Corporate Social Responsibility †Free Samples for Students

Question: Discuss About The Corporate Social Responsibility And Ethics? Answer: Introduction The reported study has been developed addressing the business issues associated with modern business practices. In this particular study, the management of labour practices and community engagement practices of Singapore Airlines Limited has been illustrated to identify the strengths and weaknesses within the approaches leading towards the corporate social responsibility of the organisation. Singapore Airlines has successfully supported towards the community to become one of the trendsetters in the target market of Singapore (Kannekanti, Muddu, 2009). The study has linked the management practices of Singapore Airlines with the corporate social responsibility to evaluate how the organisation has efficiently managed the labour practices and community engagement in the dynamic business environment. Precisely, labour practices can be termed as one of the most substantial aspects associated with the airlines business. Contemporary business organisations such as Singapore Airlines need to identify significant laws, regulatory directives, and social responsibilities to set the best approach. Similarly, community engagement is a considerable management practice that builds a strong relationship with the stakeholders associated with the business framework (Kang, 2012). Evidently, both the management practices have collectively benefited to the organisation as well as the community. At the end of the discussion, a set of recommendation has been included to improve the business practices for long-term business viability. Responsible Element 1: Labour Practices Singapore Airlines has certainly maintained significant status in managing the employees. As the aviation industry has been one of the leading job-creating sectors in Singapore, the airline's company has taken a significant responsibility to offer jobs at different positions (Yasser, Al Mamun, Ahmed, 2017). In order to maintain efficient industrial relations with the employees and other stakeholders, Singapore Airlines Staff Union has taken the initiatives. In the case of recruiting employees such as pilots, flight attendance, cabin crew, technical engineers, and other ground staff members, Singapore Airlines has followed the legislations and regulatory directives to ensure best human resource management practices (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). Furthermore, the organisation has valued the employee bargaining agreements to maintain a healthy relationship with the subordinates. The airline company also dictates anti-corruption policy and terms for the suppliers to improve the l abour practices ("Corporate Governance Policies", 2017). In the dynamic business environment, Singapore Airlines have supported the employees by providing training and development enhancing their career opportunities in the sector. In addition, the total reward system offered to the employees can be defined as the best in the entire industry ("Singapore Airlines", 2017). Subsequently, the organisational management has protected the rights of the employees and prohibited any discrimination in management abiding by the laws. Meanwhile, individual cases have gone against the company. For instance, in 2004, Singapore Airlines had unlawfully thrown out a union activist based on a labour dispute. Strengths Corporate Culture: Singapore Airlines has improvised significant corporate culture to influence the labour management practices in the business environment. For instance, the reliability and innovativeness in the labour practices have drawn more talents towards the company (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). Precisely, the anti-corruption policy and terms for the suppliers and partners have dictated corporate social responsibility in labour practice. Also, the corporate culture of the airlines business has played a major role in protecting the rights of the employees. Management Flexibility: The diversified management pool of Singapore Airlines has verified each aspect within the human resource management. For instance, employee relation has been governed efficiently to manage the disputes among the employees (Ramaswamy, 2012). Apart from that, flexible management of Singapore Airlines has acted as a motivational agent. Weaknesses Overloading of Staffs: In the broader business dimension, the management of Singapore Airlines needs to control massive workforce. As a result of the scenario, overloading of officials has become one of the considerable issues in HR management (Wirtz, 2008). Therefore, labour disputes and labour related concerns are increasing day by day in the business environment of the aviation business. Social Policy: The social policy of Singapore Airlines is another weakness in the management of labour practices. For instance, the company hires seasonal staffs and trainees to fulfil many job positions. Therefore, such social policy has negatively impacted on the activities of the business. Responsible Element 2: Community Engagement The term community engagement is essential for any multinational business organisation such as Singapore Airlines Limited. Depending on the challenging market environment, Singapore Airlines has established substantial community engagement describing extensive range of communication (Thomas, 2011). By contributing towards education, consultation, career development, partnerships, and public participation, Singapore Airlines has connected the business with the local people according to their special interest. By shifting the business focus towards the collective social