Corporate Social Responsibility in the UK - Essay Example

Running head: corporate social responsibility 3rd May Part Based on the need to maintain strong trust and loyalty between the business and the customers, there is need to ensure that various meetings are held that encompasses all the stakeholders. One of the strategies that I would adopt in order to respond to the issues that are affecting Strummer and Simenon branch in Kenya is by holding a forum that covers on various topics that relates to road safety. It is vital to note that as one as the firms that significantly use road transport to transport its customers to various tourists attraction centers, Strummer and Simenon must ensure that all the aspects of road safety are not overlooked. As the Kenya government embarks on improvement of its road network especially in urban areas, there is need to involve all the stakeholders in upholding road safety. As an employee of Strummer and Simenon, my focus would be to turn the situation that is being ignored by the managing director and other employees by involving county government officers in road safety forums in the company. In order to ensure that such meetings bear good results, I would further invite experts to make their presentation and focus on the way forward. One of the major aspects that make Strummer and Simenon to have poor operations is lack of appropriate policies of outsourcing of its activities. This is indicated by the many accidents that have been caused by the local contractor yet the company continues to use its services. As the result of the propagation of the new constitution in Kenya in 2010, the Kenya government has adopted strict rules and regulations that need to be followed during outsourcing. For example, any company that is involved in fraud activities or any other practices that endangers the lives of Kenyans residence or foreign visitors must be blacklisted and not be involved in outsourcing practices. Thus, by the use of the local outsourcing laws as my reference as well as international labor laws to avoid harassment from the managing director, I would terminate the activities of the local contractor. This would be followed by advertising for new position and hire the activities of an audit firm such as the pricewaterhousecoopers in order to ensure that all the transport activities of the company are in the hands of a responsible company. In addition, my focus would entail establishing a team of drivers with extensive driving skills who values road transport ethics in Kenya. Every driver who will be hired by the company will need to have a good conduct certificate issued by the criminal investigation department located in Nairobi. In order to monitor the performance of the drivers and their value for the safety of our customers, I would introduce a feedback system that will ensure that all the employees give their views on the performance of the drivers. Another strategy that I would adopt is use of costs and benefits analysis in order to convince the managing director as well as other employees to accept changes in the fir. As a graduate from University of Manchester, I have adequate skills on how to use data and indicate the extent to which the accidents have caused negative image for Strummer and Simenon on the eyes of the public (Wernerfelt, 1984). Being one of the major concerns, the firm is not responding to the customer’s problems especially on the lack of proper safety belts and lack of maximum safety for the customers. Due to lack of the company commitment to address the customer concerns, the public does not trust the firm and its employees. Through the increasing number of accidents, customers are not able to market the firm by use of word of mouth both locally and globally. As the result, the company is not exposed to large number of customers thus reducing the company sales. As stiff in the tourism industry in Kenya due to emergence of many firms with similar services, it is vital that the managing director reconsiders his stand and make the company initiate safety precautions an aspect that many firms in the industry are not overlooking. While it is the duty of the managing director to provide guidelines to the company, he should act as a leader who is a role model to the employees. Working ethics maintains that employees should be given opportunities to provide their opinion without being harassed by the managers. However, in the case of Strummer and Simenon, Michael Jones acts as strict manager who does not allow his employees to give their ideas. This is the major reason as to why despite my effort to discuss their concerns with my colleagues they are hesitant to accept my ideas due to the fear of being harassed by the Managing Director. This implies that I will try to create a good working relationship between the managers and the employees by holding training and social meetings that will include experts in the tourism industry. In this way, the employees will feel part and parcel of the organization thus be given a chance to question steps and policies being implemented in the firm (Manfred, 2003). This will not only be an effective in making the employees and the Managing Director accept changes but also it will indicate the company benefit from positive public image and large number of customers. Based on its failure to hold ethics in the work place, for instance in not responding to customers complaints and not addressing to safety obstacles in the organization, Strummer and Simenon has not been able to compete