Role of CSR Communication in Enhancing the Organization Products in the Competitive Market - Coursework Example

The Company Communication Report Student’s Name Institution’s Name Date Executive Summary This report focuses on evaluating the role of CSR communication in enhancing the organization products or services in the competitive market. The report is divided in a number of sections that include the introduction, description of the three main CSR theories that include managerial, utilitarian and relational theory. The paper then evaluates the CSR role in ALDI Company where the discussion centred more on the CSR communication role. Corporate communication theory is then evaluated and the role of consistency in corporate communication. The paper then gives the writer evaluation on corporate communication and recommendation. This is followed by a conclusion. Table of Content Introduction 4 Theory CSR 4 Utilitarian Theory 4 Managerial theory 5 Relational Theory 5 The Role of CSR in the Organization 6 Theory: Corporate Communication 8 Consistency of Company Corporate Communication Messages 9 Overall Evaluation of Communication in the Organization and Your Specific Recommendation 11 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction Communication is the key to the success of any organization in a competitive market. Communication assists an organization in creating product awareness in the market, sending messages regarding its promotion process among other things. Corporate communication is basically meant to advance the company’s position in the market. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the how ALID Company can communicate its CSR activities with intention of benefiting the company economically. In this case, the report focuses on CSR communication role in promotion of the ALDI’s product sales and hence increasing its market share. Theory CSR Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is used to define strategies firms or corporations use to run their businesses in society friendly, ethical and community beneficial with regard to development. CSR can comprise of a number of activities that include involvement in sustainability and environmental conservation activities, developing associations with customers, employees, investment that are socially sensitive, and working in association with local communities which can all be useful for the development of ALDI Company (Ismail, 2009). Utilitarian Theory CSR is governed by three theories which include relational, managerial and utilitarian. According to utilitarian theories, ALDI will serve as a section of the economic system with mechanical function. The ideas of CSR according to this theory emerged after the acknowledgment that there is a requirement for responsibility economics, integrated in the corporation business ethics. Therefore, the traditional business laissez faire makes way to personal obligation to social responsibility, individualism to public management and determinism. Therefore, utilitarian theories of the CSR are associated with the ALDI competitive advantages strategies and thus, its application will enhance the development of a higher competitive ability. Managerial theory Managerial theory stresses on corporate management whereby CSR are advanced internally by the corporation. In this case, everything external to ALDI will considered during the firm’s decision making process. Thus, this theory is categorized into three sub-classes that include multinationals social responsibility, social accountability, auditing and reporting (SAAR), and corporate social performance (CSP). CSP focuses on measuring the social variable contribution to the performance of the economy. SAAR is associated with the contribution of social performance via reporting, auditing and accounting procedure, and thus, giving the company a chance to be accountable for its actions. ALDI is a multinational company and according to this aspect of CSP managerial theory, this company CSR will grow due to global challenges and competition it will or has experienced at international level. This managerial theory aspect was introduced as a result of the managers’ responsibility of defining essential tools regarding MNCs CSR to survive in foreign nations (Secchi, 2007). Relational Theory Relational theory contains its root on the complex relationships of the firm and the environment. The CSR in this case focuses on the association between environment and the firm for the CSR analysis. Relational theory of CSR is divided further into four subsections which include social contract, corporate citizenship, stakeholder approach and society and business. Society and business is suggested to imply business in society where CSR emerges as a result of interaction between the two units (Van Marrewijk, 2003). The ALDI Company can employ stakeholder technique to enhance the firm’s management. Corporate citizenship is also used as the route the company adopt to behave responsibly. Social contact on the other hand addresses the important issues justifying economic activities morality so as to have a theoretical foundation for evaluating social associations between the society and corporation (Ismail, 2009). The Role of CSR in the Organization The CSR idea has turned to be appreciated as a major element of business sustainability and growth. According to Du et al. (2010) has a major role of maximizing returns in an organization. This is achieved through the CSR communication role. Most firms are currently committed to a role of enhancing well-being of the society by employing discretionary business