and also strives to identify the needs and wants of the other team members (Van Heerden, 2012). He is capable of utilising the right talent in the right manner and is responsible for taking tough decisions.

Complete Finisher

He focuses upon completing the tasks in a perfect manner and also takes care of the safety of the team members and focuses upon maintaining the quality of work.

Teamworker

He focuses upon providing a pleasant atmosphere to the team members and strives to create a sense of togetherness among the team members.

Specialist

He acts as an advisor and provides knowledge on specific topic and thus makes his contributions to the team with his technical and substantial skills.

Thus from the above team roles as described by Belbin, it can be inferred that these roles played by various individuals helps in enhancing the performance of the team members as well as the team which leads to the development of an effective team.

The Tuckma’s theory of team development proposes that formation of team involves time and thus a team has to pass through various stages while they transform from simply a collection of strangers to united group with a common goal. The various stages are:

Forming

In this stage the team members are anxious since they are not aware of their tasks and the leaders pay a dominant role since the responsibilities of the members are not clear (Bertram, 2006).

Storming

The members look upon themselves as an active member of the team. They tend to challenge each other and the leaders regarding what are the things that need to be done. The stage is also characterized with conflicts and may also have a negative impact on the performance.

Norming

Prioritizing the Stakeholders

In this stage the team members come together and thus the roles and responsibilities are clarified. The stage is characterized by a feeling of togetherness among the team members (Mai et al., 2011).

Performing

In this stage the focus is on team relationship and tasks which leads to synergy. The members work together that leads to enhanced of performance.

Thus it can be inferred that this model provide assistance in team development and the problems that may arise during the development of the team.

There lie certain differences in between trespass and nuisance where majorly, in case of nuisance the damage must be proved. In case of nuisance the resultant effect is seen as something that is suffered by an individual in place of a kind of conduct that originally is forbidden. Generally nuisance may be defined as as unreasonable interference pertaining to the use of land usually by making use of the public right -of way. The resultant harm will be considered to be a nuisance irrespective of its being originated from negligent, intentional or non faulty conducts. The base principle pertaining to nuisance come from a latin maxim which may be translated into “use your own property so as not to injure that of your neighbours” (Ellickson, 1973). Under the present law, Nuisance covers a varied range of objectionable activities such as vibrations, noise, water and air pollution and most importantly noxious odours. Other conducts such as erecting dangerous structures alongside certain interfaces, obstruction of streets, certain water rights come under nuisance.

A crowd is defined as a group of people that is formed for a common purpose i.e. either it strive to support some cause or strive to oppose some cause. Crowd control can be defined as the process that is taken in order to prevent the outbreak of disorder and the prevention of a possible riot (Lasecki et al., 2011). Again it can also be defined as the term that is used in order to define the ability that can be used for reducing the possibility of fight or chaos among a unit and this can be done by either restriction the contribution of the members of the crowd or by restricting their means to escape.

Remedies can be defined as the way in which a right is imposed by the court of law in case of a wrongful act, injury or harm that is imposed upon another individual (Katz, 1968). Thus it is the means with the help of which tight violation can be prevented or compensated.

Stakeholder can be defined as an individual or an organization that has an interest in the business of an organization (Harrison & Freeman, 1999). This reveals the fact that they have the ability to affect the objectives, actions and policies of an organization and are also significantly affected by the policies and procedures of the organization.

The benefits of Green Event can be discussed as follows:

It helps in reducing the bill of trash with the help of diversion of the recyclable materials.

It also provides a positive publicity of the company that it strives to take care of the environment.

Understanding the Key Stakeholders

The waste prevention provides assistance to the company to minimize their management and purchasing costs (von der Heidt & Firmin, 2009).

It also helps in enhancing the brand image of the company since it creates a feeling in the minds of the customers and the stakeholders that the company is socially responsible and discharges it responsibility in an effective manner.

Benefits to the community

The community cost of expanding the landfill is reduced by making a significant reduction in the quantity of the materials that are transferred to the landfill.

The opportunities for job are enhanced with an increase on the process of recycling.

It also enhances the awareness on the part of the public in the context of recycling of the wastes.

References

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Bertram, R. (2006). Applying theory of team development to refine multi-system response to child abuse. Building on Family Strengths, p.55.

Brugha, R. and Varvasovszky, Z. (2000). Stakeholder analysis: a review. Health policy and planning, 15(3), pp.239–246.

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Cook, C. (2004). Corporate Social Responsibility is a Joke to Reebok. [online] Care2.com.

Ellickson, R. (1973). Alternatives to zoning: covenants, nuisance rules, and fines as land use controls. The University of Chicago Law Review, pp.681–781.

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Katz, A. (1968). The Jurisprudence of Remedies: Constitutional Legality and the Law of Torts in Bell v. Hood. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, pp.1–74.

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Leonard, M., Graham, S. and Bonacum, D. (2004). The human factor: the critical importance of effective teamwork and communication in providing safe care. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 13(suppl 1), pp.85–90.

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Mallenbaker.net, (2004). Corporate social responsibility.

Prichard, J. and Stanton, N. (1999). Testing Belbin’s team role theory of effective groups. Journal of Management Development, 18(8), pp.652–665.

Roitto, A. (2013). Factors effecting corporate social responsibiity disclosure ratings: an empirical study of finnish listed companies.

Tambe, M. (1997). Towards flexible teamwork. arXiv preprint cs/9709101.

The Independent, (2005). The Independent | News | UK and Worldwide News | Newspaper.

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Varvasovszky, Z. and Brugha, R. (2000). A stakeholder analysis. Health policy and planning, 15(3), pp.338–345.

von der Heidt, T. and Firmin, R. (2009). A consumer perspective of green event performance. School of Commerce and Management Papers, p.285.