public, Singapore Airlines has influenced the social participation by providing jobs to the community. Alternatively, Singapore Airlines has related the business with the local government to make positive changes in the target location (Ramaswamy, 2012). Through the identification of corporate social responsibility of the business, Singapore Airlines has been engaged in dedicated air transportation service influencing the lifestyle of the community. At the same time, Singapore Airlines has provided significant return to the investors by maximising the profits in the challenging business environment. In the every aspect of the aviation business of Singapore Airlines, the company has successfully met the requirement of the stakeholders (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). In addition, the community engagement of the business has increased the income status of the public on a various note. Precisely, directly or indirectly, Singapore Airlines has contributed towards the success of the community and the social public associated with the business framework. Strengths Community engagement activities: Singapore Airlines conducts different community engagement activities such as collecting feedbacks from the employees, customers and other stakeholders regarding the operations of the firm (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). On the other hand, the company also conducts educational campaign for the suppliers to motivate them to implement corporate social responsibility policy and act for the betterment of the society, environment and the economy. Level of community engagement: The level of community engagement is a primary strength of Singapore Airlines. The management and employees of the company participates in different community development events such as fund raising for the education of the poor children and helps people facing problems through natural calamities (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). Weaknesses Lack of flexibility in working arrangement: The HR management policy of the firm lacks flexible working arrangement for the workers due to high pressure of work. On the other hand, the high pressure of work and increasing challenges in the market leads to employee burnout (May, Cheney, Roper, 2017). Hence, a lack of community engagement can be evident in terms of workload among the current workforce of the firm. Biasness in recruitment: The Company does not have any separate policy to hire the people from the minority groups. On the other hand, Singapore Airlines focuses on hiring experienced people in the industry (May, Cheney, Roper, 2017). Hence, the biasness in the recruitment acts as a weakness for active community engagement. Recommendation to improve approaches In order to make improvement of the existing business approaches in the labour practices and community engagement, a few of recommendation has been listed in the underlying section: Increase Management Cooperation: Through substantial business audits, the management cooperation standards should be increased so that the HR practices and labour disputes can be dealt with utter priority and efficiency (Trong Tuan, 2012). In this way, the managers can effectively identify the leading issues affecting the labour practices. Also, the internal issues in the labour practices can be managed substantially if cooperation standards can be enhanced among the workers and management employees. Improve Employment Condition: Singapore Airlines management must continuously develop the infrastructure so that labour practices such as hiring, training development, compensation, and other approaches can be managed efficiently (King, Cruickshank, 2010). Thus, improved employment condition can automatically work in favour of the management. Decisively, suitable employment condition will encourage the workforce to be engaged with the organisation. Implement flexible working arrangement: Singapore Airlines must implement flexible working arrangement in order to motivate the employees. A flexible working arrangement will reduce the pressure over the employees and motivate them to enhance their performance (Trong Tuan, 2012). The flexible working arrangement will increase the loyalty of the workforce and increase employee engagement. Mitigate biasness in recruitment: The Company needs to make changes in its recruitment policy to mitigate the issues of biasness in recruitment (Watson, 2017). For example, the management of Singapore Airlines can develop policy to hire employees from the minority groups to enhance the strength of the workforce and increase community engagement. Conclusion By considering the above analysis, Singapore Airlines have effectively implemented CSR policies to improve labour practices and increase community engagement. The company implements modern HR policy to maintain a corporate culture at workplace. On the other hand, the activity participation of the management in community activities enhances the reputation of the firm. Meanwhile, the company lacks flexible working arrangement and faces the issue of biasness in the recruitment process. Additionally, the social policy and overloading of staffs lead to several challenges in the labour practices. Hence, the management of Singapore Airlines needs to make changes in its community engagement and labour practice approaches to improve its corporate social responsibility. References Corporate Governance Policies. (2017).Singaporeair.com. Retrieved May 2017, from https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/in/about-us/corporate-governance-policies/ Kang, J. (2012). The relationship between corporate diversification and corporate social performance.Strategic