practices and corporate resources contributions. CSR occupies a protuberant place on the world corporate agenda in the current socially cognizant market setting. Companies are increasingly devoting considerable amount of resources to different social initiatives that range from environmental protection and community outreach to business practices that area socially responsible (Garriga & Mele, 2004). According to Lee (2008), the CSR unprecedented efforts are not only driven by philosophical thinking that firms can be a positive and powerful social change force, but more by complicated business profits that firms can possibly get from their CSR activities. Actually, according to Kotler and Lee (2005), academic research and the marketplace polls, the stakeholders who include investors, employees and consumers are highly probable to take moves to punish bad corporate citizens and to reward the good ones. For instance, firms can manage considerable business profits of CSR from consumers. A firm can develop customer loyalty and change consumers into brand or company champions and ambassadors who participate in advocacy behaviours. CSR returns based on stakeholder-driven views according to Matten and Moon (2008), demonstrate different stakeholders’ reaction to firms engaged in CSR activities in different manners, by not just purchasing extra goods but by sanctioning the behaviours of other stakeholders that include investing in the firm and seeking jobs. All this can be applicable in the ILDI Company. However to be able to maximize of the CSR benefits, the ILDI has to accomplish the CSR communication role in which the company spread awareness regarding its involvement with the CSR activities for instance the recycling process the company does to enhance clean environment. In this communication role the company will be required spread a word to all its stakeholders regarding its involvement in CSR activities. This communication should focus more on the activities that benefit the society. The company is thereby only supposed to demonstrate to the society the cost it incurs for the benefit of all. This can be attained through advertisements. However, according to Maignan and Ferrell (2004), the company should be careful on its role of advertisement to lower scepticism. Aggressive advertisements may demonstrate the company’s motive to benefit from the CSR activities. Therefore, the communication role should be done strategically just as a way of informing the public of what the company is doing for them and how they can benefit from it. This communication can be enhanced by selecting the message and designing it carefully. The communication channel to be used should be more accessible to the company’s stakeholders. The targeted stakeholders in this case should include the employees, investors and consumes. The message should be designed to create awareness, and identification, as well as influencing trust, attribution, and attitude (Du et al., 2010) Theory: Corporate Communication Communication is currently considered as one of the major tools that can be used to enhanced organization’s operations. Messages regarding corporate social and ethical responsibility are probable to evoke positive and strong reaction among the organization’s stakeholders (Alsop, 2005). Corporate communication is a process of strategic management in which a business communicates with its different audiences for joint benefits and to enhance its competitive advantages (Belasen, 2008). Corporate communication theory is a process of transmitting information from the organization to all its stakeholders using the best available channels. In this regard, the communicated message must have a mission, vision, the organization goals and means in which these goals are to be achieved. In addition to this, the communication must identify the source: corporate identity where in this case the name ILDI will appear in the message logo, show the company’s image and the company’s reputation still in the logo before the main message. Moreover this message must be coined to directly identify the communication audience. In this case, the message must be written to demonstrate its message to the stakeholders and also to the public (Cornelissen, 2011). Corporate communication theory therefore incorporates both communication theory and the managerial theory. Communication theory in this case regards the means in which a message is passed from one individual to another through a certain mechanism in which the message moves from sender to the receiver. The best mechanism to be used in ILDI case is the one which will ensure that the message is assessable to all or majority of the stakeholders. According to this perspective, the message in communication must have psychological value which demonstrates the sender’s thought, social values which shows interaction, systemic value which involve the message uniqueness, and critical value (Dawkins, 2004). The main reason of having the strategy of corporate communication is the idea of the corporate identity. This is the primary profile that ILDI will require to project to all its essential stakeholders and how it focuses to be known by different stakeholders group with regard to reputations and corporate image. To ascertain that various stakeholders actually convince a company in a broadly consistent and favourable manner, as well as in proportion to the projected identity of the company, ILDI will require going for an extra mile to incorporate all their communication from logos, visuals, themes, website in tome, and advertising campaign to brochures (Freeman & Phillips, 2002). Consistency of Company Corporate Communication Messages Corporate communication plays a great role in enhancing the establishment of a relation between an organization and its stakeholders. However, in current ILDI international setting, it is very hard for the company to stand out against its rival or to rise to a level of being recognized by the public. According to Sagepub (2010), it has been approximated that an individual receives an average of about 13000 commercial messages in a day. In this regard, ILDI must try to establish the best way to outshine its competitors in the market. To achieve this, ILDI will require having a well-structured message that will win the organization the benefits it intended when designing it and more. In addition, integrated strategies of communication are more probable to break via this clutter and ensure that the product brand and the company’s name are heard and recalled as compared to a poorly coordinated campaign. This should then be supplemented with message consistency to ensure effective communication. According to Morsing (2006), a consistent message will ensure that the company is more probable to be recognized and to be regard favourably by the main stakeholders in the organization. In this regard, ILDI have to increasingly put suitable effort into safeguarding the image of its corporate by strictly controlling and aligning all campaigns of communication and all its points of contact with stakeholders. A successful communication should always consider the roles of each stakeholder in an organization. This will prevents the company from sending a conflicting message to the public or its specific stakeholders. In addition to this, there will be an increasing need for transparency and CSR in ILDI operations. In its efforts to react to the identified social needs and others, and to present itself as trustworthy, reliable and coherent company with a high level of transparency, ILDI should consider employing integration techniques. According to Schwartz and Carroll (2003) organization usually adapt to the developing information demand and insight of stakeholder through consistency policies. This involves formalizing all organization’s communication and following uniformity in what is done or said. This consistency boosts the development of trust from the stakeholders, since consistency increases positive perception of stakeholders regarding an organization. One way for ILDI to ensure consistency in its message is by designing themed messages. The use of themes assists in improving the effectiveness of a message. It also gives a standard ways in which the company will be producing its messages and thus, giving consistency assurance. Overall Evaluation of Communication in the Organization and Your Specific Recommendation Communication is normally regarded as the passage of a message from the sender to the recipient through different communication channels in an organization. The passage of a message in this case means that the recipient understood the message content and interprets it in the manner intended by the message sender. In this regard the organization must ensure that its entire message is well structured and that they communicate the actual message to the audience without ambiguity. To ensure that the message is good enough to address all the involved stakeholders, the company should always ensure that they structure an integrated message which addresses all concerns. Communication in an organization is normally used for different purpose that includes making announcement, communicating the financial position of an organization and in marketing. However, marketing is normally given much attention among all organization communication. The marketing communication is done for a number of purposes which include increasing the organization’s product market share, to invite more investors and to attract new employees. In this regard each marketing message requires to be structured to fit its main purpose (Simmons & Becker‐Olsen, 2006). In CSR communication, these marketing messages are normally structured to integrate all stakeholders. However, they are normally provided as public communication and not advertisement. This is because the main aim of CSR communication is to create awareness of what the organization is doing to enhance sustainability and to support the communities in the surrounding among other social responsibilities. Therefore, the message should not consider putting emphasis on aspect that may create a perception that the company is marketing itself. This is despite that marketing is the main aim of the announcement. This protects the company’s reputation and only demonstrates the company’s good will toward the surrounding community and thus, attracting more individuals who are pleased by the company’s move (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). However, in normal product marketing, the company should definitely focus on informing the public of the product’s quality and its uniqueness as compared to other products in the market. On the contrary to the CSR communication, this communication should focus on customers or consumers market and should demonstrate the product’s strength. The application of all these measures in ILDI will help the company to extend its competitive advantage to a very higher level such that it will dominate its industry in the world market In the recommendation, it is important for ILDI to realize that market competition is currently determine by how well the company can manage to market its products or its activities to the