Facing the Challenge of New Age Business Development, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Businesses are expected to develop the economic condition of the countries around the world. Ever since the introduction of business operations that are dependent on systematic organization and strategy, the growth of global economy has been better defined. This further empowered the nations that are included in the international trade. The emergence of such operation in the international scope made it possible for particular elements that define legitimate businesses have been further identified under legal sanctions.

The emergence of such condition of operation aims to specifically create a connection between business organizations and the communities that they are related to with which they are expected to serve and provide attention to. The desire to create a protective sanction that gives the businesses a chance to gain profit while also providing the people find a better way to exist with the said organizations besides simply using their money to consume what the businesses provide for purchase.

In the discussion that follows, a deeper understanding of what Corporate Social Responsibility is and how it imposes a relative impact on the operation of business that emerge today as well as that of other large-scale businesses that are dependent on operating online or across the borders. Focusing on how business operate under CSR principles, this presentation shall make an indicative valuation on how this element of modern business does provide a sense of guideline as to how organizations are supposed to establish their general roles according to the demands that they have on themselves and the expectations that the society has on them.

Issues and Distinctions on CSR

Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility

What is Corporate Social Responsibility? Relatively, businesses are accepted as existing entities. They are then legally noted as members of the community that has separate rights and relative responsibilities to the community and towards other business existing within their territories. CSR is also noted as corporate conscience that measures the social performance of a particular for-profit organization (Bhattacharya, et al, 2011). Businesses are expected to be based on profit-defined goals. Wanting to earn out of what they do is what these organizations are specifically made for. Nevertheless, for such organizations to become more acceptable, they have to take notice of the fact that they need to respond to the value of service and attention that they provide the community with.

Realizing that whatever they do would have an impact on the society is the first step of understanding what the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility is all about. The correlative existence of different elements in the society to create a single unified unit specifically defines the reason behind the need of business to recognize such position they have. This fact then insists on the idea that while it is essential for businesses to earn, they are also expected to make particular adjustments that would identify their role in defining the society further. For this reason, CSR principles are able to create an impact on the different aspects of operation that huge businesses like corporation are in need of giving attention to. The said operations shall be better defined in the section that follows through.

The Scope of CSR

As mentioned in the previous section, CSR impacts the different aspects of business operations. These operations include the following:

Legal Sector

The legal sector of the business includes the way it recognizes the rules and regulations of the administration that they are supposed to be suggested in. Such administrations include both the local and the national government (Bhattacharya, et al, 2011). It should be noted that the government[s] have the right to dictate whether or not a particular decision of an organization is valid and should be recognized acceptable when it comes to dealing with social matters.

Employment and Hiring

Who does the business hire? How does its administration treat the people that work towards its progress? Does it provide as much employment opportunity as needed? Is the process of hiring respectful and impartial? Carrying into consideration these different questions intend to create a sense of distinction on how businesses are supposed to treat their people accordingly. Most often than not, when organizations do not give as much attention to this aspect of operation, they become less acceptable to the community thus making it possible for them to receive court orders that insists on the administration’s need to become more concerned about how they handle their responsibilities towards the people.

Marketing Operations

How does the business promote its product? Does it use impartial advertisements? Is it conscious on how it presents some of the controversial matters that the society is concerned with? The way the business presents its products creates a huge impact on the thinking and the perception of the market. This is the reason why marketing campaigns, no matter what media is used to present them, are being filtered accordingly.

Projects and Social Cooperation Procedures

The need to give back to the community is essential to the role of every business organization, especially that of large corporations. The business connections that organizations have between them specifically identify their worth in correlation to the operation that they are engaged with. The society, being the primary stakeholders of such operations should have a say on whether or not such operations are supportive of the overall concerns of the community (Bansal, et al, 2000). This is the reason why huge organizations are empowered to create programs that would define their role in improving the society and the condition of the people living in it.

