Corporate Social Responsibility in Companies - Research Proposal Example

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility can be defined as the initiative taken by organizations to asses and take responsibility of their impact on the social wellbeing and environmental protection (Paetzold, 2010). It also referred to as organizations being citizens of the society and taking the roles of making it a better place through various activities and programs. Most importantly, corporate social responsibility is seen as a way that business organizations use to solve some of the problems they create in the society through their operations. It is often abbreviated as CSR. This is why the main theme of the essay is corporate social responsibility and its importance for the sustainability and competitive advantage.

For many companies all over the world CSR is the best opportunity to make an organization strong, about one of the big challenges is execution, but this can be avoided by providing a practical way forward (Soper, 2011). CSR is also another big source for pressure in an organization this is to the customers, employees and the suppliers, no one among this three is safe. However, the society in broad is trying very much to place the increasing importance on the CSR implementation to many organizations. Many leaders in most organizations have started looking at CSR as the best opportunity to fully strengthen their businesses and also at the same time contributing a lot to the society which is the key leader of all this (Tsoutsoura, 2004). A big challenge to the executives comes when they have to find an approach or a way to deliver the best or lofty ambitions on the implementation of CSR.

Many organizations try to pursue CSR activities that can mostly favor them at their side and sometimes they are termed as projects (Kantor & Streitfied, 2015). These projects reflect the self-interests of a person in the organization mostly focusing the executives. Companies globally has to focus on the making of the CSR choices, sometimes the choices can be good but sometimes they can be the worst if good strategies and principles are not followed (Kantor & Streitfied, 2015). Many of the companies they mostly have activities divided to many parts across the organization. In this case, the benefits of CSR are maximized. Best companies and those companies that want to have a bright future they choose well and opt to start with pet projects, which are philanthropy or propaganda because these projects are easy and quick to make and implement a decision on them (Gunther, 2012). The big question comes whereby one has to choose how to move towards the CSR strategies that only focus on the truly and the best value to the whole society as well as the whole organization (The Economist, 2007). Some of the principles that guide one in making choice in CSR activities include;

• Concentrate much on your CSR efforts

In this case, one has to commit his or her in making the CSR effort work. The best time to do is manage the time very well, because the CSR activities need a lot of time as well as devotion (Smith, Ansett, & Erez, 2011). One must also put enough resources in place in order to complete the needed choices. The best opportunities in this case will come from those areas that the business well interacts with the society.

• Building a deep and the best understanding of the benefits

Even after one selecting the best choices and areas he or she has to understand well the meaning of CSR and should make a good summary out of it (Googins & Rochlin, n.d.). CSR one of the best aspects in many organizations and to the society, the understanding of the employees, executives and the managers will matter very much to the development of the business (Michael & Kramer, 2002). Building the understanding there has to be a positive attitude to all the people that are included in the plan. The most important things are being open, and find a way to understand both the positive and negative sides of CSR.

• Finding the best and also the right customers

By finding the right partners, one will be able to accomplish what he or she needs. CSR activities will determine if an organization promotes the society or not. Therefore, in this case, organization has to find those partners that will help them promote the society and promote ethical measures in the business industry. Finding the best partners is very hard but the solution to that is that both sides have to create win-win criteria, so that they can share all the risks as well as the profits and the losses.

CSR is a very important aspect in this case due to the fact that it covers both the business sector and also the society sector. For business organizations to succeed, they need the help of the whole society. Their operational activities must be approved by the society who looks at the ethical side of them. Organizations also must have competitive advantage over its business rivals and CSR is one of the strategies of achieving that edge in the market. The society has to feel comfortable with the ethical measure of the companies. Because the main reason for CSR is to promote ethical measures and ring about smooth running of the business without any problems occurring. CSR has become more popular over the years and many companies have implemented the use of CSR because they are finding the best way to give something to the society that is to appreciate. Some of the companies engage themselves in environmental projects by providing the best environment for the society, some can build playgrounds, some can set up hospitals and some can come up with programmers to keep the environment clean. Some other companies also help those disadvantaged children in the society or those children that are orphans. The nature of helping those people in the society is an example of human nature and it makes everyone feel good. The concept of corporate social responsibility it engages the fact that every kinds of businesses should both look forward at the benefits of their companies and the benefits of the society. In the 1800s, America had the total rights to take a business license and operate as per the business act of United States of America.

In the corporate world, there is the feeling of being a good businessperson and feeling good about the business. To sustain the implementation of CSR there has to be creation of a competitive strategy. Being a business person does not mean that one must be successful in everything. There must be some downs and also ups. In addition, for a company to be well related with the society and their business partners, it must implement the CSR to be able to involve the society in their business for a better and a brighter future.

