Corporate Social Responsibility Assignment Help
CSR Assignment Help
Abstract
Communication with the stakeholders has become an important aspect in designing, implementing, and successfulness of “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) that has given prosperity to trends of CSR communication. Contemporarily, businesses are exposed to a highly volatile working environment that encourages companies to strive to influence its internal and external stakeholders’ perceptions to build a sustainable competitive advantage. Consequently, corporate reputation and CSR are interrelated concepts that have evidently impact on its internal and external stakeholders. By studying the aggravated significance of multi-stakeholders, this report attempts to contribute to examining the intervening role of corporate reputation and its relationship with CSR. At present, the majority of organizations have established their presence on social media platforms to acclaim and glorify its CSR activities to boost its reputation to the general public. Withal, it can be drawn to close that communication plays a key role in aiding organizations in achieving the organizational goals.
Introduction
The following report aims to discuss the importance of effective communication within an organization. This report intends to study why an organization need to focus on the corporate communication function in order to keep the workforce aligned towards achieving the organizational goals. In the following report, the discussion will be on the subfunction of “corporate responsibility” within organisation communication. Further in this report, the two main issues related to corporate responsibility in the ABC Company.
Effective communication helps an organization to create shared meaning among the organisation workforce. The organisation needs to set up a certain organizational culture where employees are encouraged to express their vision towards achieving corporate goals (Grossman, 2017). Organisation communication is defined as forms and channels of internal communication within the organisation. It is a vast field that encloses all forms of communication that organisation does with its internal stakeholders and society. Organizational communication that helps in contributing towards the society is often known as corporate responsibility or “corporate social responsibility”.
Corporate Social Responsibility
“Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) is a sunshade term for various overlapping areas of the organisation such as stakeholder theory, business ethics, corporate sustainability and corporate citizenship. In an organisation, CSR communication cope with the strategic positioning of a brand or organisations, and how the organisation shows an obligation towards the society (Öberseder, Schlegelmilch and Murphy, 2013). CSR supports the organisation in developing a corporate reputation and corporate identity. The three common CSR models include a pyramid, intersecting circles, and concentric circles that represent the relationship between economic, legal, political and philanthropic model. Each of these models represents different approaches and the meaning of carrying out CSR activities (Figure 1).
Basic Models of CSR
According to Du, Bhattacharya and Sen (2010), CSR strategy of an organisation should take care of all external and internal organisational communication. Organisations should propose CSR activities while considering the organisation size, reputation and marketing positioning. For organisations to initiate corporate responsibility, it is important to engage in marketing activities to identify the areas for supporting environmental and social issues. Often, organisations carry out the CSR activities that are related to their core business (Crane, Matten and Spence, 2013). There are various ways through which an organisation communicates information with its stakeholders. Organisation communicates its CSR activities through official documents like a press release, reports, and posts on official websites. Other than these platforms, organisations brandish its CSR through blog posts, mass media, and social networks. All these activities brandish organisations’ identity and reputation.
In the 21st century, several transformational changes in CR has taken place. CSR has said to take a new focus at the highest political level throughout the world. G8 Summit of 2007 has already recognised CSR as a secondary global concern for organisations to enter primary international policies (Saad, 2014). However, by the end of the 20th century, the majority of the organisations across the world highly invested in social and environmental issues that comes under CSR initiatives. Since CSR activities have become highly prioritized in organisations, ABC should also consider looking into conducting CSR to build a reputation in the market and to effectively communicate the organisation’s vision.
Issue 1- Corporate Responsibility and Corporate Reputation
Several past research has signified the direct relationship between an organisation’s performance and CSR activities. Majority of the researches have reflected the positive correlations between the two factors, but Saeidi et al. (2015) suggested negative or no relation between CSR and organisations’ reputation. With this, Saeidi et al. (2015) came up with the conclusion that the relationship between CSR and company reputation is much complicated. According to Gregoire et al. (2010), corporate greed highly influences the corporate reputation betwixt stakeholders in different ways. However, research has signified that CSR activities initiated by organisations play a crucial role in supporting organisations’ reputation, and develops interests of stakeholders. The researches over two decades have investigated that CSR is highly advantageous for the organisations’ reputation. A positive CSR is probable to enhance “Customer Perceived Value” (CPV) (Maden et al., 2012). A favourable reputation of a company is when the customers perceive higher value. In this manner, CSR becomes the most strategic step of the organisation, that needed to be communicated with the stakeholders right away.
Corporate reputation (CR) is often considered in different contexts. It is commonly believed that corporate reputation is an outcome of an effective competitive process of an organisation. A failing organisation may have a negative reputation among customers than those organisations who efficiently carry our CSR activities and able to communicate it with its stakeholders. Not only CSR activities help organizations boosting reputation, but it also supports business to leave a long-lasting impression to the society (Ağan et al., 2016).
Issue 2- Communication about CR
Communicating CSR activities is a strategic tool for organizations to optimise CSR gains. Communication CSR is supportive of organisations in gaining competitive advantage, risk mitigation, higher “Customer Perceived Value” (CPV) and stakeholders’ engagement (Chaudhri, 2016). Altogether, corporate communication of CSR handles various interrelated functions such as building an organisation’s image, identity and reputation. It also attracts stakeholders to support the organisation towards achieving its strategic goals.
