Corporate Social Responsibility in Mitsubishi - Essay Example

?Unit Communications in Business 100 Assessment: Critical Essay Company: Mitsubishi Essay Corporate Social Responsibility: An examination of the performance of Mitsubishi Corporate Social Responsibility: An examination of the performance of Mitsubishi Crane et al (2009) has mentioned that CSR has appeared in the history along with the evolution of business activities itself (Crane et al 2009, p.3). In Nexen’s (2009) opinion, Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is the “commitment to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of our workforce and their families as well as the local community at large” (Nexen, 2009). However, Kotler and Lee (2004) defined CSR as the “commitment to improve community well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of the corporate resources” (Kotler &Lee, 2004, p.3). In any case, the importance of CSR was established in the corporate world only at the beginning of the twenty first century. Big companies realized that profit making is no more an easy task, if they fail to contribute something to the community in which it operates. Some companies have good track record of exhibiting their social responsibility whereas some other companies are still neglect the needs of the community in which they operate. Mitsubishi Company is a reputed Japanese company as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. “The origin of Mitsubishi goes back to 1870, when the founder, Yataro Iwasaki, started a shipping firm with three aging steamships” (Mitsubishi: Origin, 2010). After Second World War, the original Mitsubishi Company disbanded to become separate independent companies as we witness today. The growth of Mitsubishi Company was along the growth of Japan. Whenever, Japanese economy faced troubles, Mitsubishi Organization also faced problems and vice versa. Mitsubishi selected London for opening its first international office in 1915 because of Japan’s better relationships with Britain at that time (Rudlin, 2000, p.8). Since then Mitsubishi opened many international offices at different parts of the world. “Mitsubishi International Corporation (MIC) conducts business in accordance with the three Corporate Principles established by its parent, Mitsubishi Corporation: corporate responsibility to society, integrity and fairness, and international understanding through trade”(Mitsubishi international corporation: Corporate Social responsibility, n. d). Even though, Mitsubishi is contributing heavily to the communities in which it operates, there are certain allegations also against them. This paper briefly analyses the case in favor and against Mitsubishi Company as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. The case against Mitsubishi Robert Guest, British free-lance writer based in Hiroshima who contributes business and other articles to The Far Eastern Economic Review and The Independent, has mentioned that an Indian Worker Sue against Mitsubishi citing racial discriminations. The plaintiff alleged that “whereas Japanese employees at Mitsubishi are given English-language lessons at company expense, and Caucasian staff are provided with the best Japanese-language teaching available, he has been given no assistance whatsoever in his efforts to learn the Japanese language”(Guest, n. d). Racial discrimination is one of the major problems existing in the premises of most of the international companies. Globalization has brought many opportunities to the corporate companies to for international businesses; however, most of the companies like Mitsubishi, try to give more preferences to their local workers even while operating in overseas countries. Such business practices will always cause severe problems to a company if it decides to operate internationally. On 9 April 1996, the US Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in Illinois against Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc which claimed that over 300 women at the company’s Normal, Illinois, plant had been subject to sexual harassment starting in 1988 in contravention of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Case profile: Mitsubishi lawsuit, 2009) In most of the Mitsubishi units across the world, women constitute a substantial number of employees. Apart from the office and administrative works, even in the production units, women employees are working in Mitsubishi units. However, the treatment received by the women employees inside the Mitsubishi premises is not so good. Many of the women employees suffered from the sexual exploitation from the superiors. Complaints registered against the superiors often gone unnoticed and sexual exploitation cases are growing General Electric Co., the biggest maker of wind turbines in the U.S., filed a new patent- infringement lawsuit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and plans to appeal an earlier case it lost. The new complaint, filed in federal court in Dallas, claims Mitsubishi Heavy infringes two patents. One is related to the base frame supporting the weight of the rotor and the other covers a way to keep the turbine connected to the electricity grid even when the voltage drops. GE seeks a court order to block further use of its inventions, plus cash compensation (Decker, 2010) Patent violation is another undesirable charge against most of the big companies and Mitsubishi is also not an exception. These big companies often violate the patent terms and with the help of smart counsels, they escape from punishments from the courts. Such business practices will always spoil healthy business relationships between the big companies. Even though GE is a big player in the Wind energy market, Mitsubishi is not ready to accept the monopoly of GE in the wind energy market. In a strong counter attack against GE’s allegations, Mitsubishi filed a law suit that claims “GE embarked on an unlawful anticompetitive scheme to drive Mitsubishi suppliers out