1 Corporate Social Responsibility Name Institution Course Professor Date 2 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Challenges for Practice 1. Should a company advance a contemporary or traditional CSR strategy? It will depend on several elements, including: a) The reason for the company to CSR is to progress its image, improve its competitiveness, give something back, develop the business new areas, or what? Ans. Companies should advance to contemporary corporate social responsibility strategy because the modern approach is more attuned with the present world and has gained a new reverberation on the global economic stage. In the age of Intense competition, companies' primary goal is how to make the world a better place, unlike the traditional strategy where the primary goal is to make profits. Contemporary CSR strategy addresses adverse value-chain effects concerning supporting societal needs and business. Additionally, modern CSR is more of a win-win approach where it focuses on value creation for both the company and society. (P.37-39) b) Which are the core actions that should be included in its CSR program? Ans. The key activities in the CSR program are a three-domain strategy that entails an economic, legal, and ethical agenda. The financial domain internments the actions meant to have a positive economic effect on the business, either direct or indirect. The moral domain denotes the ethical accountabilities as anticipated by the general public and relevant shareholders. The legal program refers to the corporate firm's 3 receptiveness to legal obligations mandated and obliged by the society in the form of state, local jurisdiction, federal or legal ethics as developed in case law. (P.105-121) c) What is the purpose of CSR, to relate to value distribution in the company or value creation? Ans. The modern CSR strategy is responsible for the business world and the competitive age. The primary purpose of the contemporary CSR strategy is value creation for both the company, stakeholders, and society through dependence between all the players. The interactions between the business, resource, process, and stakeholders create value for the community and corporations and represent an excellent image in external and internal environments through augmenting accountability for society. (P. 67-71) 2. Which is the best language to communicate CSR to both internal and external shareholders? The “pyramid model." a) Which of the four essential ideas- sustainability, citizenship, CSR, ethics – should a company adopt? Ans. 4 Companies should adopt Corporate Social responsibility because it helps a company be socially accountable to both the public, shareholders, and itself. By performing CSR, companies can be conscious of their influence on all levels of society, including the environment, social, and economical. Furthermore, adopting CSR means that a company functions in customs that enrich the community and the environment instead of contributing adversely. Many businesses view CSR as an essential part of their brand image as consumers perceive them to be more ethical. Apart from CSR being necessary to the community, it is correspondingly valuable to the company as its actions forge a stronger bond between workforces, managers, and corporations and boost morale among employees and the environment around them. (P. 68-70) b) What are the motives for the choice of this language? Ans. The pyramid model was preferred due to its simplicity, intuitive, and ability to withstand the test of time. Economic accountability was placed at the bottom of the pyramid because it's a foundational obligation in any business. Additionally, society is passing on the message that is anticipated to oblige to the law and regulations because they are the society's collation of basic rules in which businesses operate in a civil society. Moreover, companies are expected to perform in an ethical custom. The firm must run on what is right, what is just and fair to evade or curtail harm to shareholders with whom it interacts. Generally, the language is built to echo the essential roles played and projected by the business in society. (P. 105-107) 5 3. Relating to the Venn diagram in the Carroll and Schwartz reading to some of the critical CSR verdicts taken in exercise by a business: a) Have these choices been involved with legal, economic or ethical accountabilities – or an arrangement of both? Ans. Business decisions are mainly concerned with Carroll's model, which is an arrangement of economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities framework expectations that society places on business. The decisions are expected to fulfill their social responsibilities in some sequential and simultaneous pattern. Moral obligations are desired and expected, while economic and legal obligations are required. (P. 107-112) b) Do policy-makers assess decisions along with these ranks? If not, why not, and if yes, why so? Ans. Yes, decision-makers evaluate their decisions based on Carroll's model because companies have economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities. A companies' financial obligations are targeted at strategies that will enable the business in the long term while at the same time meeting legal and ethical standards such as meeting regulations set by relevant agencies and provision of certified products and services. (P. 110-113) 6 Study Questions 1. To what degree do you contemplate the plethora of terms and concepts in the CSR area as a weakness or strength for researchers and practitioners of Corporate social responsibility? CSR has been a strength since the strategy was first used. CSR has played a significant and noteworthy role and has convinced corporations to implement it with conviction. Some of the forces of CSR are it has led to the reduction of detrimental effects caused on the environment due to numerous operations. Non-profit organizations have stepped up to safeguard the well-being of society through improving livelihoods. CSR has also been a strength to individuals as the company's come to aid persons through charity organizations. CSR has also been helpful to corporations as it has enhanced the business's image led to the attraction of more shareholders as well as production of safe, clean, and renewable energy through the environmental CSR program. (P 11-16) 2. What are the core differences between contemporary and traditional CSR strategies? Discuss in the context of businesses from your home country while pointing out the most common