CSR in Actual Action

Several business organizations have already been questioned regarding their operations and their relationship with the society. Some of the said businesses include Walmart, Starbucks and McDonalds. These organizations are noted to have an international impact on the people worldwide simply because of the fact that they are operating within global scope. These organizations were however questioned by the society in several different aspects of business management and the way they manufacture as well as distribute the primary products that they promise to present the society with.

Walmart’s issue is most likely related to internal principles of CSR. Having a record of not properly giving benefits to their employees, specifically the members of the minor communities, this organization has respectively been subjected to several court hearing (Fields, 2002). Although the company has been proven not guilty to the scale that they are being sued for, the entire business operation and the administrators have been legally directed to rethink their system of employment and provide a more effective sense of giving their employees the benefits that they are due. Rewards and motivational factors are expected to be improved by the administrators to make sure that their people would not have the same complaints that they have stipulated in past cases already.

Starbucks on the other hand has been questioned for the overpricing of their products while they are not returning the same profit to coffee harvesters. Starbucks is a well-known coffee shop franchise that imports coffee products from countries like Mexico and Portugal (Fialka, 2006). These areas however have low-end labor pay for the workers on coffee farms. The question over ‘why the company’s coffee recipes are price so high’ when they pay not so much for the raw materials they use to create the coffee has brought about a huge change on how this coffee chain operates worldwide. The provision of higher payment for local coffee workers has been implemented while the business is also directed to promote the products of the coffee farmers at a more direct scope (Fialka, 2006).

The pink-slime controversy that placed McDonalds at a much jeopardized position in the market specifically notes the concern that the company has over the clients that it serves in the market. True, the business earns a lot from operation, but is it able to give their customers’ money’s worth? Because of the pink-slime controversy, McDonald’s remains at a standing position that their product is clear of such unhealthy process of production (Bhattacharya, et al, 2011). Following the standards provided by the USDA, McDonalds try to impose that they are doing nothing wrong; nevertheless, at least 70% of the market they serve think otherwise (Bhattacharya, et al, 2011).

Conclusion

The world of commerce continues to change. The way business organizations operate continue to develop accordingly. Nevertheless, the fact that businesses are still in the need to follow the course of being an entity that has grand responsibilities towards the human community is not going to change. Notably, the world is also seen to take a definite path towards advancement. As the world advances and the issues that serve a controversial plate to the people increases, businesses would have a greater role in identifying their responsibilities and addressing their operations towards the betterment of the human society. Being considered and concerned about how their organization affects others is what makes such condition of operation more effective and efficient in applying the different principles of CSR.

True, the future of CSR and the principles it hold is expected to be more dependent on how the people of the society would view the need of businesses to coincide with the matters that highly concern the thinking and the living condition of the people. With this in mind, business organizations that are still to be established should think of the practical ways by which they are to base their organizations upon the strong stance of providing the people what they need and actually gaining what they are supposed to gain from the market. Realizing that they are an entity and not just an operating machine, businesses are expected to become more effective in providing what they promised to the society as they handle the most crucial points of creating more respective manners of achieving their goals of earning to maintain their competitive stance in the face of international trade and commerce. Yes, in the future, business organizations ought to be more cautious on how they are able to establish a socially acceptable reputation through applying the principles of corporate social responsibility into their systems of operation.

References

Bansal, P.; Roth, R. (2000). “Why Companies Go Green: A model of Ecological Responsiveness”. The Academy of Management Journal 43 (4): 717–736.

Bhattacharya, CB, Sankar Sen and Daniel Korschun (2011) Leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility: The Stakeholder Route to Business and Social Value, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: UK.

Fialka. J. (2006). “Politics & Economics: Big Businesses Have New Take on Warming; Some Companies Move From Opposition to Offering Proposals on Limiting Emissions”. Wall Street Journal. pg.A.4.

Fields, S. (2002). “Sustainable Business Makes Dollars and Cents“. Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol.110, No.3,