Analysis of Article Using Corporate Social Responsibility to Build Business by Paul Griffiths - Coursework Example

? Text and Audience Introduction A magazine article by Paul Griffiths, “Using corporate social responsibility to buildbusiness”, is a material targeting the corporate world. It offers social and ethical lessons to entrepreneurs on how to employ the concept of corporate social responsibility to enhance concrete business outcomes that would ultimately become a typical business process. The article was written on a specific social and cultural context. It was meant to remind corporate organizations about the significance of social responsibility in facilitating maximum success within the environment in which they operate. Corporate social responsibility is currently an issue that is, apparently, becoming a major theme in the global business environment. It is increasingly becoming a conventional activity. Its growing significance is affecting the relationship between corporate organizations and their various stakeholders such as clients, workers, suppliers, governments, and the communities. The article by Griffiths is to remind corporate players of the fact that taking considerable care of the people and the environment is fundamental to good financial results. Organizations are not supposed to wait for the relevant government bodies to impose certain rules and regulations for them to oblige. They have a responsibility to protect the social and cultural systems of the societies under which they expect to coexist in. To build a business based on trust and prescience, corporate social responsibility has to be considered as a fundamental factor. This is essential in building and keeping trust with communities and clients. To flourish and achieve long-term goals of a business, organizations are expected to focus on much more than issues affecting them at present, and think more about the future (Griffiths, 2010). This fact is not just applicable to the advancements in technology, but also on the changes in social, cultural, and environmental matters. Griffiths explains corporate social responsibility as “business behavior that creates the trust and commitment of stakeholders, both now and in the future”. He suggests that corporate social responsibility can no longer be viewed as a background corporate public relations strategy, but a significant factor that is gradually becoming correlated to fundamental operational performance. The key drivers of this primary concept comprise of compliance to laws and regulations crafted for this purpose, and an emphasis on the significance of environmental rules necessary to create customer loyalty and brand likeness. According to Griffiths (2010), unlike what many may suggest, “Corporate social responsibility is a set of business values and not a tool”. Due to this fact, it is unlikely to follow the line of reengineering. Not all organizations will successfully implement this concept; however, it is not logical for anyone to suggest that it has been applied to the wrong reasons. Unlike other business concepts, it is not likely to fade away anytime soon (Griffiths, 2010). This is because the environment under which corporate social responsibility operates is characterized by a much wider group of stakeholders; many of them exhibit opposing interests in this context. A good example is an incidence whereby a company decides to invest in reducing carbon emissions for environmental protection. This would mean that it probably will have to cut funding towards employee training initiatives, pay less dividend ratio, and also reduce funding towards community development program. According to Griffiths, the effectivity of the concept of corporate social responsibility can be managed in four different perspectives, i.e. “corporate governance and ethics, environment, people, and contribution to development”. Information plays various primary tasks in the implementation of this key concept. The general conceptual model of implementation incorporates processes, people, and technology. This is to make sure that its outcomes are integrated with organizations daily operational processes. According to Griffiths (2010), therefore, “social responsibility demands of businesses to operate in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial, and public expectations that society has of business”. In such an environment, it is expected of corporate organizations to contribute towards bettering the society and the environment. They are supposed to incorporate social, cultural, and environmental concerns in all their undertakings, and association with all stakeholders at their own free will. Organizations are not supposed to compromise on ethical, social, and cultural norms and values to maximize on their goals. They are supposed to acknowledge that corporate integrity is much more than just complying with set government laws. Consistency with the ethical values of the society under which they operate is critical (Griffiths, 2010). As earlier mentioned, corporate social responsibility is a fundamental factor for the success of any business. Just like the large national and multinational corporations, small and medium size companies also ought to take a serious consideration of this concept. For many years now, a number of players in the corporate society and the community at large have raised many concerns describing unethical business behavior as a cancer working on the tissue of a society. In the western world, such behaviors have and continue to undermine competitiveness. Effective leadership and management of ethical matters demand that companies ensure that their managers and workers desist from unethical acts and are aware of the ways of addressing ethical issues in daily responsibilities. Almost every year, an unethical scandal by one or more major corporate organizations is reported in the media. As a result, the subject of ethics frequently features on both electronic and print media. In the article, the writer has implemented a number of grammatical, morphological, and lexical features. Looking at the grammatical features, one can notice that Griffiths was writing this piece of work from a third person point of view. He rarely gives his own point of view, and only relies on data from his research to make conclusions. The structuring of the statements is also in the present tense. There are also certain key words that are represented in initials all through the work, e.g. corporate social responsibility is represented as CSR. It is also notable in this article that word length distribution is not even. Words per sentence in the article vary a lot depending on the point