Business Management

Note: Final Sign Off can only be done when the student has completed both theory and practical components of the unit. (Please attach evidence of theory and practical at the back of the coversheet)

Based on my interpretation of CSR, I see it as a voluntary obligation that companies have promised to their stakeholders to fulfill by improving, or at least not harm, the environmental and social wellbeing. When companies engage in CSR, they voluntarily promise to, for example, carry the responsibility to protect the environment and take actions against bribe or other corruptive activities related to their business. It certainly has some positive influences to specific areas based on my knowledge gained from other classes; nevertheless, when judge CSR in the context of total impacts on our society and environment, it is obvious that CSR has failed its mission to lessen the negative impacts of business based on the evidences that provided by the author. Also, since there is a strong positive relationship between CSR behaviors and consumers’ reactions to a firm’s products and services, it seems to me, now, that CSR for the most companies is just a fancy cover that helps them to create or promote a good image and reputation. The recent case that shows the failure of CSR of Volkswagen even make me believe that CSR programs may be just a marketing or public relation exercise for many

The planning of the goals we want to achieve, time to achieve and how they want to achieve.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that affects all companies and should be an active factor in the company’s decision making. It is something all corporations need to care about. CSR is when business’ or corporations take part in an initiative or campaign for a cause that will benefit society and/or in some way make the world a better place (Taylor, 2015). Initially, Corporate Social Responsibility started to take shape around the 1950’s, but some say that it dates all the way back to the 1800s, the idea of CSR was seen (Carroll, 2007). One may think that because it is dated so long ago, it doesn’t have an important impact today nevertheless, it is proven that Corporate Social Responsibility is a pathway for entities to self benefit as they are in the process of benefitting society.

The course focuses on how leaders use and apply change theories to craft and execute strategic management decisions. The course introduces best practices for leading and implementing change that addresses: leader / follower relations, their effect on corporate culture, employee resistance to change, and methods to assure that change will be successful.

Cadbury is a British confectionary company which is the largest and oldest family run business in the world. Cadbury merged with Schweppes in 1969 and it now the third world leading producer of soft drinks and second largest confectionery brand in the world. Cadbury operates in more than fifty countries worldwide.

Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) is often described as the measures taken by companies to manage environmental, social and economic impacts of their business activities. Since the globalisation of economic and labour markets, CSR has become an argumentative topic. For companies to be considered as good in terms of CSR, they are required to go above and beyond of their legal requirements and take into consideration what is in the best interests of its stakeholders.

One of the main arguments against CSR efforts is that such efforts distract from the primary objective of businesses profit making. This argument is based on an erroneous assumption that areas of CSR are naturally divorced from business interests. The reality is that businesses can align their CSR strategies with their corporate strategies to facilitate business success. A firm that invests in efficient resource extraction methods finds that it can help clean the natural environment while ensuring resource availability down the years. Similarly, businesses that follow non-discriminatory policies at the workplace may be able to make their products attractive to more segments of the society.

Through globalization the gap between the rich and poor has increased, while the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. This can be one of the many reasons why companies choose to be more social responsible as CSR aims to reduce conflicts between stakeholders. Although, individuals are aware that more companies are producing social responsible goods, companies can benefit from CSR practices in different ways. When companies decide to be socially and environmentally active, not only will the society and the environment benefit from the companies ethical practices, but they can also differentiate themselves in today's competitive market.

Friedman (2007) further argues that socially responsible firms will be at a competitive disadvantage due to the added expense incurred by CSR activities. Counter to this Smith (2002) with the evidences drawn from the case of Alfred Sloan’s decision proves that CSR doesn’t bring the competitive disadvantage with it. He argues that, firms that have good SCR record in public will be given better brand image and the investors will show more trust in such companies. Hence even though the companies initially lose their part of profit o CSR, they will after a period of time, attract more and more investors and broaden their consumer base which improves both the investment and gives advantage of efficiency due to large scale of operation.

Throughout the years, this statement has been debated and criticised by many scholars such as Mcwilliams and Siegel(2001) and they noted CSR as an ‘action that appears to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law.’

A number of different major schools of management thoughts have been emerged since 100 years ago. Various views of management have been arisen and affected the managerial skills both in the past and the present.

It seems that the objective of the CSR has been misconstrued. Every company must have its CSR activities keeping in view the needs of the locality where it is situated and also the prevailing environment.

This impressed a lot of their clients such as Dell. Dell extended the contract of printer cartridge recycling with IM due to IM’s CSR promises. As a result, IM’s revenues in 2011 has grown beyond 100% compared to the previous year Similarly to IM, Ford Pinto was winning customers surprisingly as the car performance was much better than the consumers predicted. The sales of Ford’s subcompact in 1971 nearly reached 18 percent of entire import sales (Hamilton, 2010). In contrary, it cannot be denied that companies need to pay large amount of money on environmental programme and employee trainings due to CSR. For instance, Ford Pinto produced the new vehicle very economically since it desires to improve its market position by selling cheaper cars. Nonetheless, selling these new vehicles has a significant risk as it is unsafe for customers. Ford can alter the cars’ design to reduce risk but it would cost an extra US$11 per car. They conducted a cost-benefits analysis and decided not to change. Eventually, their reputation suffered badly (Shaw, 1991; Nutt, 2002). In contrast with Ford, IM increased their reputation and had a good public relations through CSR (Edwards, 2011). These examples demonstrate businesses are faced with the dilemma of equalizing social and corporate aims because of the climbing social interest in CSR. Companies want to earn maximum profit to satisfy shareholders, whereas the community expect firms should have an ethical obligation. Thus CSR embraces

One argument forcing an increase in CSR activities is for companies to gain competitive advantage. Companies engage in improved innovation and market positioning, resulting in competitive advantages. One of the examples of innovation, to gain competitive advantage, is the launch of Toyota Prius, a hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV). Toyota became the world market leader in hybrid cars after the launch of HEVs. In addition to the environmental benefits that HEV has to offer, this increased the top line of Toyota and they were able to licence the technology to companies like Ford. This added to Toyota’s profitability.