Management Journal,34(1), 94-109. Kannekanti, S., Muddu, V. (2009). Corporate Space for Social Sciences through Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Rising trend of Corporate Social Responsibility is a Boom for Asias Social Sciences from Theory and Practice Perspective.Asian Social Science,4(11). King, C., Cruickshank, M. (2010). Building capacity to engage: community engagement or government engagement?.Community Development Journal,47(1), 5-28. May, S., Cheney, G., Roper, J. (2017).The debate over corporate social responsibility(1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Miller, F., Vandome, A., McBrewster, J. (2009).Singapore Airlines(1st ed.). Alphascript Pub. Ramaswamy, K. (2012). Singapore International Airlines: Strategy with a smile.Thunderbird International Business Review,44(4), 533-555. Singapore Airlines. (2017).Singaporeair.com. Retrieved May 2017, from https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/in/flying-withus/our-story/ Thomas, S. (2011). Heritage and Community Engagement: Collaboration or Contestation?.Curator: The Museum Journal,54(3), 371-374. Trong Tuan, L. (2012). Corporate social responsibility, ethics, and corporate governance.Social Responsibility Journal,8(4), 547-560. Watson, D. (2017).Managing civic and community engagement(1st ed.). Maidenhead: Open University Press. Wirtz, J. (2008). Managing human resources for service excellence and cost effectiveness at Singapore Airlines.Strategic Direction,24(7). Yasser, Q., Al Mamun, A., Ahmed, I. (2017). Corporate Social Responsibility and Gender Diversity: Insights from Asia Pacific.Corporate Social Responsibility And Environmental Management,24(3), 210-221. Corporate Social Responsibility – Free Samples for Students Question: What Is the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives? Answer: Introduction It is a business practice adopted by organizations that want to make an impact to the community around instead of not only repatriating the profits to their headquarters. Through sound CSR practices, the organization enhances its image to different stakeholders such as the customers, employers, partners, shareholders and even the government (Salib et al., 2015). Often, clients tend to support more organizations that sacrifices for the sake of the community, since when the customer supports the business, at the back of their mind they know that they stand to benefit in future. Besides, investors are also likelier to be more inclined towards channeling resources to enterprises popular with high ethical standards (McWilliams, 2014). Different studies have revealed that most workers prefer working for organizations that they can make an impact, since the process of making an impact makes a happy employee, and as a result, there is a trickle down benefit to the entire supply chain of bene ficiary to the company (Singh, 2016). These employees have realized that financial incentives is less important compared to making a difference in the society (Baumberg, 2014). The benefits of CSR initiative to the local community and the society in generally is already visible whereby it is today common to find companies giving donations to charities, employees volunteering in community-building non-profits , or even absorbing interns after their graduations. Such initiatives have already made a large impact to the society (Flammer, 2015). There are several justifications as to why CSR are imperative towards companys operations. To begin with, CSR initiatives ensure that corporate entities uphold high moral standards in its dealings with the environment and the community around. The organization is also mandated to maintain high ethical standards and requirements from its regulatory entities. Another justification is that the organization has a duty to uphold its reputation across the stakeholders gamut. CSR does not only involve charity of philanthropic activities, but it may extend towards other causes such as energy saving programs and rebates for university students. However, most companies have different CSR policies whereby some have emerged successful while other have failed (Saeidi, 2015). No single entity has structured a CSR policy similar with its rivals. There are concerns that some entities have CSR policies in place that will benefit the community around in the long run but some companies only do it for publicity purposes (Hombert et al., 2015). It is in light of this fact that the paper will review CSR policies for TATA and Toyota Motors Corporation through a business value assessment report. Toyota Motor Corporation CSR Initiatives Company Background Toyota is a leading automobile manufacture employing more than 300,000 people worldwide. The company was incorporated way back in 1940 in Japan and due to the adherence of its mission statement making better cars has made the company the de facto leader in terms of sales and revenues. In 2015, the company successfully sold 9.3 million units of vehicles, which is an increase of 15 percent compared to 2014 sales, despite the fact that the revenues reported were significantly affected by the exchange rate fluctuations from the Japanese Yen (Dobrzykowski, McFadden, Vonderembse, 2016). Since 2009 the companys senior management has instituted massive changes to their operational processes. The changes were precipitate by the 2008/2009 global financial crisis (Przychodzen, Przychodzen, W. (2015). Some of the measures that have been instituted include the reorganization of Toyotas operations into four distinct units and the extensive promotion of the One-Toyota concepts. As a result, the org anization identified stability, efficiency and growth as three principal priorities