effectively with other established firms. My objective will involve coming up with ethics plan that will cover all the operations of the company including hiring, training, employees’ benefits, outsourcing, responsibilities of the employees and corporate social responsibilities among others. Part 2 As a way of enhancing product awareness among the existing or new consumers, organizations in UK and other countries globally have embarked on adopting various corporate social responsibilities. Enlightened self-interests entail an ethics philosophy that indicates that as a manager or a leader of an organization, ones acts to improve the interest of others in the organization resulting to serving their own interests. The philosophy argues that by doing good one ultimately does well. Organizations have a responsibility to all stakeholders including customers, suppliers, employees as well as communities that surrounds them (Habisch, et al, 2005). One of the notable aspects of enlightened self-interest is that it recognizes that a company major objective is to make profit but this objective can be attained by the firm fulfilling environmental and social responsibilities. In their efforts to provide good leadership, managers on their part emulate policies that improve their organization while at the same time achieving their own success (Marilynn, 2001). In UK, firms have undertaken various strategies in order to put the interest of the consumers at heart and as the result, the organization benefits by enjoying high demand for its products. One of the major advantages of enlightened self-interest is that they results into deferred gratification. This implies that if an individual aims at emulating enlightened self-interest, he or she makes sacrifice short-term interests in order to attain long-term benefits. Managers who are focused at achieving the objectives of their firms will need to sacrifice their self interest and achieve the goals of other or the entire group. Additionally, through the self-interest of a person, the manager is able to create positive relationship within the group. Another notable advantage of enlightened self-interests for firms in UK is that it acts as the motivation for firm’s philanthropy. For example, organizations that are embarking on charitable activities as part of their corporate social responsibilities benefits from a positive image that they create on the eyes of the public (Tullberg and Tullberg, 1996). The donations or the monetary contributions provided do not only focus at improving the lifestyles of the individuals requiring the support but also they are form of the advertising. Just like in the traditional marketing, the donations have strong impact on the eyes of the consumers as well as the formation of positive opinion of the brands produced by the companies. A company like Tesco has significantly gained from strong brand awareness as the result of its outstanding contribution to conservation of environment including reduction of carbon emission. Based on Tesco objective of becoming a zero-carbon company by 2050, the firm has been recognized not only by the government but also by the communities surrounding the business. Through the use of responsible trading, Tesco has put its customers at the first position in addition to adoption of the culture of innovation thus resulting to high quality products. As the result, the company has benefited from high sales and profit due to extensive use of corporate social responsibilities. This is a clear indication of how enlightened self-interest has resulted to the expansion of the UK firms as the result of contribution towards communities’ activities as well as working with the suppliers. On its part, Coca-Cola Company has extensively adopted the concept of enlightened self-interest an aspect that has made it a quire a substantial market segment in the UK soft drink industry. Most notably, the company emulates progressive employment conditions as a way of maintaining a productive workforce. For instance, the company offers health benefits to its employees in order to ensure that they remain productive. Additionally, the company provides family-friendly policies that includes childcare support, job-sharing and adequate paid time for workers to address their domestic duties. In turn, the family-friendly policies adopted by the company results into improved recruitment, workforce retention as well as improved productivity. Through the established facilities as well as investment in hospitals, research centers and schools, Coca-Cola Company among other organizations ensure that the communities benefits from their entry to the UK market (Rajagopal, 2007). Thus, through the enlightened self-interest, the company has not only being able to improve the health of its workforce and high demand for its brands but also it has effectively been able to attain a competitive edge in the market. Environmental stewardship is another key possibility of enlightened self-interest that firms can use to further the corporate social responsibilities. In the factories as well as motor vehicle manufacturing sector, firms have been encouraged by the government to mitigate their impact of the environment (Lynne, 2013). This is in most cases done by ensuring that the companies participate in voluntary environmental management forums. Thus, firms do not like to be experience a damage of their reputation once the regulators enforce them to protect the environment. On their part, the consumers prefer to outsource their business