strategy. The differences between traditional and contemporary CSR strategies are: the conventional strategy focuses on giving back while the current focuses more on profit generation. The second difference is that the conventional strategy drivers are the company's image, public acceptance, and brand, while the drivers of the contemporary strategy are performance, markets, and products. The third difference is 7 that the actors of the traditional approach are mostly unilateral philanthropy and corporation, while the modern approach actors are collaborative value creation, multishareholders, and corporation. Another difference between the two approaches is the relationship to the bottom-line, where traditional approach focuses on value distribution while the contemporary approach focuses more on value creation. The fifth difference is that the conventional approach has a reactive orientation while the modern strategy is proactive. The last difference is on the motto of the CSR strategies, the conventional approach motto is a bolt-on, and the contemporary approach is built-in. (P. 66-68) The most commonly used strategy is the modern strategy. This contemporary approach is used by multiple companies, including the Unilever multinational, which subscribes to the contemporary design where the company focuses on profit generation while at the same time living up to the expectations from society. Additionally, their sustainable living plan lists various areas where product innovations or shifts toward sustainable suppliers, including actions that are openly correlated to their value chain and eventually to the way Unilever makes its profits. (P. 67) 3. Which are the main types of the CSR theory as outlined by Mele and Garriga? Why do you think there is the emergence of different theoretical approaches? Is it feasible or preferable to integrate them? Garriga and Melez have outlined four different theories of CSR, namely. 1. Instrumental theories – in this theory, a corporation is assumed to be an instrument for wealth generation and that this is the corporation's sole 8 accountability. This theory only considers the interactions between the society and business economic aspect, and any social activities are accepted only if it is consistent with wealth generation. The approach understands CSR as a meager means to profit-making. 2. Political theories – in this theory, the emphasis lies on the social power of the corporation, particularly in its relationship with the society and its accountability in the political ground connected to this power. Consequently, this leads the corporation to assent social obligations or participate in social cooperation. 3. Integrative theory – this theory considers the fact that a company should integrate social weights. It argues that a company relies on the society for its growth and continuity as well as for the company’s existence itself. 4. Ethical theory – The last theory according to Garriga and Mele is the ethical theory which suggests that the relationship between a business and the society is entrenched with ethical morals. This leads to a vision of CSR from an ethical perception and as a result, organizations ought to consent to social accountabilities as an ethical commitment before any other considerations. (P. 76) It is feasible to integrate all these theories as they relate with each other in that they all peak about the relationship between the society and the business. Some theories integrate different strategies and use similar terminologies with diverse meanings. (P. 75) 9 4. What are the key components of CSR in Carroll and Schwartz definitions? Set out examples of businesses that have maintained this explicit levels of responsibilities as well as businesses that have desecrated them. According to Carroll and Schwartz, the Social responsibility of a business entails, ethical, legal, economic and discretionary prospects that the society has of business at a given time. they named it the Carroll’s model with Economic responsibility at the bottom of the pyramid and the philanthropic responsibility being at the top while ethical and legal responsibilities placed at the middle of the pyramid. According to Carroll, economic and legal responsibilities are the most fundamental while ethical and philanthropic responsibilities are less important than the other domains. (P. 104105) Multi companies such as Unilever and Deutsche bank have maintained this explicit levels of CSR. These companies have made CSR part of their regular business because it's an integral built-in management exercise as a fragment of their key valuegenerating activities that is driven by attention to market trends, performance, and product development. (P. 67) Companies such as Film Recovery Systems, which is deals with silver extraction from aged x-ray film, botched to take lawfully obligatory steps which would have barred the death of one of their staff in the early 1980’s. The worker succumbed due to cyanide toxicity notwithstanding the corporation having been formerly cautioned of its gross violations of employee’s welfare standards. (P. 115-116) 10 5. Think of Carroll and Schwartz's three-domain model from the perspective of a small company. Does it relate similarly as well as a large company? Equally, which models of CSR as diagramed out by Mele and Garriga would be most beneficial in a small enterprise context. Carroll's concept arguable works well only on big corporations and businesses which are characteristically owned by stakeholders and run by hired managers. On SMEs, unlike large businesses who are often visible and vulnerable to criticism due to their size and branding, they are commonly rather invisible and fall under the radar of broader society. SMEs core relationship with the society are rather personal relationships developed between owners, employees, and neighbors. SMEs have no attentiveness in turning their trustworthy and local exercise into a compulsory marketing and branding implementation. (P. 13-14) According to Mele and Garriga, strategies for the bottom of the model that is the economic responsibility are majorly focused on targeting the middle-class. Statistics show that over 400 million people are at the bottom of the economic pyramid which Garriga and Mele argue that certain approaches can serve the poor as well as making profits at the same time for small enterprises. (P. 79-80) 11 Reference Schwartz, M. S., & Carroll, A. B. (2003). Corporate social responsibility: A threedomain approach. Business ethics quarterly, 13(4), 503-530.