in its overall financial strategy. CSR Initiatives Toyota launched its global CSR program in March 2011. The initiative was dubbed the Toyota Global Vision represented by a tree like image. The companys value is a mere representation of the tree, whereby Toyotas stable business base is represented by the trunk. Toyotas notions of Always Better Cars and Enriching Lives are represented as the drupe of the tree. Therefore the organization vision accentuates on the organizations principal objectives of profit maximization through the Always Better Vehicles and corporate social responsibility of Enriching Lives of Communities. This particular analogy is illustrated in the diagram below. Annually Toyota releases its global responsibility report which detail the initiatives and CSR programs engaged through the organizations (Klingeberg, 2013). The table below is going to highlight the companys 2016 report. CSR Activities Toyota Performance Labor and Human Rights 2 percent of the companys workforce are disabled Health and Safety There has been quality control circle within the organization to enhance vitality of the employee and the workplaces. By 2015, there was roughly 4,100 circles involving more than 36,000 members active in Japan alone, the home country of Toyota, and around 13,000 circles involving more than 100,000 members was active overseas. The company also conducts genchi genbutsu safety program to ensure that both the workforce and visitors to the premises are safe. Environment Water consumption The company utilizes techniques that tap rainwater to minimize on water consumption in its plant. Recycling The company is engaged in several recycling efforts including: Using eco-friendly products Ensuring that vehicle parts last longer Using recyclable materials in producing vehicle parts Manufacturing cars from the materials end-of-life vehicles CO 2 Emission The company is in the process of improving its global average fuel efficiency by 25 percent by the year 2020 As of the end of December Toyotas implementation of hybrid technology resulted into a reduction of roughly 41 million tons of CO2 emission The company is also piloting the New Vehicle Zero C02 Challenges that is projected to minimize on carbon emissions by 90 percent come 2050 when compared with year 2010 figures Supporting Local Community The company supports local purchasing globally a situation that improves on the economy of the local market Gender equality and Minority Today the company has made bold moves and increased the number of women manager positions from 16 in 2005 to more than 112 in 2016. The company plans to increase the number of managerial women from the current figure to three folds by the year 2020. Other Initiatives The company has instituted several road safety campaign programs including distributing more than 150 million publications of traffic safety picture pamphlets and more than 1.5 million copies of traffic safety picture-card sets to pre-school and kindergarten kids in Japan. Overseas, Toyota is engaged with the White Road Campaign and Teen Drive in the U.S. There are also several workshop and education programs that have been organized for suppliers in Japan and other overseas units, even though participation in such a program is voluntarily. TATA Motor Corporation CSR The company has been at the forefront of productive community engagement throughout its entire period of operations spanning six years back. The companys CSR initiatives are in line with the organizations philosophy of giving back to the society that has continued nourishing the quality of individuals live across India. The companys community initiatives focus on four distinct areas: Environment, Employability, Education and Health. Besides, the company operates through the Affirmative Action Framework, and the company assists the company from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes to acquire access towards streamlined opportunities in education and livelihood improvement. TATA motors have embraced synergetic partnership with the government, civil society organizations and community members to undertake significant projects, that have helped developed a positive impact on the lives of individuals (Badhulri Selarka, 2016). Health: Tackling Malnutrition The company has embarked on initiatives that prevent and treat malnutrition. The organizations collaborate with kids up to six years, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mothers. There are several health awareness sessions that are geared to community members to propel and curative measures. TATA motors are also at the forefront of providing safe drinking water whereby more than 16,000 people are already beneficiaries of the health program. Education TATA motors is focusing on enhancing academic performance of secondary school kids through distribution of financial aid and conducting special coaching to the kids. The organization is also playing a role towards retention of the kids in school by making learning interesting through the use of audio-visual technology. Students are also encouraged to participate in co-curricular activities whereby the current efforts so far assisted so far more than 51,000 kids. Employability The unemployed youths are trained in different areas of automotive trades, mainly as drivers or mechanics. Immediately the people complete their training, they are absorbed in the Tatas eco-system. In 2015, TATA motors provided training to more than 73,000 youths. Besides, the organizations also engage community-based groups of women and farmers to assist them earn supplementary income through agriculture and other associated programs. Environment TATA motors organize awareness