Company Q Social Responsibility

Companies that are willing to contribute resources to various causes are preferred by customers and shareholders. Responsible businesses are able to attract more investors and customers will feel good utilising the services provided by companies that aid the community. This in turn increases profits gained by Qantas, which is the primary concern for any business. No organisation can exist alone, interaction with the community is unavoidable. Corporate social responsibilities help to strengthen the relationship between the company and the people through producing a positive impact on

Social responsibility is generally regarded as a duty of an organization’s management towards the benefit and well-being of the society in which it is engaged. The organization must behave ethically considering the social, cultural, economic and environmental issues.

Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.

This essay will analyse the strengths, limitations and challenges of ethical and socially responsible business practice. The purpose of this essay is to identify the advantages and limitations of following business ethics and act socially responsible in business operations. In order to help me analyse those further I will use the case study from food industry - McDonald’s corporation.

Company Q is a corporation whose stakeholders have not placed a major emphasis on social responsibility, instead it appears that the primary focus is placed on profit. With their profits on the decline, they are shying away from opportunities to help their community. By placing a higher priority on social responsibility Company Q will have the opportunity to help the community through charitable donations, employee volunteer initiatives, and creating quality jobs for the persons who live in the community. At the same time, Company Q will can also improve their public image and potentially increase profit.

Social responsibility in business can be defined as the obligation an organization has to minimize its negative social impact on stakeholders and to maximize its positive impact. In this case study we are introduced to a small local grocery chain referred to as Company Q. Located in a major metropolis, Company Q has recently closed some stores in areas of the city with higher crime-rates. They have started to stock a very limited amount of organic and health-conscience products after years of requests from their customers. Management has declined participating in a program to send expired food to a local food bank based on fears of employee theft by means of taking advantage of the situation. Based on the

Company Q missed a few opportunities to improve their attitude toward social responsibility. The first is closing the stores. The areas where the stores closed were in high-crime-rate areas, before

Company Q does not currently have a positive attitude toward social responsibility. They recently closed several stores in higher crime areas. This has eliminated job positions that were held by residents of the area and taken away revenue from the community itself. This is not being socially responsible. The company just started offering a limited selection of health and organic foods despite that the demand from customers has been there for years. They have also made the decision to not donate day old food to the local shelters, opting instead to waste the food by throwing it away. Company Q needs to make several changes in their company behavior in order to become more socially responsible.

Keeping this definition in mind while evaluating Company Q’s attitude toward social responsibility, it is apparent they have developed a reputation for not caring about the community by closing stores in higher crime rate areas, only offering a limited supply of healthconscience and organic products, and

The recommendations above will support Company Q in moving away from being a social responsible inept grocery chain with one that is admired and respected in the community and is an example of corporate citizenship. As a result, Company Q stakeholders that include the owners, managers, employees, customers, farmers and distributors will benefit from being a part of a strong and economically viable grocery

Company Q’s attitude towards social responsibility appears to be nonexistent, possibly through ignorance or disconcert. Either way the lack of social responsibility affects their business and community’s perception of their business. It appears that the company management has never developed and ethics program that clearly defines the corporate culture including provisions for social responsibility. Profits, or at least a lack of losses appears to be a primary motivating factor for company Q's management’s decisions. Company Q has been attempting to cut losses by closing stores that were losing money instead of finding innovative ways to

Businesses today face a plethora of ethical duties such as upholding corporate governance, maintaining stakeholder relationships, and presenting an image of social responsibility. In review of Company Q’s (Q) current ethics culture, its image in regards to social responsibility is not equivalent to that of its competitors. In a growing market faced with increasingly challenging competition, there are several areas that Q can and needs to address to bring the company to a level of social responsibility that exceeds stakeholder expectations. First, attention Q needs to address market demands for additional locations to better

Social responsibility is built on a system of ethics, in which decisions and actions must be ethically validated before proceeding. If the action or decision causes harm to society or the environment then it would be considered to be socially irresponsible. Being socially responsible means that people and organization must behave ethically and sensitivity towards, social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues. Striving for social responsibility helps individuals, organization and government to have a positive impact on development, business and society. Often, the ethical implication of decision/action are overlooked for personal gain and the benefits are usually material. This frequently manifest itself in companies that

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) is a term describing a company’s obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholder in all its operation and activities. Socially responsible companies consider the full scope of their impact on communities and the environment when making decisions, balancing the needs of stakeholder with their need to make profit.

Before five years, I came across a situation which led me to think about the importance and need of social responsibility by business enterprises. To start off giving a brief background, my brother was a fresh graduate from the school of architecture where he got his first individual contract in India. He had to design a mall that was planned to kick start after a few years. The land where it was being constructed belonged to an old age home. It was a well-known home for old people to spend their remaining years. Being his first project, my brother was really enthusiastic and gave all his hard work. Later, he got to know about the old age home that was present there. He and his team were in a quandary situation of whether or not to appeal to their company’s executive board to discuss this issue. On one hand, they were pressurized by the board to complete the project on time, as millions of equities were at stake. Whereas, on the other hand, they were feeling a sense of immoral behavior on their part. His team came up with a proposal that was designed to support both, the mall and the old age home by retaining a part of this property with the latter. The proposal was rejected, and my brother and his team withdrew from that project. This experience was narrated to me by my brother, which drew me towards the need of the business houses to be sensitive towards the society. Therefore,