Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is how a company acts towards a society in which it operates. As well as their product or service, they also focus on the environment and social practices inside the society. For example, they may help the environment by disposing waste in a environmentally friendly way. Daft and Marcic (2010) define corporate social responsibility as the management’s responsibility to make the right decision and take actions that will help assist welfare and society as well as the company.

Marks and spencers

After visiting the Eden centre, I found a number of companies using CSR in practice. The first company was Marks & Spencer. This is because they have many CSR practices in use. One CSR they are focusing on is the environment, they are setting out over  180 goals to achieve. These are many goals such as encouraging customers to reuse or recycle products and packaging. This would help the environment a lot and they have already achieved sustainable packaging materials, which uses more sustainable raw materials for the packaging. They have many more targets to help the environment, but the one that I have noticed in the last year was reducing carrier bag use. Where they aimed to “reduce carrier bag usage by 33%,” and they have exceeded this aim as there was a “reduction of 62% from 2006/07 to 2010/11.” 

Benefits to Marks & Spencers for helping the environment are the reduction of costs. Reusing packaging for example means they will not have to make as much and therefore, can reduce costs. This may also give you a better reputation and consumers may notice this and buy from the company. 

Another Marks & Spencer goal is towards communities, where they need to ensure that communities benefit in supply chain. They work with their suppliers to help improve livelihoods in communities. This shows CSR as they are not totally focused on the products and services, but also other communities.  Marks & Spencer also work with fair-trade by have more of a variety of fair trade foods and converting “20 million clothing garments.” This shows support to other communities and they are on course to research on communities who are vulnerable.  This also shows interdependency between society and business.

Helping communities can also bring many benefits to the organisation. This is because it will build a stronger relationship with communities and therefore, can create more links with them. This will make business easier and their reputation will again be higher. There can be a source of competitive advantage as there is likely to be more positives from the media and others.  Helping local communities may also make it easier to recruit employees and so there is another advantage of corporate social responsibilities. 

Marks & Spencers also have CSR in order to help their own customers. This is because they have launched new products that are healthier in order to help consumers . They have launched eat well healthier snacks.  They have also spotted vegetarian customers and have helped them by adding dishes suitable to them. This again shows that they think about all types of consumers and not just on the business.  They have already achieved many commitments and are looking too again for consumers in 2012.

 

Having a CSR to help out customers can also have its advantages. Some of these advantages are that consumers are more likely to keep shopping there and can develop loyalty. This is because it can create credibility and trust with customers.  Treating customers well can also make it easier to recruit.

This topic taught me a lot. I never really knew what CSR was before I learnt this topic and never knew that so many practices are in different companies. I believe CSR is important because businesses should think of customers as well as their own company.  This is so consumers are more content to shop their and it can also give an advantage to the business with its recognition and reputation.

Bibliography

Daft, R.L and  Marcic, D, (2010) Understanding Management. 7th ed. Mason, OH: South-western cengage learning.

 http://plana.marksandspencer.com/media/pdf/how_we-do_business_report_2011.pdf