Corporate Social Responsibility

Question:

Write an essay on Cooperative or Corporate Social Responsibility.

Answer:

Studying about Corporate social responsibility; it is understood that its primary aims is the promotion of business accountability to the stakeholders, shareholders and investors. The key areas concerning people dealing in this field involves taking the environmental matters into concern, welfare of the employees, organization, society both in the present as well as coming days. The concept related to CSR states that corporations can no longer enjoy functioning as isolated economic bodies working in detachment from the society as a whole. This is cleansing away the traditional concept of competitiveness, profitability and survival (Hunnicutt, 2009). 

When I am asked to talk about the drivers playing a major role towards the development of Cooperative Social Responsibility; there arises the diminishing role of the government, greater demand of extensive corporate disclosure by the stakeholders, increasing interest of the customers, growing pressure from the investors, growing competitiveness in the labor market and the relationship with suppliers. 

There are certain positive results which arrive upon the initiative of the business organization on adhering to the social responsibility policy. As a successful businessman; it is my responsibility to include the policy within the business for deriving steady success. As I move ahead; I came across the benefits which are sub- categorized under three heads: company benefits, social benefits and environmental benefits. Upon adhering to the guidelines; my company becomes more and more reputed with a larger brand image, is able to lower the cost of operation, financial performance improvement, increase in sale and customer trust, improvement in functioning quality and productivity, ability to attract employees, greater access to capital amount, and also shall be enjoying a substantial decrease in liability and risk factors. The benefits which I give to my community or society includes contributions to charity, greater safety of products, involvement in the education of the social mass, programs for the homeless and employment. The third objective deal with my contribution towards the environmental benefits which includes material recyclability to a greater extent, product durability, extensive use of renewable resources, inclusion of environmental management tools within the business programs, cost of operations and management norms and standards (Corporate Social Responsibility, 2016).

Unfortunately even after knowing about CSR, there are business firms neglecting CSR in their supply chain such as in retailing and importing of timber which are illegally harvested. Though the government possesses the right on imposing penalties on such offences, sound manager of the organization like me must make a prior commitment on sustainability by possessing the discerning attitude in the choice of suppliers. 

Ethical Leadership

The sound functioning of a company keeping all its ethical concerns into notion depends upon the recruitment of a morally upstanding leader. According to Lind Fisher Thornton; ethical leadership within the organization starts with the ethical functioning of the employees operating in the topmost position of the company’s body (Thoms, 2008). She also says that this marks the beginning of ethical leadership and defines ethical leaders as those who possess a strong impact over the functioning and behavior of other employees operating within the organization. 

If I am appointed as a leader i.e. in the managerial position of the company; my focus should always remains restricted upon the right acts within the organization. Guiding people in their acts abolishing the vulnerable acts shall be my duty. In my servings; as an ethical leaders I have to aim at drawing positive results for the organizational functioning. It is said that Leaders for the upliftment of ethical conduct within the organization can take up certain steps such as facing the complex situations creating a barrier in taking ethical decisions, inclusion of ethical in the day to day functioning of the business firms, eliminating negative interpersonal acts which can break away trust, eliminating the notion of considering ethics to be followed simply as laws and regulations, and celebration of the god ethical movements. 

The author also says that it is always important to celebrate the journey of ethics considering the same as an ongoing journey of learning which not just a one year training program but an ever long learning journey (Wittenberg, 1962). For the successful functioning of the company along the ethical path of business, it is my duty as a leader to include ethics in all the actions taken within the organization; even in relation to the communication taking place between the employees themselves. On my part; it is also important to focus on talks about ethics and also ensure that all the employees get in the exact meaning of the term and thus work accordingly by inclusion of these ethics within their day to day activities. It is important on my part to make everyone understand that while the world changes constantly; the role of everyone to retain their vigilance is very important. 

Issues in business ethics

In this modern world; a number of companies irrespective of their size face threats from ethical issues. To avoid such problems; it is the core responsibility of the business groups to develop and their code of ethical conduct which have to be followed by all the employees and organization heads irrespective of their position. Supposing I have my own company; my main duty shall be to include the code of conduct and ethics within my organization (Duska, 2000).  Coming to the ethical issues; the fundamental ethical issues include integrity, honesty and trust or fairness while other issues as cultural diversity, decision-making, and compliance with government rules and regulations play a more complex role.

Primarily talking about the fundamental issues of fairness, integrity and honesty; these are the main issues which creates a threat for the business functioning. For the smooth functioning of the business organization; as the owner, the primary responsibility of understanding the importance of integrity and include ideals of conducting the business with honesty and fairness lies with me. It is only upon the customers’ trust about the fairness of the company’s functions and their honesty on the product quality which will be regulating the success of my business group. This calls for developing trust between the customer and the organization which shall be determining the success of the organization. 

Other issues giving birth to complex cases of ethical situations within the organization includes diversity. Such diversity is made on the basis of language, cultural background, complexion and other considerations. My activity on showing an ethical response to such sensitive situation like diversity issues involves the recruitment of diverse workforce with equal work opportunities. In the recent days; such diversity, harassment, bullying have increased to a greater extent within the Australia companies which calls for steady action for promotion of diversity taking the ethical issues into concern (Ethical Issues in Business: Perspectives from the Business Academic Community, 2004). I must also make sure that the HR of my company adheres to the ethical code of conduct for recruitment and employees welfare.  

References

Corporate Social Responsibility. (2016). IJSR, 5(1), pp.1829-1831.

Duska, R. (2000). Business Ethics: Oxymoron or Good Business?. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(1), p.111.

Ethical Issues in Business: Perspectives from the Business Academic Community. (2004). Journal of Business Ethics, 52(2), p.141.

Hunnicutt, S. (2009). Corporate social responsibility. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press.

Thoms, J. (2008). Ethical Integrity in Leadership and Organizational Moral Culture. Leadership, 4(4), pp.419-442.

Wittenberg, A. (1962). Standards of Ethical Conduct. Science, 135(3507), pp.997-997.

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