Essay lachlan delaney - assignment 1 managing ib responsibly PDF

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assignment 1 managing ib responsibly...

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Lachlan Delaney –s3839615 Managing IB Responsibly BUSM4687 26/03/21 “CSR can help both international business and society, including when it comes to conflicts between the two”: Do you agree with this statement? Why, or why not? Given that the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a highly contested topic with no clear uniform definition or consensus, this paper will set out to elaborate a comprehensive definition of CSR on the basis of reviewed literature works which will be analyzed throughout the paper. Furthermore, to help provide a clear understanding of how CSR can help both international business and society this paper will set out to provide explanations for the choice of definition, the implications of CSR upon International business and society as well as highlighting conflicts between the two and providing potential solutions.

For the purpose of this paper CSR will be outlined as a voluntary series off actions taken by a private enterprise, integrating legal, ethical, philanthropic, societal, environmental, and economic responsibilities into the company’s core business model whilst cooperating with multistakeholders to derive greater value to society (Crane, Matten & Spence 2014). Nonetheless it must be noted that traits of Crane, Matten & Spence (2014) 6 core characteristics model such as the concept of “voluntary” is a highly debated matter, with arguments vying it merely acts as an industry led initiative to promote self-regulation as a substitute for governmental regulation (Temitope Ako, 2012) whilst also acknowledging the growing involvement of CSR in developing legislative standards. Thus defining CSR in this light allows entities to view CSR in a contemporary manner and understand the responsibility of private enterprises to go beyond the voluntary and regulatory minimum.

CSR in a business model can provide vast business benefits to private entities on a local and international scale with numerous monetary and non monetary benefits accruing for company’s engaged in CSR practices. In terms of monetary benefits CSR activities had found to boost revenue

Both indirectly and directly through the developing and adjustment of brand image as well as CSR driven consumer campaigns shifting the image of the brand to that of a more societally equitable standard, with its monetary value not being stapled as just the enterprises cash flow but the value of the brand itself, “with any improvement of the market value of the brand being measurable in monetary terms” (Weber, 2008). Alongside monetary benefits CSR practices taken by a private enterprise also developed grandeur workplaces with employee motivation, retention, and recruitment increasing as The organizational commitment of workers increases under situations where a company reforms labour practices and protects labor rights generate a productive environment escalating productivity and generating a competitive advantage (Księżak, 2016) This is evident through the implications of CSR practices taken by by Polypharma group in Poland such as and integrated Environmental Management System, the implementation of a Suppliers’ Behavior Code as well as also conducting projects linked to health education for citizens resulting in it becoming the leader of the Polish pharmaceutical market with 11.28% volume market share by the end of the first half of 2013 (Cegliński,, Wiśniewska , 2016)

In regard’s to Society’s benefits from adaptation of the use of CSR in private enterprises, bar the clear examples such as a means to set societal standards for Trans National Corporations (TNCs) , CSR also acts as a means to generate societal value from products produced. When it comes to CSR acting as a means of regulating TNC’s this has come about as the globalized nature of business in the modern era has spread supply chains across traditional legislative boundaries generating a “regulatory vacuum” limiting the ability of nation states to provide accountability for private enterprises shortcomings (Palazzo & Scherer, 2008) with the role of CSR acting in conjunction with legislative standards as a voluntary measure based on consumer desires and wants shaping the way companies act in pursuit of profit forming some form of conduct of international business. With corporate pursuit of CSR acting as a way to generate better living and working standards, increases in philanthropic efforts and the improvement of product quality in an attempt to diminish consumer and worker complaints whilst increasing customer satisfaction (Księżak, 2016). An example of this is Googles development of Google Crisis Response making critical information easily available to the public during times of natural disasters treating CSR activities as a main core business strategy (Gulzar, Gul Fayaz, 2015) benefitting the public in the process.

Despite CSR providing many benefits to both private enterprises and societies many varying conflicts still arise due to differences in goals and legitimacies between the two, with societies consisting of large numbers of stakeholder groups in relation firm who each may pertain there own desire for certain outcomes and actions taken by private entities, resulting in organizations having to balance conflicting and competing roles of varying stakeholders within its own stakeholder map ( Freeman, 1984). A prime example of this revolves around the extraction industry and the conflict between legislative bodies, local communities and private enterprises in the extractive industry. Banerjee, (2018) highlights this thorough the notion and elaboration of how the use of multistakeholder initiatives by private entities are designed to generate consensus and inclusion between varying stakeholders yet fundamentally fail and inevitably lead to conflict that CSR processes cannot accommodate. With incompatible worldviews with local community resulting in enterprises having connections to the plant site then a local community would. Ultimately resulting in firm managers determining which stakeholders are salient and therefore receive management attention (Mitchel, Angle & Wood, 1997). One potential approach to deal with conflicts of this manner would be to emphasize the importance of multi-stakeholder governance / trans-local governance in a sense that it would develop organizational forms made up of varying stakeholders in which it would have a competing power basis to that of a private entity or legislative body regarding local matters, enabling more cooperation and deliberating on which stakeholder are the most salient.

In conclusion, in conjunction with the provided definition of CSR it can be argued that CSR provides benefits to that of international business and society’s in differing and similar ways, it can also be stated that certain traditional aspects of CSR cannot help resolve a large portion of conflicts between the two such as philanthropic efforts. However rather taking a reformed organizational approach to enable a greater harmonization and communication between varying stakeholders to determine the best course of action for a private entity.

Works Cited -

Banerjee, S, 2018, ‘Transnational power and translocal governance: The politics of corporate responsibility’, Human Relations, Vol. 71, pp. 796–821

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Mitchell, R, Angle. B &, Wood, D, 1997, ‘Toward A Theory Of Stakeholder Identification And Salience: Defining The Principle Of Who And What Really Counts’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 853-886

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Freeman, R. E, 1984, ‘Chapter 3’, Strategic management. A Stakeholder approach, Boston: Pitman

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Temitope Ako, R. (2012), "Re-defining corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria's post-amnesty oil industry", African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 9-22.

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Gulzar, F, Gul, S & Fayaz, A, 2015, ‘Building Competitive Advantage: An Evaluative Study of CSR’, Advances in Economics and Business Management, Vol. 2, No. 14, pp. 1350-1353

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Cegliński, P, Wiśniewska, A, 2016, ‘CSR as a Source of Competitive Advantage: The Case Study of Polpharma Group’, Journal of Corporate Responsibility and Leadership, Vol. 3, No.4, pp 9-25

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Księżak, P, 2016, ‘The Benefits from CSR for a Company and Society’, Journal of Corporate Responsibility and Leadership, Vol. 3, No.4, pp 53-65

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Weber, M, 2008, ‘The Business Case For Corporate Social Responsibility: A CompanyLevel Measurement Approach For CSR’, European Management Journal 2008, Vol. 26, pp. 247-261

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Crane, A, Matten, D & Spence, L. J, 2014, ‘Chapter 1’, Corporate social responsibility: Readings and cases in a global context (2nd Ed.). London; New York : Routledge....