Developing a Workable Corporate Social Responsibility: Case of Walmart - Essay Example

The paper "Developing a Workable Corporate Social Responsibility: Case of Walmart" is an outstanding example of an essay on business. In the thought of Carroll & Buchholtz (2014), corporate social responsibility entails the process when a business incorporates responsibility especially to its beneficiaries in an attempt to be socially supportive, profitable, and even more economical. This means that the company focuses on other parties apart from its shareholders. As Carroll’s pyramid goes, CSR involves various responsibilities such as philanthropic, economic, legal as well as ethical responsibilities (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). Walmart presents a good case study for CSR practices. As Sethi (2013) writes, Walmart has scored incredibly well in the CSR sustainability reports that touched on environmental sustainability, charity corporate citizenship, community relations as well as supply chain management.

Walmart’s CSR current practice 

Presently, Walmart has a CSR model that meets the requirements of Carroll’s CSR pyramid. The following is a description of Walmart’s design

• In terms of philanthropic responsibilities, Walmart’s (2013) report indicates that Walmart’s foundation has sought to empower women through training them on how they can access economic opportunities of their choice.
• Secondly, just as Carroll’s CSR pyramid advocates for, Walmart ensures that they audit all firms that supply their factories so as to meet the ethical responsibilities (Walmart, 2013).
• Thirdly, Walmart complies with legal requirements in terms of environmental standards as required of Carroll’s pyramid. The company aims at reducing pollution by adopting safety mechanisms in its operations (Walmart, 2013).
• Lastly, Walmart has focuses on launching a Global Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative that has improved the status of women's economic responsibilities that focus on profitability issues of a business in an attempt to meet the legal responsibilities (Walmart, 2013).

How Walmart’s CSR can be modified using Carroll’s pyramid

            First, the company could modify its philanthropic responsibilities through starting organizations that would employ the women in the society as opposed to purely training them.  Humans need a lot of pushing to succeed. 

            Apart from auditing the companies that supply Walmart so as to meet the ethical responsibilities, I recommend that Walmart’s management introduce capacity building lessons for its employees that would allow the company to comply with the supply standards.

            Thirdly, to develop its legal standards more, the company may increase the hours allocated for training on legal empowerment issues. They can also design their legal compliance approach to suit the global standards as they have branches in different countries. This will allow its CSR to have more impact on society.

            So as to improve on the economic responsibilities CSR part, I would, therefore, be of the recommendation that Walmart designs a program that is all-inclusive so as the men can also benefit from the program., as opposed to simply launching a Global Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative that has improved the status of women through economic empowerment (Walmart, 2013).

            Conclusively, Walmart has made major steps in terms of developing a workable corporate social responsibility. Nevertheless, a lot needs to be amended for the CSR plan to be realistic and useful for the latter years.