public. To enhance the company’s competitive advantage, ILDI must learn the art of designing messages based on what is to be communicated, the purpose of communication and the intended audience. In this case, the company will have be able to differentiate between information intended for all stakeholders and specific stakeholders. The second recommendation is that the company should also consider using the best channels of communication. The change of communication technology and the development of more forms of instant communication are eliminating the need for official communication especially printed forms of communication. For organization to remain viable in the market, it should therefore be able to understand its targeted audience and their preferable mode of communication. This way, ILDI will have an advantage of conveying its message effectively to the highest number of the targeted audience. Although consistency is essential even in mode of communication, ILDI should try to be flexible where necessary (Yoon et al., 2006). Conclusion Communication plays a huge role in the marketing the company’s products and hence in increasing its market shares. Although this can be done by marketing the company’s product directly, it can be enhanced more by communicating CSR activities of the company. The work market is currently experiencing great completion with all products in a perfect competition market experiencing a continuous emergency of substitute products. However, smart organizations have realized the advantage of embracing CSR in promotion of their products in this market. Engagement of CSR activities attracts more consumers who treasure organizations that care about the welfare of the surrounding community or environmental sustainability. It also attracts investors who regard social development and workers who are attracted by a caring institution. In this regard, CSR communicated is being considered as one of the main organization products marketing trick and thus it is currently embraced by many organization. However, CSR involves a number of stakeholders and thus its communication should be integrated. In addition, the audience would wish to see the caring attitude of the organization and not the use of the CSR activity as advertisement technique and thus, organization should always design CSR messages to fit the audience expectation. References Alsop, R. J. (2005). Communicating corporate citizenship. Leading Perspectives, Summer, 4–5. Belasen, A. T. (2008). The theory and practice of corporate communication. Sage Publication Inc. Cornelissen, J. (2011). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage Publication, Inc. Dawkins, J. (2004). Corporate responsibility: the communication challenge. Journal of Communication Challenge, 9, 108–119. Du, S., Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2010). Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication. International Journal of Management Reviews, 8-19. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00276.x Freeman, R. E., & Phillips, R. A. (2002). Stakeholder theory: A libertarian defense. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(3), 331-349. Garriga, E, &. Mele, D. (2004). Corporate social responsibility theories: Mapping and territory. Journal of Business Ethics, 53, 51-74. Ismail, M. (2009). Corporate social responsibility and its role in community development: an international perspective. The Journal of International Social Research, 2(9), 199-209 Kotler, P., & Lee, N. (2005). Corporate social responsibility: doing the most good for your company and your cause. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. Lee, M. P. (2008). Review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: Its evolutionary path and the road ahead. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(1), 53-73. Maignan, I.,
&
Ferrell,
O.
C.
(2004).
Corporate
social
responsibility
and
marketing:
An
 integrative
framework.
Journal
of
the
Academy
of
Marketing
Science,
32(1),
3‐19.
 Matten,D.,
Moon,
J.
(2008).
"Implicit"
and
"explicit"
CSR:
A
conceptual
framework
for
a comparative
understanding
of
corporate
social
responsibility.
Academy
of
 Management
Review,
33(2),
404‐424.
 Morsing, M. (2006). Corporate social responsibility as strategic auto-communication: on the role of external stakeholders for member identification. Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(2), 175-182. Secchi, D. (2007). Utilitarian, managerial and relational theories of corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Management Reviews, 9(4), 347-373. Sagepub. (2010). Defining corporate communication. Chapter 1. Retrieved from < http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/39352_978_0_85702_243_1.pdf > Sen,
S.,
&
Bhattacharya,
C.
B.
(2001).
Does
doing
good
always
lead
to
doing
better?
 consumer
reactions
to
corporate
social
responsibility.
Journal
of
Marketing
 Research
(JMR),
38(2),
225‐243. Simmons,C.
J.,
&
Becker‐Olsen,
K.
L.
(2006).
Achieving
Marketing
Objectives
Through
Social
 Sponsorships.
Journal
of
Marketing,
70(4),
154‐169. Schwartz, M. S., & Carroll, A. B. 2003. Corporate social responsibility: a three-domain approach. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(4), 503–530 Van Marrewijk, M. (2003). Concept and definitions of CSR and corporate sustainability: between agency and communion. Journal of Business Ethics, 44, 95–105 Yoon,
Y.,
Gürhan‐Canli,
Z.,
&
Schwarz,
N.
(2006).
The
effect
of
corporate
social
 responsibility
(csr)
activities
on
companies
with
bad
reputations.
Journal
of
 Consumer
Psychology,
16(4),
377‐390. Read More