Organizations have to implement the use CSR in their companies. A CSR activity help in developing a company and also makes the society put a positive attitude towards the company and in this way, there will be an assurance of success in the company (Global Reporting Initiative, n.d.). To meet the intended objectives of the organization the organization has to implement the practice of CSR activities (Cook, 2012). This is because the CSR activities will bring all the people together that is including the employees and all the workers in the organization, without leaving the, most important one which is the society. Moreover, to accomplish this there as to be evidence which is illustrated through a project management plan (Porter & Kramer, 2006). This is because this will enable one to device or come up with good aims about the project and the objectives.

Aims and Objectives

• Develop an effective budget that accounts for all aspects of project development.
• To initiate CSR activities that incorporates the economic, social and environmental domain balanced with business operations.
• To establish a committee that supervises the implementation of the CSR activities within business operations.

Project management plan

This is the first part of the evidence concerning the implementation of CSR in organizations. Currently, almost all the companies are implementing CSR in their manifestos. The main aim of this project is to give the importance of CSR and the benefit of CSR sustainability as well as competitive advantages. The second aim of this project is to show the interaction or the relations between business organizations and the society as well as how this relationship can be improved in order to enhance the level of business standards. These aims will be guided by the objectives, which in this case is; to know how CSR has helped some of the companies, is the use of CSR legit, or is it bad. Is the community accepting the fact that CSR activities can involve all the people in the community? Another objectives is that, how is the CSR helping the workers and the whole organization are there any profits or losses? Lastly, CSR implementation working well or there are some disadvantages.

A good company or a good business organization must have a project management plan that is to make a good plan about the costs, the scope of the business, the time that will be used, the quality, communication and lastly the risks and the resources.

Costs

The implementation of CSR activities can prove costly if not managed and planned for accordingly. The business will incur increment in costs related to the adherence to environmental standards and guidelines that impact it as well as the community in its immediate vicinity. Also, the organization will incur costs because of the donations to running school operations in the communities and less often, the support is directed to disaster victims. Other costs include economical support, development of infrastructure, improvement of the health sector and spiritual growth of the members of the target community.

Scope

In this case, the scope deals with the environment where the business is located and the whole society as well. A business area must have the most favorable conditions for working because a good area will definitely offer the best services and the results will be automatically good. CSR activities may be including the building of hospitals, roads and churches. The scope will aim at the activities that are done and where they are done. A building may be built where it is not needed, and this will affect the people living near it and this will be a big disadvantage to them. On another case, a factory may be built near a church or a hospital, there will be air pollution, and this may cause many problems to the people living near the factory. The best scope for a business as per the American business act of 1976, it is where a business institution can be able to render services to customer and offering goods without the harm of the customers or the harm of the society.

Time

The implementation of CSR activities requires adequate time. This is because CSR has become an essential component in business whose success is intertwined with the survival of the entire organization and its activities. The concept of time is therefore paramount for the proper implementation of CSR within any organization. It is essential that the time projected should take into account the implementation of all aspects of the project. Successful implementation of a project of this importance will demand at least a month.

Quality

Quality standards are essential for any business to implement CSR activities. The project plan should entail quality requirements that will ensure the services provided are of the highest standards. With regards to CSR, availability of the service is of significant importance. Also, reliability, consistency, environment, performance, and customer service requirements should be satisfied to the highest degree possible.

Communication

For any project to succeed, it is important to adopt apt communication strategies for the business. The success of such projects depends entirely on the level of communication that a project manager has not only with the project team but also with the stakeholders. The latter refers to all those people that have an interest in the project. Their opinion matters considering that this group consists of those funding the project. Therefore, effective communication management plan entails the stakeholder communications requirement which is important to share the information as demanded by the stakeholders. This plan should also include the details of the type of the information to be shared (format, content and details, the target people for the communication, the appropriate channels, the required schedules for sharing information, the methods and processes to escalate information through the various chains of command and the instructions on how this plan can be updated while the projected continues to progress.

Risk and resources

Risk is inevitable especially where projects are concerned. It is notable however that when the risk is greater, the expected returns are also higher. A risk is any uncertainty which might have a positive or negative impact on the projective if it occurs. Risks might be positive or negative and depending on either, a project should prepare accordingly. With regards to risk management, the project team will identify and document all the risks accordingly, prioritize them based on those that are more likely to occur and their impacts, and finally plan for the appropriate response should it occur. The three tasks that are above are all focusing on the implementation of CSR as a project. The first activity must be the project managements; the second is the product development and lastly the event management.

Gantt Chart

Project log book

A logbook is a professional reference that provides information regarding the progress of a project all the way to its completion. As such, it lists the various activities and processes installed as the project progressed. The implementation of CSR activities within a business followed a systematic procedure. This project’s logbook listed the most important events that occurred during development. At the very beginning, policies pertaining to the integration of CSR into the business’ activities were developed. The business was focused on balancing three important dimensions essential for the success of not only the business but also the CSR programs. These dimensions are economic, social and environmental. The policies were designed in such a manner that the none of the three dimensions overlay the others. The organization was also focused on balancing the three dimensions with the various business operations.

