Coursework 4

CSR: Corporate social responsibility

Part 1

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been at the centre of the discussion on how business
and society should interact for the past many decades (Klonoski 1991). Even though the
definition of CSR still remains vague and controversial, Archie Carroll (1979) has made an
important attempt to close the gap between economics and other expectations. To define, CSR
refers to “The social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and
discretionary expectations that society has of organisations at a given point in time”(Carroll
1979).

Today, more and more companies are considering social responsibility as a strategy for
long-term, sustainable development. With the globalisation of the economy, the definition and
scope of CSR has become broader. In terms of the nature of CSR, enterprises must not only fulfil
their economic and legal responsibilities, which are their social obligations, but also their
higher-level ethical and charitable responsibilities, which society expects them to fulfil or which
they voluntarily fulfil. Carroll has divided them into four levels: economic responsibility, legal
responsibility, ethical responsibility and the responsibility to decide whether or not to fulfill
philanthropic responsibility (Carroll 1979).

It is worth mentioning that CSR is not only highly valued and promoted by academia and
business in different countries, but also recognized by major international organisations. The
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) is a leading organisation in the United States that helps
member companies implement social responsibility strategies to achieve business
success(Lepoutre & Heene, 2006). It believes that CSR is about achieving business success
through respect for ethical values and respect for people, communities and the natural
environment.

A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) coordinator serves as a corporation's "conscience,"

To become a CSR manager always requires a strong interest in corporate social responsibility
and sustainability and outstanding interpersonal and written communication abilities. CSR
managers need to be able to operate both alone and together with others across a variety of
teams, departments. Excellent organisational and project management abilities will also help the
CSR manager to easily handle the ideation process.
Part 2

The Competing Values Framework, developed by Robert Quinn and Kim Cameron, analyses the
key indicators of effective organisational management by explaining the two dimensions of a
company's concern for its environment and its internal functions (Cameron & Quinn, 2006).

The first dimension is defined as internal focus and integration or external focus and
differentiation(Cameron & Quinn, 2006). Specifically, internal emphasis means that the company
emphasises the well-being and development of the employees within the company and external
focus means that the company focuses on the development of the organisation itself (Cameron &
Quinn, 2006). The second dimension is stability and control or flexibility and discretion, which
means that companies must be adaptable and flexible(Cameron & Quinn, 2006). By mapping
these two dimensions in a matrix, the Competing Values Framework is formed.

I specifically choose the organisation, Deloitte, as the example to explain how it connects with
the Quinn model. From the research, the Deloitte network is a company which tends to focus
more on the people and has flexible stability. Deloitte not only has an open, innovative and but
also focuses more on personal growth, cooperation and teamwork. Deloitte, as an audit and
consulting company, works corporately with people and human capitals (Deloitte, 2022).

At the same time, Deloitte is on their way dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability
and creating societal change. In the Deloitte website, they introduced their ideas, “The Deloitte
network is committed to driving societal change and promoting environmental sustainability
(Deloitte, 2022).” Deloitte is building and implementing solutions that contribute to a sustainable
and prosperous future for everybody by collaborating in novel ways with government, non-profit
organisations, and civil society (Deloitte, 2022). Managers in the corporate social responsibility
department could face numerous project management and innovative meetings. Facilitation
could be the most important skill for the managers to have in such a situation. The corporate
social responsibility managers in the company that focuses on human capitals have to
encourage collaborative effort and handle conflicts when necessary. Also, the manager needs to
develop their staff and develop innovative ideas to help the ideation process.
Part 3

In Millcater round 2, CSR has been pivotal in one of the Millcaster decisions. According to the
background situation, MGI has faced issues with their south korean partners, Seong Dae-Hyun.
Seong has been was issued with a US court document citing with incidents of sexual harassment
at the company. As the decision-maker, CSR must produce timely summary ideas for what to say
to Millcaster Global Industries' board of directors and the media.

CSR are cognizant that MGI's corporate principles include 'speak up' and 'respect for all'. The
key challenges facing the team member in this function is that the potential customers would
scrutinise the ethical foundation of the company's viewpoint and this would bring a negative
effect toward the society. Sexual harrasment is a sensitive and controversial topic that could
easily raised up huge amount of public opinions.

To solve the problem, the construction of legislation is strengthened through the legal
mechanism, which stipulates that the company's responsibility and obligation to society is a
mandatory act. In addition, we can develop a new evaluation system based on the evaluation of
the company's economic, social, environmental and employee aspects, and regularly produce
corporate social responsibility reports and publish them for public scrutiny(Du, S., Bhattacharya,
C.B. and Sen, S. 2010). Through active guidance and public opinion campaigns, CSR aims to
raise the awareness of corporate social responsibility among companies and citizens and to
create a consensus in society that companies should take on social responsibility. In an
environment of heightened public awareness and competition, corporate social responsibility can
build a positive brand image and social reputation.