of the U.S. market” (Decker & Layne, 2010) The case for Mitsubishi So far we have discussed the cases against Mitsubishi. After reading the above cases against Mitsubishi, one would imagine that Mitsubishi is not at all giving any respect to the sustainable business practices or to their corporate social responsibilities. This is not true. Even amidst some dark spots, Mitsubishi has more bright spots as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. “At its annual meeting on November 19, 2010, the Board of Directors of the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas (MCFA) approved an aggregate of $1,000,000 in annual support of environmental causes” (Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas Dedicates $1 Million for Environmental Causes, 2010). Mitsubishi Company is doing everything possible to counter one of the most worrying problems of the modern century; the climate change. They did participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) by releasing carbon emissions data to the world's largest institutional investors (Mitsubishi international corporation: Corporate Social responsibility, n. d). Being one of the prominent automobile manufacturers in the world, the external world has lot of interests in knowing the emission data of Mitsubishi. While most of the international companies, especially the automobile manufacturers constantly cite excuses for not releasing their emission data, Mitsubishi surprised everybody by publishing their emission data. The above move clearly shows that Mitsubishi was brave enough to publish their emission data, since their emission levels are comparatively lower than most of the other companies. The Mitsubishi Corporate Code of Conduct stipulates clearly that the company will "respect human rights; will not engage in discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, creed, religion, or any other grounds; will not tolerate sexual harassment; will foster a proper understanding and awareness of the issue of human rights; will respect the cultures, customs, and language of other countries and regions; and will promote and maintain harmony with the international and local communities in which it operates." Moreover, MC is committed to all international conventions on human rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Core Labor Standards, and the Voluntary Principles of Security and Human Rights (Mitsubishi international corporation: Corporate Social responsibility, n. d) Even though there are some occasional incidents, Mitsubishi Company is committed to protect the human rights. The cases cited in the earlier part of this paper are only rare incidents and it is illogical to blame Mitsubishi, citing those cases alone. Generally, the company is maintaining a good track record as far as human right protection, employee protection etc are concerned. “Mitsubishi’s corporate social responsibility mission statements claim that they fulfil their social responsibility to customers by creating high-quality products, providing after-purchase support and responding appropriately to any product-related issues”(Mitsubishi international corporation: Social responsibility,2010). Mitsubishi products are so popular in the world because of better quality. Mitsubishi never believe in maximizing their profits through the exploitation of their customers. They are well aware of the value of their customers for the future betterment of the company and have no hesitation in servicing the customers even after years from the purchase of any Mitsubishi product. Conclusions Mitsubishi Company is one among the few big companies in the world which values their commitments towards the community in which it operates. Even though, there are some occasional undesirable incidents, generally, Mitsubishi is believed to be a highly socially responsible company. They are doing everything possible to protect the environment and shown the courage to publish their emission data. The above fact clearly underlines the sincerity of Mitsubishi in protecting the environment. Mitsubishi is currently spending a substantial amount of money for the protection of the environment and also to counter the climate change. Analysing the cases in favour and against Mitsubishi, one can conclude that the cases in favour of Mitsubishi are more than the cases against them. Recommendations International companies like Mitsubishi should give more preference to the community where it operates rather than their own local work force. For example, if Mitsubishi tries to manage its Indian operations with the help of Japanese employees alone, they will definitely fail miserably. On the other hand if they try to generate mixed workforce, or if they try to diversify their workforce, they will definitely succeed in their international operations. Mitsubishi should improve their human resource management techniques in order to function more effectively in the international market. They should realize the importance of fair treatment of all its manpower, irrespective of race, gender or social value of the employees. References 1. Crane A.Andrew Crane (Editor) 2. › Visit Amazon's Andrew Crane Page 3. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. 4. See search results for this author 5. Are you an author? Learn about Author Central 8. , McWilliams A., Matten D., Moon J & Siegel D.S. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 18, 2009) 2. Case profile: Mitsubishi lawsuit, 2009. Business and Human right resource centre. http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Lawlawsuits/Lawsuitsregulatoryaction/LawsuitsSelectedcases/MitsubishilawsuitresexualharassmentinUSA (Accessed on 04 January 2011) 3. Decker S. 2010. GE Files New Suit Against Mitsubishi Over Wind Turbine Patents. Business Week. 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The History of Mitsubishi Corporation in London: 1915 to Present Day Publisher: Routledge; 1st Edition. edition (June 14, 2000) Read More