Strategy Making in Social Enterprise - Essay Example

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE College Social Enterprise The concept of social enterprise is a crucial dimension of organizations in the contemporary business environment. Social enterprises are those organizations that focus on the social issues such as poverty levels, environment sustainability, gender empowerment and raising the living standards of the people. While these organizations may be profit-based or non-profit based, their main idea is to ensure that they provide optimal benefits to the societies surrounding them through establishment of strong social relationships with them. Modern business organizations focus on corporate social responsibilities to ensure that they profit from forming mutual relationships with their target business customers. Therefore, they profit from building a unique corporate image which helps to win customer loyalty in the long term. In the recent past, the social enterprises have faced numerous challenges that have made it difficult to address social issues within their target communities. For instance, business organizations are experiencing financial challenges as they attempt to invest more on corporate social responsibilities within competitive business organizations. International social enterprises are facing complex cultures that are difficult to handle making their effort futile. Therefore, it is recommendable that the social enterprises adopt innovative strategies to accomplish their role in the community. There are numerous forms of social enterprises in the world today that focus on social issues within the community. To begin with, we have the not-for-profit social enterprises in the society. These organizations are either formed by the government or international governments to address social issues that impact on the social responsibility of the community. For instance, the United Nations is a not-for-profit organization that focuses on the rights of the people to ensure that internationally accepted human rights are acquire by every human being. For many years, the UN has focussed on the human rights to ensure that the all countries treat all citizens fairly irrespective of their cultural or religious differences (Smith et al., 2012). The UN laws provide that all human beings are equal and must see each other as brothers and sisters while relating in the social scopes (Amao, 2011). The issue of cultural discrimination is an issue that has become severe in many countries especially after globalization. People are moving from one country to another in search for employment or even further education. Therefore, such laws require that every citizen irrespective of their originality be treated fairly and without any form of discrimination either in the work place or educational environment (Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011). Therefore, the not-for-profit organizations focus their efforts and resources towards a fair society and to address social barriers brought about by cultural differences. Another major focus of not-for-profit organization is to create gender empowerment within the community (Amao, 2011). In this role, the focus on countries that for long now have used traditional social structures to side line people on the line of gender. In many developing countries, females have become subjects of gender discrimination due to proliferation of traditional attitudes. For a long time, women have been perceived as inferior members of the society whose roles are constrained to domestic duties and child bearing. In addition, women have suffered under domestic violence due to male chauvinistic attitudes that many societies have fostered for a long time. In the employment sector, women have been given inferior positions and are expected to rise to management cadres within the organization. In some cultures, there are great disparities in terms of female education. Women are not educated as the society feels that they are supposed to remain at home and take care of their homesteads and men are the sole breadwinners (Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011). The not-for-profit organizations dedicate their efforts to liberate women to gender discrimination by providing them with the rights to be educated and employed. Also, they support the government in the war against domestic violence that have made women suffer in retrogressive cultural attitudes. These organizations contribute to social development through different strategies. First, the organizations may dedicate their resources to support issues such as education for all or education for women to support communities whose economy has remained stagnated due to low educational profiles of the community. In developing continents such as Africa, the UN provides finances to support education in poor economies and for economically disadvantaged communities (Amao, 2011). Also, these organizations formulate laws that are legally binding for all members subscribed to them. For instance, the human rights commissions and the UN have formed laws to fight against racial discrimination within its member countries to ensure that countries that perpetrate this crime are punishable (Roby et al., 2013). At times, these organizations conduct awareness campaigns to address issues such as wife battering and to advise the societies against wrong cultural attitudes that may impact on their social development. On this note, these organizations use various approaches that are dedicated to address a wide range of social problems and issues within the international community. Another category of social enterprises is the profit-based organizations that strive to address social problems within the environment they live in. Most business organizations today are formulating strategies to profit from building a strong social relationship with their target customers. Particularly, international organizations have the responsibility to address social issues within the community that they live in. This may be an obligation to the law or even as a business strategy (Orhei & Vinke, 2012). For instance, the law requires that all organization use methods that are safe to the environment to ensure that they reduce pollution that has negative impacts on the society. These laws compel business organizations to define an effective environmental strategy to ensure that they conserve the environment where they operate in. Most industrial firms release organic wastes that are a great threat to the ecological balance and thus the government puts laws to prevent such behaviours. To address such issues, the organization use eco-friendly waste disposal mechanisms to ensure that they ensure that they do not add impurities into the environment. This strategy ensures that the organization enjoy a good public reputation and avoid any legal actions that may ruin the organizational image. On this ground, the organizations optimize their profits by abiding to the legal standards that regulate their behaviour within their environment of operation. From another angle, organizations focus on social issues as one way of appealing to the public and attracting them to the organization. For instance, organizations address social problems such as poverty to attract the people to their business organizations. In the recent past, business has become competitive and the idea of winning more customers has