MGT100 Introduction to Management of Corporate Social Responsibility

5. Provide two sentences and appropriate citations. In the first sentence, provide one indirect (paraphrased) quote from one of the peer reviewed journal articles.

Answer 

1. There are certain aspects of this article which the readers should be aware of, as they are the limitation of this study. The employees were recruited for the Amazon Mechanical Turk, under a designed experiment and thus there are three limitations that are identified in this article which the readers should definitely know about -

1. The first shortcoming of this article is, it failed to interrogate the implications of the intentions on the actual employees due to the corporate social responsibility strategy. It is due to the fact that the study was conducted on the workers who were recruited for the purpose of this study, so they are not the actual employees, who will narrate their genuine feeling about the company and its corporate social responsibility intentions.
2. This article has exhibited only one aspect of corporate social responsibility. The second shortcoming of this article, the charitable incentives is a small part of the various approaches of corporate social responsibility. The reaction of the employees to the other types will definitely be different, which the study has not covered.
3. The final drawback of this article is that, the workers were assigned to the various treatments, they were not given the opportunity to make a selection of their own. If this is conducted with the actual employee will automatically have a negative effect, which was not found here.

2. In the last decade, all the big organizations around the world have followed that approach of the effectiveness of the Corporate Social Responsibility in deriving better results from the employees. This is a current fact that is also taught to all the management students all around the world (Rigoberto Parada Daza, 2009). But the main idea behind this article and the study conducted to provide with an evidence-based knowledge about the effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility and its uncertainties under different conditions. The main approach of this article is to clear the myths that are associated with Corporate Social Responsibilities and how it is beneficial for all the organizations and their employees (Jones, Bowd & Tench, 2009). The strategy of CSR that is taught to the students is built on a perfect world which ignores the feeling of the people for whom the intentions of the organizations matter a lot. Thus, the main idea of the article is built around this approach of knowing the real truth behind corporate social responsibility and how its result differs when there are conditions applied to the employees for the charitable incentives. The idea of conducting this experiment in an organization, was to clear the air around the Corporate Social Responsibility, which was touted as the best approach for employees’ motivation and extracting better performance, while the study provided proof of a different result under different scenarios (Ketola, 2013).

3. I am aware of the corporate social responsibility approaches at the Coles, which is one of the top supermarkets in Australia. The organization has implemented a number of effective approaches which has helped the organization in building a strong image in the market of an organization who cares about society (Allen & Craig, 2016). There are a number of initiatives that are taken by the organization for the betterment of the society and the environment and amongst them training the employees, suppliers, and many others who are associated with the organization is a compulsory measure by the organization. This measure was taken into consideration with more seriousness, after the organization achieved an increase in the profits (Rubin, 2016). The company has implemented new strategies that have also incorporated the latest technology for higher success in their corporate social responsibility approaches. Along with it, the company has also included additional measures and guidelines that have to be followed by the employees, suppliers, and others, to accomplish the approaches for sustainable development of the business.

All these approaches of the Coles Supermarket, had a hidden approach of attaining bigger profits, which also made the organization pressurize the employees and the suppliers to strictly follow the guidelines (Heikkurinen & Forsman-Hugg, 2011). The Coles made it compulsory for its retailers, distributors, suppliers, and other employees to follow the harsh guidelines to the core. Also, the organization threatens their employees to meet the standards of all the guidelines, otherwise it will exclude them from the organization. The guidelines that are imposed by the organization are unrealistic, insensitive, and inconsiderate. Most of the employees who were threatened, followed the instructions, but they also said a number of negative things about the organization. This approach of the organization backfired when a supplier went against the organization and registered a case against Coles in court in 2014. The supplier won against the organization and received 10 million from Coles as a penalty (Trong Tuan, 2012).

From this entire situation, this can be formulated that Corporate Social Responsibility is for the betterment of the environment and the society, but by ruining the working environment of an organization and by ruining the relationships with an employee, the approaches for the corporate social responsibility, will definitely backfire, like in the case of Coles Supermarket. Also, in my opinion, the organization Coles formulated guidelines which were not discussed with the suppliers, distributors, and the employees before finalizing. This is a crucial step in any organization as this will affect the performance of the workers in an organization who would not like to make this sudden change for achieving higher profits for an organization (Jahdi, 2014).

4. The article by Übius & Alas, that is “Organizational Culture Types as Predictors of Corporate Social Responsibility” is an article that has been written by conducting a study in various places and have analyzed the organizational cultures in different countries. Also, the experiment conducted for the study, will provide with a more elaborate knowledge about the organizational culture and the impact of the corporate social responsibility. (Übius & Alas, 2009)

The second journal article that I have selected is by Culler, that is “Good Works: Assessing the Relationship between Organizational Culture, Corporate Social Responsibility Programs, and Weberian Theory”. This article has will be beneficial in understanding the organizational culture and the changes it goes through due to the new additions and evolution. In this article, the changes witnessed by the Walt Disney Company have been discussed, which will provide with better knowledge (Culler, 2010).

5. According to Cornelius, Todres, Janjuha-Jivraj, Woods & Wallace, the corporate social responsibility is a new vocabulary in the organizational culture that has created huge dynamics in the functioning of an organization and has led to the evolution of various management issues (Cornelius, Todres, Janjuha-Jivraj, Woods & Wallace, 2008).

According to Griswold, “Culture is a way through which human being communicate and the transfer of knowledge happens through this medium. It is an objectification, internalization, and externalization of the human experience. Also, there is a familiar distinction between culture and nature. The organizational culture and the social attitudes all constitute for to a better organizational culture (Griswold, 2008).

References

Allen, M., & Craig, C. (2016). Rethinking corporate social responsibility in the age of climate change: a communication perspective. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 1(1), 6-12.

Cornelius, N., Todres, M., Janjuha-Jivraj, S., Woods, A., & Wallace, J. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility and the Social Enterprise. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(1), 355-370.

Culler, C. (2010). Good Works: Assessing the Relationship between Organizational Culture, Corporate Social Responsibility Programs, and Weberian Theory. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3(13), 357-374.

Griswold, W. (2008). Cultures and Societies in a Changing World. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, p. 13.

Heikkurinen, P., & Forsman-Hugg, S. (2011). Strategic Corporate Responsibility in the Food Chain. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 18(5), 306-316.

Jahdi, K. (2014). Cause-related marketing (CaRM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Social Responsibility Journal, 10(4), 674-684.

Jones, B., Bowd, R., & Tench, R. (2009). Corporate irresponsibility and corporate social responsibility: competing realities. Social Responsibility Journal, 5(3), 300-310.

Ketola, T. (2013). Rationale, Morals, and Needs Pyramid for Corporate Responsibility Development. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 21(4), 228-239.

Rigoberto Parada Daza, J. (2009). A valuation model for corporate social responsibility. Social Responsibility Journal, 5(3), 284-299.

Rubin, M. (2016). Corporate Social Responsibility, Risk Diversification, and Firm Value: Does Corporate Social Responsibility Diversify Risk. SSRN Electronic Journal, 1(1), 10-15.

Trong Tuan, L. (2012). Corporate social responsibility, ethics, and corporate governance. Social Responsibility Journal, 8(4), 547-560.

Übius, Ü, & Alas, R. (2009). Organizational Culture Types as Predictors of Corporate Social Responsibility. Commerce of Engineering Decisions, 61(1), 90-97.