“Stakeholder dialogue” is said to be an important angle to analyse the effectiveness of CSR. In the case of organizations fail to communicate the CSR to its stakeholders, there will be higher chances that organisation’s efforts remained unnoticed by the stakeholders (Golob and Podnar, 2014). Therefore, communication has become a prominent aspect of the company’s success, regardless of the industry it operates in, size of the business and the culture it follows. Naturally, organisations carry out CSR activities to show gratitude and responsibility towards the welfare of society and the environment. It helps organisations to have a competitive advantage among the competitors. However, it needs to be communicated to its stakeholders so that the efforts do not go unnoticed. Organisations adopt certain strategies to communicate its CSR. These strategies include “Stakeholder-information strategy”, “Stakeholder-response strategy” and “Stakeholder-involvement strategy”. To communicate within the organizations, reports, corporate websites, and social media are used to publicize about the CSR activities to its stakeholders (Zahran, El-Bassiouny and Darrag, 2017).
Conclusion
Throughout this report, it is evident that communication is an immensely crucial aspect of an organisation. Research on “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) communication is a prospering concept in business management. The recent research has uncovered key aspects of relationships between organisations and its stakeholders. From the research literature studied, it is highlighted that communicating CSR activities with the stakeholders helps organisations to portray an active role in the welfare of society and leads towards the attainment of its strategic goals. Culture also plays a compelling role in determining the organisation’s strategic goals. Thereof, organisations need to support its culture through effective communication with internal and external stakeholders. By doing so, organisations can keep its workforce and organisational culture aligned with long-term objectives. Moreover, findings also revealed that CSR plays a key role in aiding good reputation. It helps organisations in shaping behaviours of its stakeholders who are likely to promote the goodwill of the company.
Recommendation
In contemporary business, world organisations get to face cut-throat competition. Companies like ABC Company are highly recommended to publicise its CSR activities and other social activities to its stakeholders. Communicating CSR activities boosts organisations creditability and sustainability. For these reasons, currently, many organisations talk about their CSR activities over social media, blogs and official websites to portray it responsible image to the society. In this manner, the organisation supports its image in the society while bearing competitive advantage. Beside communicating CSR activities, organisations are responsible to create stakeholder engagement. However, it is one through listening to its audience through social platforms.
References
Ağan, Y., Kuzey, C., Acar, M.F. and Açıkgöz, A., 2016. The relationships between corporate social responsibility, environmental supplier development, and firm performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, pp.1872-1881. Retrieved from: http://iranarze.ir/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/5553-English.pdf.
Chaudhri, V., 2016. Corporate social responsibility and the communication imperative: Perspectives from CSR managers. International Journal of Business Communication, 53(4), pp.419-442. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2329488414525469.
Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L., 2013. Corporate social responsibility in a global context. Retrieved from: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/files/17680296/Chapter_1_CSR.pdf.
Du, S., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Sen, S., 2010. Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication. International journal of management reviews, 12(1), pp.8-19. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308100655_Maximising_business_returns_to_corporate_social_responsibility_CSR_The_role_of_CSR_communication.
Geva, A., 2008. Three models of corporate social responsibility: Interrelationships between theory, research, and practice. Business and society review, 113(1), pp.1-41. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-8594.2008.00311.x.
Grossman, D., 2017. 5 Communication Skills Every Manager Should Master. Retrieved from: http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/blog/bid/73915/5-communication-skills-every-manager-should-master
Maden, C., Arıkan, E., Telci, E.E. and Kantur, D., 2012. Linking corporate social responsibility to corporate reputation: a study on understanding behavioral consequences. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, pp.655-664. Retrieved from: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042812045053/1-s2.0-S1877042812045053-main.pdf?_tid=47877afc-19a1-423c-81f4-0a922a62d32f&acdnat=1549275602_f3380976d9b2b3a3797719e46d996d13
Öberseder, M., Schlegelmilch, B.B. and Murphy, P.E., 2013. CSR practices and consumer perceptions. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), pp.1839-1851. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296313000295.
Saad, A., 2014. Contesting corporate social responsibility: public challenges to the modern corporation in the 21st Century (Doctoral dissertation, Oxford University, UK). Retrieved from: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cec40e02-dd2f-498b-9e07-28daad3c92b8/download_file?safe_filename=THESIS01&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Thesis.
Saeidi, S.P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S.P. and 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), pp.341-350. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.06.024
Zahran, N., El-Bassiouny, N. and Darrag, M., 2017. Toward an Integrative Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication. مؤتمرات كلية التجارة. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Noha_El-Bassiouny/publication/316032720_Toward_an_Integrative_Framework_for_Corporate_Social_Responsibility_CSR_Communication/links/58edc8dd0f7e9b37ed14fdb5/Toward-an-Integrative-Framework-for-Corporate-Social-Responsibility-CSR-Communication.pdf
