Concept of CSR Practices Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Using an Organisation Illustrate CSR Practices. Answer: Introduction Corporate social responsibility directs its attention on the ethical and moral issue of an organization. This focus involves practices that influence the organization decision making. The sustainability concept of CSR advocates for a responsible and continuous social contribution to the society. The concept aims to remind businesses that apart from profit making, they also have other stakeholders to take care of to ensure the long-term sustainability of the organization. Naturally, the aim of businesses is to maximize profit, and in the process, it must deal with stakeholders who include, trade unions, the community, employees, customers, and shareholders (Sun, Stewart, Pollard, 2012). Businesses operate under limited resources; due to this, firms tend to be self-interested and fail to consider the wide range of stakeholders who will be affected by its strategic decision. This paper will focus on the CSR practices in a mining company, which has incorporated the CSR concept and how t he theoretical concept has influenced sustainability on this organization. The following are the organization corporate social responsibilities in an organization Setting measurable goals This practice involves laying down the key performance indicators of the organization in a way that it considers all aspects of the organization and that the set standards are achievable and measurable. According to Baden, (2016), many organizations struggle to measure the return on investment and forget the other areas like the employees needs. Capaldi (2016) suggests that the management should start by making small changes at home like improving the policies meant for the employees to ensure that employee turnover is reduced, ensuring that the wastage of resources has been minimized. According to the goal setting theory, motivation comes about due to the willingness to work towards a goal. As such, greater output is realized once the goal is specific and clear. Also, the theory suggests that in setting the goal, employee participation is very crucial and makes the goal more acceptable and leads to more involvement. The goal setting theory states that the goals are set must be reali stic and challenging in a way that they ensure continuous employee growth, builds their confidence, and leads to greater job satisfaction for employees, ensuring workforce sustainability. However, this practice relies on feedback, good and appropriate feedback is what motivate the employees as well as shape their behavior. Stakeholders engagement Most often companies neglect their stakeholders while making efforts to hitch their wagon on the green/social responsibility. When to accompany is creating the corporate social responsibility plan, it should articulate it with the strategy, mission, and implementation so that everyone can be on the same page (Zu, 2012). When the stakeholders are involved in the corporate social responsibility plan, they can help in the regulatory approval process, improve the relation, and eliminate roadblocks and potential crisis. Therefore, CSR developments that fail to have the stakeholders influence should not be undertaken, as they will not be sustainable. The stakeholders theory, which is also known as the theory of management attempts to explain who or what matters while running the business. It argues that the stakeholders involved in a business include, trade unions and trade association, political groups, governmental bodies, communities, financiers, suppliers, customers, and employees. Acc ording to the theory in some cases, the competitors are regarded as stakeholders. This theory incorporates the resource-based view, the market-based view, and the socio-political level. Also, the theory tries to define the specific shareholders of a company and analyze the condition of which managers treat them as stakeholders. This theory advocates for fair treatment of these stakeholders so that the company can manage to thrive sustainably (Vavrek, 2017). Sustainability issues mapping This practice involves interactive maps that help to identify, prioritize and narrow down to the main issues. This saves the companies time and other resources such as money during the initial stages of research. According to Chamberlain, (2017) sustainability mapping helps to bring together those things that ought to go together but most often do not. This approach is the most refreshing approach. Sustainability management systems The practice of sustainable management systems (SMS) involves developing a framework to ensure that socio-economic issues are put into consideration all throughout the organization's decision-making process. The practice begins with identifying the sustainability aspect, prioritizing and assessing its impacts. The practice also highlights the legal requirements that relate to the sustainability impacts as well as identify the organization's current position in compliance. To exercise the practice successfully, it is crucial that the management engages the services of an environmental consultant to help in the process. From this point, the management sets the goals and objectives (Trong Tuan, 2012). Eventually, the company trains and educates employees on Sustainability Management System while occasionally performing evaluations to ensure that it takes place in the most appropriate manner. According to the triple bottom line, sustainability involves the three Ps, which stand for profi t, people, and the planet. The triple bottom theory enables the management to look beyond the traditional understanding of sustainability and look at the profits that the organization makes socially, economically and environmentally. This theory is the most appropriate in measuring the business sustainability. When an organization sets up a sustainability management system, it ensures that it can understand its position in the economy and that it can survive in the future (Gond, Moon, 2012). Lifecycle assessment This practice rubbishes the tradition view, which just focused on the immediate product without considering its afterlife. Therefore, the practice emphasizes on