When it came to the implementation of the CSR activities within the organization’s structure and operations, a committee was selected whose main purpose is to promote and implement these activities. The Operations Manager of the organization chaired this committee and supported by the Administrative officer. The committee designed policies that relate to the implementation of the CSR activities or its promotion. The committee also reported directly to the management board who in turn provide the financial support necessary to achieve the set objectives of the group. It was further specialized into various other fields including corporate ethics and compliance, fair trade, social contribution, environmental management and information management. The various divisions had a clear responsibility which was to set smart goals and design ways through which the organization can achieve them.

The corporate action subcommittee was responsible for the continuous development of policies and regulations pertaining to the integration and promotion of the CSR activities within the organization. The main objective was to ensure that the guidelines developed are part of the entire group’s activities (Windsor, 2006). The social contribution branch on the other hand was responsible for all the social activities that the organization performs that are linked, directly or indirectly to the local community. An example of such an application is when the organization raises funds to support the social activities and the victims of disasters. Also, this branch of the committee is focused on constructing buildings that can overcome the impacts of disasters such as earthquakes.

The social contribution branch of the CSR implementation committee is focused on ensuring that the local society is safe and comfortable. The fair-trade section was responsible for installing a retail system within the organization that has the least environmental burden. As such, the organization is focused on producing environmentally friendly products through the use of non-destructive energy and efficient distribution systems. On the same note, the other specialized group was focused on the improvement of the environmental conservation efforts of the organization as well as the local community. This was made possible by the introduction of environmental accounting and total environmental impact measurement. The goal is to quantify the burden reduction efforts as well as evaluate the various initiatives and in turn introduce measures to improve them.

Performance review

The success of any organization’s project relies upon the project manager. One of the important roles or responsibilities that this manager is required to fulfill is performance evaluation of the project. This measures the project’s success and in turn the company’s objectives are attained. After all, the project manager is responsible for ensuring that the project was completed on time. With regards to the implementation of CSR activities in an organization, performance review of the project is classified into four key areas. These areas include objective components, subjective components, team-member feedback and self-evaluation. The function of this review is to assess the plan, execution and control of the various aspects of the project in turn examining the factors that had a hand in impacting the time component in project completion.

The project manager’s evaluation consists of the objective components which are focused on determining whether the project was completed successful and within the set time and budget. In most cases, companies rely solely on objective components to determine whether their projects were successfully. In this kind of evaluation, the manager is given the perfect score at the onset of the evaluation period. However, as time progresses, the manager loses marks especially when the targets are not achieved. For example, if the project is late or does not fit the set budget, then the manager loses scores. At the end of the evaluation period, the performance review reveals whether the project was completed successfully or not. Also, it states the areas that were unsuccessful or those that exceeded the set expectations. With regards to the implementation of CSR activities in business, the objective components included in the performance evaluation include the budget and costs and attainment of the various milestones. The budget matched the integration of the various social, environmental and economic programs of CSR nature within the business operations.

As opposed to objective components, the subjective components of performance review are focused on appraising how the manager accomplishes the various objectives. The previous component is focused on whether the project was successful or not. The subjective components demand to notify the stakeholders how the project was carried out. It also lists the skills that the manager gained as the project progressed as well as those that he/she has to work on in order to improve performance in the future projects. The implementation of CSR activities in the normal business operations was successful because the project manager delegated specific tasks of management to the project team leader. The outcome was that the project was accelerated significantly and completed before the set duration was over. From the reports, the manager acquired the delegation skills which is a helpful leadership ability.

Apart from understanding how the project faired, it is paramount to receive feedback from those people who worked on the project. The project manager is responsible for overseeing the employees or the members of the project team. Therefore, the review of the project’s performance can include the appraisal of the performance of individual members listing their achievements and gains during the period. With regards to the CSR implementation project, each member of the committee and subcommittee contributed substantially to the attainment of the set goals and objectives. The most important attribute and skill that these individuals showed was teamwork and the many benefits it had to their performance with regards to the completion of the project.

The final component of the review process was self-evaluation which means that the project manager reflects on the project after its completion. The manager can therefore focus on providing a personal reflection regarding their personal performance as well as effectiveness. This will also require that the manager notes the key areas where he/she was effective and those that still require improvement. Self-evaluation is a debriefing method which can inform on how the project was undertaken. The implementation of CSR activities was implemented under the supervision of the committee created. The entire group which had several branches each dealing with the implementation of different aspects of the project concluded that everything was satisfactory.

Conclusion

In conclusion, CSR has helped many companies to accomplish their objectives and become better examples to those companies that have not still implemented the use of CSR. A good company will try to make a profit out of the CSR activities and by getting the best customers that are loyal to the organization. This has enabled many organizations to be known globally, some have been leading in the market over the last ten years because of the CSR.