To promote the development of CSR, government initiatives, policies, industry associations and
the monitoring of public opinion are needed to guide the development of CSR (Du, S.,
Bhattacharya, C.B. and Sen, S. 2010). The integration of CSR theory with other theoretical
knowledge is typical. It is combined with stakeholder theory, institutional economics and classical
economics. The scope of CSR research includes the concepts, objects, models, history,
practices and theoretical systems of CSR. It needs to be studied from the perspectives of
economics, law, management, sociology, ethics, philosophy, political science, social science and
even intersectionality (Du, S., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Sen, S. 2010).

In all, while pursuing and generating profits and maximising shareholders' wealth, enterprises
should take the greatest possible initiative to promote the rights and interests of other
stakeholders, such as employees, consumers, creditors, communities, the environment and
governments and should do so on a voluntary basis. Businesses should strive to be good
"corporate citizens" in order to achieve their own sustainable development and to contribute to
the sustainable development of society as a whole.
Part 4

The "Father of Modern Management," Peter Drucker, was a brilliant man whose interests and
accomplishments covered a wide range of economics and social issues, as well as commercial
and nonprofit management. He specialised in writing about the field of management and the term
'knowledge worker' became widely known through the work of Peter Drucker (2014). He gave
birth to the discipline of management and he predicted the advent of the knowledge economy.
His numerous contributions, as well as his incredibly effective advice and correct forecasts,
became legendary (2014).

In his first book The Practice of Management, he has explicitly expressed his views,“This,
however, imposes upon the business and its managers a responsibility which not only goes far
beyond any traditional responsibility of private property but is altogether different. It can no longer
be based on the assumption that the self-interest of the owner of property will lead to the public
good or that the self-interest and the public good can be kept apart and considered to have
nothing to do with each other. On the contrary, it requires the manager to assume responsibility
for the public good(Cohen, 2008).”

Drucker thought that corporate executives need to embrace the "spirit of performance" by
exhibiting high levels of moral and ethical integrity in their activities, focusing on outcomes,
empowering staff, going beyond financial duties to shareholders, and ultimately serving the
common good (Cohen, 2008).

Drucker believed that concerns for workers in and out of the workplace were the duty of the
corporate leader just as much as the earnings, survival, and expansion of the firm or
organisation. Therefore, he emphasised that there were social obligations of business (Cohen,
2008). Drucker gained the reputation of being a business social responsibility pioneer as a result.
However, there were significant Drucker disparities in what many people anticipate businesses to
do under this guise (Cohen, 2008).

Drucker disagreed with the majority of individuals who thought and wrote about corporations'
social responsibilities (Cohen, 2008). His approach to social responsibility was built on four
primary themes. The government's incompetence to manage several socioeconomic issues; the
importance of social responsibility in connection to the organization's objective; the opportunities
for competitive advantage in social responsibility; and the critical role of leadership (Cohen,
2008).

Today many organisations have whole departments dedicated to promoting social responsibility,
investigating company acts that are producing negative reactions that must be addressed,
identifying possibilities, and developing and implementing social responsibility initiatives.
According to Drucker, “even a company’s negative impacts could and should be examined to see
if they could be turned into something positive (Cohen, 2008).”

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Carroll, A. B. 1979. "A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance."

kkkCameron, K.S. and Quinn, R.E. (2006) Diagnosing and Changing Organisational Culture
Based on Competing Values Framework. Josey Bass, San Francisco.

Cohen, W.A. (2008) “What Drucker taught us about social responsibility,” Leader to Leader,
2009(51), pp. 29–34. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ltl.315.

Our culture: It starts with you. Deloitte Switzerland. Available at:

Klonoski, Richard J., 1991. "Foundational considerations in the corporate social responsibility
debate," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 9-18.

Lepoutre, J. and Heene, A. (2006) “Investigating the impact of firm size on Small Business Social
Responsibility: A critical review,” Journal of Business Ethics, 67(3), pp. 257–273. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9183-5.

Why read Peter Drucker? (2014) Harvard Business Review. Available at:
https://hbr.org/2009/11/why-read-peter-drucker.

Du, S., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Sen, S. (2010), Maximizing Business Returns to Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR): The Role of CSR Communication. International Journal of Management
Reviews, 12: 8-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00276.x

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