product design. The practice relies on the cradle-to-cradle approach, which exhibits the companys innovation, and creativity, which can tremendously improve the bottom line. Reusing the product or designing the product in a way that it will avoid landfill, will go a long way in building customer land brand loyalty by removing the pressure from the disposal routine of the product. According to the lifecycle assessment theory, the product assessment begins from material extraction, through materials processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, repair and maintenance and finally disposal or recycling (Sun, Stewart, Pollard, 2012). The theory helps to avoid a narrow view of the environmental concerns through identifying the required energy and material input and the environmental release. The approach also analyses the impacts caused by the identified input and releases. From there the results are interpreted to make decisions that are more informed. The aim of this theory is to the environmental effects related to products and services by quantifying all inputs and outputs of materials and evaluating how the material flows impact the environment. This ensures that the product that the company is offering has incorporated the sustainable measures to ensure customer rapport is improved and future sustainability is enhanced (Lu, 2017). Sustainability/CSR Reporting Corporate Social Responsibility has gradually become the center of sustainability due to the increased regulatory measures by the government. Forward thinking companies have also aided the popularity of CSR reporting through various improvements of stakeholders relation. The reporting practice ensures that the customer base gets access to the latest and greatest endeavors in a way that it will not seem to be minimizing what the organization is doing (Schreck, 2014). The appropriate way to ensure that this information reaches the customer in an environmentally friendly manner is to post the CSR report on the company's website and in an easy manner that can be downloaded without distortion. This gesture will enable one to obtain feedback from the various customers. The theory of corporate social responsibility disclosure is considered as an important component that complements financial reporting to reduce information asymmetry. However, according to the theory, CSR reporting, it seems suitable to multinational corporations working in developing countries (Mohamed, 2017). Sustainability branding Any company's brand relies heavily on transparency. What the customer perceives of the company is very crucial and goes a long way to ensuring sustainability. Transparency in branding also helps in creating more customer base and increase the market share of the company's products and services. According to the sustainable branding theory, a brand is a functional and emotional trait perceive by the customers as fulfilled promise, unique experience and addition of value. However, sustainability branding should not be misunderstood as changing the company logo, to a color that symbolizes going green, b also ensuring that all the channels and dealings are also observant to the sustainability standards. The act of changing the logo without observing the sustainability standards in other areas is regarded as green-washing. An example of greenwashing is the move by Mc Donald's to change the background of its logo from red to green so that the European countries are impressed, while on the other hand, the company relied on unsustainable practices and suppliers (Pedersen, 2015). Conclusion Corporate social responsibility practices have become significantly part of many organization tops most agendas since they are seen to contribute to profit making in a big way. The mining company has realized the value of these practices and incorporated them in their strategy formulation. Using the practices, the organization can meet the needs of all the stakeholders and help to shape the company goal. Therefore, these practices should be adopted by organizations, as they will help safeguard future resources for the organization as well as the future generation. References Baden, D. (2016). A reconstruction of Carrolls pyramid of corporate social responsibility for the 21st century.International Journal Of Corporate Social Responsibility,1(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40991-016-0008-2 Capaldi, N. (2016). New (Other?) Directions in Corporate Social Responsibility.International Journal Of Corporate Social Responsibility,1(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40991-016-0005-5 Chamberlain, A. (2017).Sustainability management system: The Triple Bottom Line.Info.era-environmental.com. Retrieved 29 April 2017, from https://info.era-environmental.com/blog/bid/40788/sustainability-management-system-the-triple-bottom-line Gond, J., Moon, J. (2012).Corporate social responsibility(1st ed.). London [u.a.]: Routledge. Lu, C. (2017).Corporate Social Responsibilitys Seven Best Practices: Avoid Greenwashing Through Stakeholder Engagement.The Green Economy Post: Green Careers, Green Business, Sustainability. Retrieved 29 April 2017, from https://greeneconomypost.com/csr-best-practices-11001.htm Mohamed, O. (2017).Theoretical Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure.Macrothink. Retrieved 29 April 2017, from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1020.4715rep=rep1type=pdf Pedersen, E. (2015).Corporate social responsibility(1st ed.). Schreck, P. (2014).The business case for corporate social responsibility(1st ed.). Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag. Sun, W., Stewart, J., Pollard, D. (2012).Reframing corporate social responsibility(1st ed.). Bingley, U.K.: Emerald. Trong Tuan, L. (2012). Corporate social responsibility, ethics, and corporate governance.Social Responsibility Journal,8(4), 547-560. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17471111211272110 Vavrek, K. (2017).Reporting CSR practices.Cim.org. Retrieved 29 April 2017, from https://www.cim.org/en/CIMSubSites/CentreForExcellence/Tools-and-resources/Reporting-CSR-practices.aspx Zu, L. (2012).Corporate social responsibility, corporate restructuring and firm's performance(1st ed.). Berlin: Springer.