being stressed. The richness in vocabulary is also a notable lexical factor in the article. The writer has tried not to limit his work only to common words and, therefore, it can be rated generally as a good literature work. Second life computer game Second life is a 3D virtual world game; where the gamers are offered another opportunity literally to lead a new life on the virtual platform. In the game, everyone involved has his or her own character, enabling them to explore and interact with new other characters; take part in group social activities; and transact business with one another. It provides an open platform for all that are involved to create their own 3D objects (Manaf, Akram, Mazdak, & Suriayati, 2011). Second life is one of those games that have been acknowledged as those with the potential of being successfully applicable for educational purposes. In fact, it has already been adopted in various curricula in different parts of the globe (Manaf, Akram, Mazdak, & Suriayati, 2011). A number of globally recognized institutions too have adopted this computer game for different purposes, e.g. the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Likewise, a study carried out in higher institutions of learning in the United Kingdom has shown that a good number of these institutions are embracing this computer game for learning experiences with varying degrees of usage (Manaf, Akram, Mazdak, & Suriayati, 2011). Educators have the privilege of creating their own unique academic contents by utilizing the availed scripts and platforms. The manufacturers of this application have also made available the documentations or rather, tutorial materials for educators willing to employ the use of Second life computer game in their teaching curricula (Manaf, Akram, Mazdak, & Suriayati, 2011). A few failures can be noticed in the overall development of the application. For instance, there is a lack of intuitiveness in the overall product. As one interacts with the application, it is also notable that learning script is quite strenuous and, therefore, poses a serious challenge to those educators attempting to integrate such technologies in their classrooms as encouraged by various players in the industry (Manaf, Akram, Mazdak, & Suriayati, 2011). It is advisable for manufacturers to take this fact into serious consideration, and modify the current platform to be more instinctive. This would enable the educators utilize minimal time and effort to come up with the necessary educational tasks to be integrated in class studies (Manaf, Akram, Mazdak, & Suriayati, 2011). Adaptive writing Social ethics is a general concept that does not only apply to a specific sector like the corporate world (Dorrien, 2010). It can be derived from an individual’s shared experience of different persons and culture through out his or her life. While ethics are naturally steered by individual morals that determine what is right or wrong, within the society it centers more around what could be perceived suitable behavior for people in general, rather than individual behavior. However, due to the fact that individuals view issues diversely, and different cultures share various beliefs, what could be perceived as right by an individual may not essentially be right in other quarters (Dorrien, 2010). Consequently, describing social ethics conclusively may be a tough task. However, it must also be noted that there are certain standard behaviors or social norms in which members of a society are expected to abide by in order to peacefully coexist with one another. These standards are often based on existing ideals and ideologies that determine how people should act. These standards can be compared to the Ten Commandments in the Bible, for instance, “Thou shall not kill”. This is not only applicable to an individual, but all members coexisting within a society, inclusive of the corporate society (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007). Since standards governing ways of life in different societies vary, the enforcement of the rights of the majority should only be carried out in a way that does not infringe on others rights (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007). Standards used to enforce societal ethics are based on factors such as religion, family values, moral standards, and integrity. Factors such as culture, language, education, race, and religion are some of the issues that ought to be considered within the ethics of a society. To ensure that societal standards function in an environment of such variations, particular practices, which are considered acceptable by the majority, are generally paid attention to within a society (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007). This may comprise of deeds like sharing and being accommodative to varying views. Individuals are expected to respect other people’s feelings and opinion, irrespective of their beliefs. There are a number of issues that trigger intense debates when it comes to matters pertaining to social ethics. For example, subjects focusing on economics, destitution, environment, sexual orientations, famine, immigration, environment, and religious tolerance (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007). Other debatable matters pertain to topics such as politics and legislations concerning life and death, e.g. abortion and death penalty. More so, there are also other ethically debatable subjects such as the roles played by technology in the current society. For instance, matters such as GM foods, nuclear mining, and cloning. Undoubtedly, the issue of social ethics is quite intricate (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007). Nevertheless, within a society, there ought to be certain acceptable behaviors that are practiced by everyone to enhance a peaceful coexistence. Most people commonly base these deeds on collective suppositions of what is morally upright or not (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007). This is not only at an individual level, but also as a group. References list Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Callanan, P. (2007). Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions. New York: Cengage Learning. Dorrien, G. (2010). Tradition, Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Griffiths, P. (2010, November 9). Using corporate social responsibility to build business. CIO Magazine . Manaf, A. A., Akram, Z., Mazdak, Z. & Suriayati, C. (2011). Informatics Engineering and Information Science, Part II: International Conference, Icieis 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 1214, 2011. Proceedings, Part 2. New York: Springer. Read More