The Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example

The Corporate Social Responsibility Answer to Question A. (two sides of A4) 1. Analysis and conclusions about the content of the student-led seminars and a reflection on the individual learning process adopted by yourself. 1.1The student-led seminars were a great time of learning whereby a lot of corporate social responsibility content was learnt. It was just amazing to hear students tackle the problem of various dimensions, different from what personally I had knowledge about. Corporate social responsibility came up as the process whereby corporate, firms, business or even the government come up with policies which are beneficial to the stakeholders regardless to the activity of the organization in question. It came out very clearly that any organization has several stakeholders, which include customers in that the customers buy goods and services from the firm. Therefore there is a need for good corporate social responsibility toward the customer given the fact that the organization products or services are made for the consumption of the customers/public and in the even whereby the customer fails to consume the products, there is the danger of the organisation becoming irrelevant or redundant because it would no longer need to carry out any more production. Another interesting contribution that speakers raised in the seminar concerning customers as stakeholders which the organization must address when it comes to social responsibility was whether for public offices especially government and not for profit organizations have customers as stakeholders. 1.2 It also emerged that the process of winning customers is quite an expensive one and therefore losing the customers by failing to adhere to corporate social responsibility requirements is a major undoing for the organizations considering the fact that organizations must need to be genuinely concerned about the well being and the wellness of the customers. Indeed organizations must also be able to rise above short-term focus and foresee the situation in a long-term sense. 1.3 Speaker after speaker supported this view of thinking but some of the speakers opposed this contention arguing that the organization risks spending a lot of money if it would take on pleasing every single customer. This, opponents argued, is in contravention of the reason why organizations exist. The opponents of corporates social responsibility argued that organizations and customer relations are modeled on a consumerism principle whereby each side tries to gain the most out of the other and therefore the customer is less concerned about the well being and wellness of the organization. The opponents wondered why therefore the organization should spend thousands or millions of dollars trying to pleas the customers. 2.1 In the first seminar I was abit naïve since I was going to be contributing as a speaker I had prepared some issues I wanted to research on. I particularly wanted to question the apparent neglect of employees as relevant stakeholders who should be targeted by the organization’s corporate social responsibility policies. As part of my preparation I undertook to investigate the issue of corporate social responsibility as reported by textbooks and journals. In the process of preparation I learnt the following about corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility is about concepts not necessarily about actions1. Smith, & Lyles, (2003) argues that as long as the concepts are in place, business organizations are very likely to emerge with responsible actions on the environment, on the stakeholders, on the economy of the countries they operate in or even in the social political environment the business organization functions in. I learnt that there has been an increase in levels of consumer rights awareness especially in the developed world something occasioned by heightened awareness on environmental impact. Organizations, which do not emphasize on the right practices, have on the environment2. According to the organization’s activities directly or indirectly hurts the customers and therefore the customer has the right to participate in the decisions of the organizations especially those which affect them. That is the reason why the corporate social responsibility department exists in the first place. Indeed the corporate social responsibility department exists to represent or bring forth the case for the stakeholders in that way the corporate responsibility officials in any organization are the “representatives of the different stakeholders and the bridge between the two sides. My preparation for the seminar also led me into the interesting issue on whether the corporate social responsibilities actions are inseparable with good works and funds which most organizations have shown a great affinity towards3 . Answer to Question B (6 sides of A4) Seminar 1 2.0 Preparation for each seminar, the arguments put forward at the seminar itself and a short reflection on your view of the topic area in the light of these arguments. As part of my preparations I learnt that the two are inseparable. The fact that a company is practicing corporate social responsibility does not necessarily mean that it has to always be seen to be doing physical activities such as environmental cleaning, holding awareness campaigns and such4. Actions such as environmental cleaning on the part of the organization or donating funds to the deserving causes has often been misused and mismanaged by corporate social responsibility official departments which fail to invest much time and effort in research work to come up with more feasible and impactful social, economic or environmental activities5. Those who made contributions in the first seminar talked about the need for organizations to uphold positive relations with the customers due to the fact that indeed the customers are agents of publicity and marketing to the organization in that whenever the customers go out and speak positively about the organization, they may make the company to attract or lose potential customers. This is a great avenue for the organization to get and attract more loyal customers. Having good corporate social responsibility in place means that the organization is going to be accountable for all its actions to customers and take every practical step to make sure that it does not harm the customers in any way. Therefore arguing that the business organizations exist to make profits and therefore engaging in corporate social responsibility is out of bounds for the organization is not right. Indeed organizations must always ensure that the services they offer, the product they release for the consumption of the general public are fit for consumption and do not in any way harm the customer. Finally, in the debate floor I contributed on the motion on whether cash donations and physical actions or involvement of organizations are inseparable with corporate social responsibility. My stance on the issue was that it is not true that the two are inseparable I argued that organizations could totally leave out overt missions such as environmental cleaning or cash donations, which have become very common but still engage in or practice corporate