sessions to assist with educating individuals on the importance of different aspects of the environment. The sessions have witnessed more than 13,000 participants, and through the green awareness, the organization has planted 67,000 trees on wastelands in attempt to enhance the green cover (Gupta Sur, 2016; Bhardwaj Agarwal, 2014). Similarities and Dissimilarities of TATA and Toyota Corporations CSR Initiatives These two companies are in the automobile industry. However, their headquarters are located in different companies and at the same time they have different business models despite operating from the same sector. Tata motors have their headquarters in India while Toyotas headquarters are in Japan (Gayathri, 2016). The socio and macro-economic backgrounds of the country of operations of these two companies are different and therefore the social concerns of these countries must be different. From the case study, we can see that Toyotas CSR initiatives is focused mostly on making the world a better place through proper manufacturing of the vehicles and educating the drivers on sound on-road behavior practices (Chatterji Palakshappa, 2016). Toyota has gone to an extent to provide the vehicle drivers with education pamphlets on how to ensure that they vehicle is always in roadworthy condition and the company is also educating kindergarten kids in Japan and high school learners in Japan. H owever, on the other hand, TATA motors is more concerned with community programs such as access to safe drinking water, improving enhancing education quality, healthcare and other social causes. The two cases indicate that despite the fact that TATA and Toyota are operating in the same sector, their business models are dissimilar. Besides, the products they manufacture are developed for different social statuses, and therefore their production facilities are also located in different manufacturing hubs, located in communities with different social classes. As a result, the CSR initiatives of these companies are completely different (Baha Saha, 2016). Conclusion From the above cases we have seen how the two companies have structured their CSR policies. Even though the companies come from different countries with their operations structured differently. However, the organizations have done so much and the bottom line is that the two companies regardless of their socio-economic background are still giving back to the society in one way or another. However, the organizations should work in tandem with the community around and other stakeholders to develop sound strategies that assist the organizations to improve the livelihood of the community around. References Baumberg, B., Cuzzocrea, V., Morini, S., Ortoleva, P., Disley, E., Tzvetkova, M., ... Beccaria, F. (2014). Corporate Social Responsibility. Bawa, A., Saha, A. (2016). Strength of corporate social responsibility as a corporate brand association: general public perspective. DECISION, 43(4), 313-332. Bhaduri, S. N., Selarka, E. (2016). Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Evolution and Progress of CSR and Regulations. In Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility of Indian Companies (pp. 43-60). Springer Singapore. Bhardwaj, G., Agarwal, S. (2014). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility at tata group. International Journal in Management Social Science, 2(9), 37-47. Chatterji, M., Palakshappa, N. (2016). Going Beyond Profit: A Case Study of the CSR Initiative of Titan, Tata Group. In Ethical Leadership (pp. 215-238). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Dobrzykowski, D. D., McFadden, K. L., Vonderembse, M. A. (2016). Examining pathways to safety and financial performance in hospitals: A study of lean in professional service operations. Journal Of Operations Management, 42, 39-51. Flammer, C. (2015). Does corporate social responsibility lead to superior financial performance? A regression discontinuity approach. Management Science, 61(11), 2549-2568. Gayathri, S. (2016). An Insight in to the CSR Activity of Mahindra Mahindra Ltd. Browser Download This Paper. Gupta, A., Sur, D. (2016). BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL RISKS IN INDIAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION. Hombert, J., Thesmar, D., Tahoun, A., Piotroski, J. D., Zhang, T., Lim, J., ... Weisbach, M. S. (2014). Using the firm-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings of Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini, we find that firms score higher on CSR when they have Democratic rather than Republican founders, CEOs, and directors, and when they are headquartered in Democratic rather than Republican-leaning states. Democratic-leaning firms spend $20 million more on CSR than Republican-leaning firms ($80 million more... Journal of Financial Economics, 111(1), 158-180. Klingenberg, B., Timberlake, R., Geurts, T. G., Brown, R. J. (2013). The relationship of operational innovation and financial performanceA critical perspective. International journal of production economics, 142(2), 317-323. McWilliams, A. (2014). Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility. Edward Elgar Publishing. Przychodzen, J., Przychodzen, W. (2015). Relationships between eco-innovation and financial performanceevidence from publicly traded companies in Poland and Hungary. Journal of Cleaner Production, 90, 253-263. Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), 341-350. Salib, J., Sun, D., Wu, J., Wen, X., Huang, C. C. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility. Singh, B. J. R. (2016). Corporate social responsibility in India. International Journal of Higher Education Research Development, 1(1).