activities to firms that have a good record in terms of managing the environment as well as the safety of their workers and the products. This is an indication that environment conservation creates an impact on the entire supply chain thus all the managers owning related business activities cannot overlook the issue of environment protections if they are focusing at increasing their profits. Likewise, by undertaking business activities in an environmentally sustainable method, the business will benefit from long-term operations since the raw materials as well as other resources used by the company will be protected. Daimler, a UK based motor vehicle manufacturing firm in has also greatly contributed to conservation of the environment. By committing itself to the ten principles as outlined by the United Nations Global Compact initiative, the company has created strong relationship with it customers due to its strong culture of social responsibility. The World Employee Committee and Daimler top management have come up with corporate social responsibilities that are adopted by the company is its operations (Daimler Global Media, 2007). As the result, the company has gained the support of the government as well as the consumers and other firms. Despite the advantages that enlightened self-interest has on the expansion of companies, it can limit the development of corporate social responsibilities that firms may face in the markets. For example, new organizations may be willing to provide various CSR programs but due to lack of adequate funds, they may not be in a position to invest in public goods such as schools and hospitals that covers large number of members of the community. Additionally, companies that have already emulated corporate social responsibilities may not be able to provide them in a regular manner due to lack of funds. For instance, as the population in UK and other countries continue to expand, the demand for health services and education continues to increase. This implies that new firms that may be willing to invest in health facilities among other responsibilities may not be able to continue with such activities due to lack of adequate and sustainable funds (Barney, 1991). In the same way, before firms produce products that meet the needs of the community and the stiff competition, they may take some time before they embark of effective responsibilities. Within that time, the competitors who are well establish may come up with unique CSR strategies that a new company may not be able to imitate. This will ultimately lead to lack of strong customer awareness resulting to low sales for the company. This means that in order for any company to succeed in its corporate social responsibilities, there is need to come up with adequate budget that covers all the activities that the company wishes to initiate. Similarly, managers who aims at increasing the sales as well profit of their organizations they must emulate effective marketing strategies that include extensive advertising and promotion. In this way, they will be in a position to face off established firms and increase their revenue thus having the ability to initiate sustainable corporate social responsibilities. In conclusion, it is clear that enlightened self-interest is an important aspect that firms cannot ignore if they aim at maintaining strong positive relationship with their customers. Some of the notable firma that have benefited through the provision of extensive corporate social responsibilities in UK are Tesco and Coca-Cola. Key responsibilities that firm globally adopt in order to remain competitive include environmental conservation including reduction of carbon emission (Siegel, 2009). In addition, organizations have embarked on establishing schools as well as hospitals for example in areas with high population. In this way, they have significantly contributed to the health of the consumers who in turn becomes productive thus increasing their household income leading to increase in the demand for the companies’ products. To address the limitations of enlightened self-interest in developing corporate social responsibility in the UK, firms should ensure that they allocate adequate funds to deal with the problems that the local communities face. This is due to the high population in the region an aspect that causes the demand for social services and basic commodities to hike. References Barney, J. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management (15): 9–21. Daimler Global Media. 2007. Press Kit: Mercedes-Benz in the UK. London: Sage. Habisch, A et al. 2005. Corporate Social Responsibility across the Europe. Heidelberg: Springer. Lynne, M.2013. Examples of Enlightened Self-interest in Business. Available from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-enlightened-selfinterest-business-22880.html. Manfred, R.2003. Kets de Vries The Dark Side of Leadership. Business Strategy Review 14(3). Marilynn B. 2001. Individual Self, Rational Self, and Collective Self .London: Psychology Press. Rajagopal. J. 2007. Marketing Dynamics: Theory and Practice. New Delhi: New Age Siegel, S. 2009. Green Management Matters Only If It Yields More Green: An Economic/Strategic Perspective. Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 23, No. 3. Tullberg, J and Tullberg, S. 1996. On Human Altruism: The Discrepancy between Normative and Factual Conclusions. Oikos 72 (2): 27–29. Wernerfelt, B. 1984. A resource based view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal (5): 71–80. Read More