become an important aspect of business positioning (Ballinger, 2008). Organizations provide employment to the local communities not only to attract them to be customers but also to increase their purchasing power. If more people are employed, they will be able to purchase products from the organization, hence leading to an increase in the number of their customers. Other organizations provide a corporate social responsibility as one way of giving back to the society. For instance, a company may sponsor students from poor families to acquire education as a way of rewarding the community and winning their loyalty. Customer loyalty ensures that the organizations have a long-term relationship with their customers, which is essential in surviving in a competitive business environment. On this note, it is clear that for-profit social enterprises address social problems within the community as a business strategy to optimize their performance. Today, social enterprises are facing a wide range of challenges that are inhibiting their roles in addressing social problems. One of the challenges that are facing international not-for-profit organizations is increasing complexity in social problems. While addressing racial discrimination in societies, these organizations are experiencing challenges due to variations increasing cultural integration. In the 21st century, the wave of globalization has resulted massive migration to different countries making impossible to map the cultural structures that exist within the society (Smith et al., 2013). In addition, private organizations have the liberty to develop their own salary structures within the work environment, making it easier for them to develop discriminative salary structures within the organization. This makes the problems of racial discrimination at work place a complex issue to address. In other countries, gender discrimination cases are not reported and this makes it impossible for these organizations to react on such problems (Moizer & Tracey, 2010). On this note, there has been a change of demographic issues which have undermined the ability of the social enterprises to address social problems within the community. Therefore, it has become a great challenge to implement laws and strategies that address social problems in the society. Another major challenge that has faced social enterprises is the increase in business competition, which has reduced the ability of organization on social responsibilities. This is a problem that has mostly affected profit-making business entities, due to the great threat of business competition in the market today. Competition reduces the organizational income and hence limits their ability to allocate their social resources to social responsibilities. Currently, organizations are working on strategies to minimize their expenses while increasing their profits to ensure survival. On the other hand, corporate social responsibilities require that organization allocate a certain percentage of their profits towards the external stakeholders of the business such as the community, the government and the society at large. Therefore, this strategy increases the organizational expenses, which is contrary to their plans (Hamann, 2012). Thus, many organizations often find themselves in a dilemma to either adopt corporate social responsibility schemes or avoid this expense for the benefit of the organization. On this note, it has become hard for business entities to address issues such as poverty and educational development that have been previously accounted in the corporate social responsibility plans. This challenge has made many social enterprises reduce their budget allocation to social responsibilities within the environment that they operate in. To address these challenges, it is crucial that social enterprises device new strategies to address social problems. The change in cultural and organizational structures must be accounted in developing social enterprise strategies. The not-for profit organizations should consider revising their new laws to provide new approaches in addressing social issues within their subject nations. In doing this, they should involve the national governments to understand the cultural dynamics in different nations that are likely to influence their efficiency in service delivery (Taylor, 2014). In addition, they must be able to obtain feedback from the communities about these policies so that they understand the nature of the social problems and find ways to solve them. For other profit-based organizations it is crucial that they develop alternative strategies to reduce their expenses and use corporate social responsibility approaches to increase their profits. While social responsibilities may be visualized as expense within an organization, it can also be a source of profit for an organization. For instance, if an organization provides employment to poor members in the community, they will make them potential customers for their business organizations (Doherty at al., 2009). Therefore, the business enterprises can use these business strategies as leverage for customer attraction and optimal business performance. In conclusion, social enterprises are crucial entities that address the social needs of the community such as poverty, discrimination and environmental pollution. These organizations may be either not-for-profit based organizations willing to support the community welfare to ensure that communities live better lives. Not-for profit organizations use laws and provide funds to address social problems that undermine community development in poor countries. Over time, third world countries have benefited from such programs that provide solutions to government problems. On the other hand, profit based organization use corporate social responsibility approaches to give back to the community, abide by the government laws or even to attract customers into their business operations. However, new challenges are developing, undermining the social enterprises efforts to impart social development within their subject communities. The dynamics of cultural structures that are resulting from globalization are inhibiting the organizations ability to understand and react to social problems. In addition, business in becoming more competitive making organization fear the expenses associated with corporate social responsibility plans. Therefore, organizations have reduced their input to social development, undermining their purpose as social enterprises. On this note, it is crucial that organizations focus on more flexible social development plans by reacting to global changes that are taking place rapidly. Bibliography Amao, O., 2011, Corporate Social Responsibility, Human Rights and the Law: Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries. London: Taylor & Francis. Ballinger, J 2008, NO SWEAT? Corporate Social Responsibility and the Dilemma of Anti- Sweatshop Activism, New Labor Forum (Routledge), 17, 2, pp. 91-98, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 April 2014. Doherty, B., Foster, G., Mason, C., Meehan, J., Meehan, K., & Rotheroe, N. (2009). Management for Social Enterprise. London: Sage Publications. Hamann, R 2012, The Business of Development: Revisiting Strategies for a Sustainable Future, Environment, 54, 2, pp. 18-29, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 April 2014. 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