social responsibilities. I gave the example of paying employees considerable salaries so that they may afford a decent living as well as take care of their families. Seminar 2 2.2 The second seminar was a great opportunity of learning for me and just like it was the case for the first seminar, I has a contribution and as a result some preparations to make. This time round my preparations included researching widely on the topic of who are the other stakeholders apart from customers that an organization must address and what are the stakes. A stakeholder is any individual or institution which is affected in one way or the other by the activities of the organization6. This therefore means that the organization must carry out an analysis to evaluate who its stakeholders are, the kind of stakes each holds, the implications of the organization’s activities on each stakeholder as well as the importance of each stakeholder and what it would mean if the stakeholder’s concerns were not fulfilled7. Indeed there are many stakeholder sin any organization and the number varies from organization depending on the nature of the business the organization is concerned about. The second seminar was characterized on whether an organization must be profit making body so as to have customers. Speakers made it clear that, the government and other not for profit organizations, the clients they offer services to whether for free or for a subsidized fee are their customers and as such they should be answerable to such. Several speakers argued that in any organization, the customer/client is the most crucial stakeholder who must be targeted and well addressed by the organization’s corporate social responsibility policies. It also emerged that the contention that corporates exist to make profits and therefore must not embrace corporate social responsibility is not sustainable. Speakers in the student led seminar argued that if organizations adopt this view, they risk getting out of business. The question of moral obligation came up and it emerged that the organizations have a moral obligation to take care of the customers today so that tomorrow and indeed in the future they may have someone to buy their services or goods. Possible stakeholders in any organization include the local community, employees, customers, management, government, donors, special interest groups and stakeholders. As part of my contribution I moved the motion in support of the fact that not all the stakeholders in an organization carry the same weight. I supported the contention that some stakeholders are more important than others and should be treated as such. In my contribution, I singled out shareholders, the employees, the customers and the management as the most important stakeholders in any given organization. My point of view was informed by the crucial roles each of the above stakeholders play in a given organization. Starting by the customers they are important in that they buy the organizations’ products and without them the organization cannot function and would most likely close down. My view on the importance of the customers as important was influenced by the position taken by8that he customers are what influence what type of company the organization ends up being in terms of performance. The management is an important stakeholder in that it is responsible for the implementation of viable policies which can either guide an organization towards success or failure. As a result of good policies the organization is able to make profits. This means that in deciding the corporate social responsibility necessary for adoption by an organization the management must be included. Seminar 3 2.3 The third student seminar I attended was a continuation of the discussion for the second seminar. My contributions were that it is not possible to treat every stakeholder the same given the fact that their contribution to the organization vary significantly. As a result my contribution sought to emphasize that in planning for corporate social responsibilities organizations must give prominence to some stakeholders especially the customer and the management. I also noted from other speakers’ contributions that the employee is very important an some speakers argued that he employees should be the most respected stakeholders considering the fact that they keep the organization moving and any action or policy that negatively affects them is very likely to de-motivate them and as such affecting the production and performance of the whole organization. Lessons Learned About Corporate Social Responsibility ( Summary) 3.0 Most organizations have policies out lined in social responsibility an good corporate governance. Corporate social responsibility has been viewed narrowly by some people as giving back to the society. Giving such a narrow definition to corporate social responsibility carries the risk of treating corporate social responsibility as a negative constraint to the resources of the organization, which are usually scarce and hard to come by. Corporate social responsibility therefore if utilized well can greatly contribute to the improvement of performance and productivity. On its part, strategic thinking serves to prepare the organization to face the future, which is usually uncertain, and only the organization that utilizes analytical tools to its advantage emerges victorious even in the advent of uncertainty in the market. It is worth noting that today’s technological advances in terms of information technology as well as the advent of globalization have had an influence on how organizations perform in the market. Modern business organizations such as retailing businesses are faced with the challenge of competing in crowded markets. Any modern business must keep in step with new business trends. Any modern business keen on remaining on business must keep on reinventing itself in terms of product and service development. Actually every move, investment, risks or decision a business organization makes must be based on informed intelligence. Modern businesses have their key source of intelligence as the research tools at their disposal. Any modern business, which fails to engage in corporate social responsibility before making key managerial decisions, is bound to fail. CONCLUSION 4.0 In conclusion, the student seminar was a great time of learning and as such the students exchanged ideas on CSR. It emerged finally that all stakeholders are equally important to an organization and therefore the CSR department must treat them indiscrimately for the sake of the organization’s survival. It also emerged that the concept of CSR although popular needs to be popularized further and organizations need to be held accountable for their actions. References Shonk and James, H. (1992). Team-Based Organizations: Developing a Successful Team Environment. Homewood, IL. Business One Irwin. Pp.23-54 Smith, M. and Lyles (2003). The Blackwell Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge management. Oxford. Blackwell Publishing. Pp.12-32 Stewart, T. (1997). Intellectual Capital. The new wealth of organizations. New York: Doubleday. 16-21 NAIROBI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL NBNHFNHH HHBHRHRG OF KHNFHGGH HNFFH RN Read More