Table of Contents
Introduction
Corporate social responsibility can be defined as the initiative taken by organizations to asses and take responsibility of their impact on the social wellbeing and environmental protection. It also referred to as organizations being citizens of the society and taking the roles of making it a better place through various activities and programs. Most importantly, corporate social responsibility is seen as a way that business organizations use to solve some of the problems they create in the society through their operations. It is often abbreviated as CSR. This is why the main theme of the essay is corporate social responsibility and its importance for the sustainability and competitive advantage.
For many companies all over the world CSR is the best opportunity to make an organization strong, about one of the big challenges is execution, but this can be avoided by providing a practical way forward. CSR is also another big source for pressure in an organization this is to the customers, employees and the suppliers, no one among this three is safe. However, the society in broad is trying very much to place the increasing importance on the CSR implementation to many organizations. Many leaders in most organizations have started looking at CSR as the best opportunity to fully strengthen their businesses and also at the same time contributing a lot to the society which is the key leader of all this. A big challenge to the executives comes when they have to find an approach or a way to deliver the best or lofty ambitions on the implementation of CSR.
Many organizations try to pursue CSR activities that can mostly favor them at their side and sometimes they are termed as projects. These projects reflect the self-interests of a person in the organization mostly focusing the executives. Companies globally has to focus on the making of the CSR choices, sometimes the choices can be good but sometimes they can be the worst if good strategies and principles are not followed. Many of the companies they mostly have activities divided to many parts across the organization. In this case, the benefits of CSR are maximized. Best companies and those companies that want to have a bright future they choose well and opt to start with pet projects, which are philanthropy or propaganda because these projects are easy and quick to make and implement a decision on them. The big question comes whereby one has to choose how to move towards the CSR strategies that only focus on the truly and the best value to the whole society as well as the whole organization. Some of the principles that guide one in making choice in CSR activities include;
- Concentrate much on your CSR efforts
In this case, one has to commit his or her in making the CSR effort work. The best time to do is manage the time very well, because the CSR activities need a lot of time as well as devotion. One must also put enough resources in place in order to complete the needed choices. The best opportunities in this case will come from those areas that the business well interacts with the society.
- Building a deep and the best understanding of the benefits
Even after one selecting the best choices and areas he or she has to understand well the meaning of CSR and should make a good summary out of it. CSR one of the best aspects in many organizations and to the society, the understanding of the employees, executives and the managers will matter very much to the development of the business. Building the understanding there has to be a positive attitude to all the people that are included in the plan. The most important things are being open, and find a way to understand both the positive and negative sides of CSR.
- Finding the best and also the right customers
By finding the right partners, one will be able to accomplish what he or she needs. CSR activities will determine if an organization promotes the society or not. Therefore, in this case, organization has to find those partners that will help them promote the society and promote ethical measures in the business industry. Finding the best partners is very hard but the solution to that is that both sides have to create win-win criteria, so that they can share all the risks as well as the profits and the losses.
CSR is a very important aspect in this case due to the fact that it covers both the business sector and also the society sector. For business organizations to succeed, they need the help of the whole society. Their operational activities must be approved by the society who looks at the ethical side of them. Organizations also must have competitive advantage over its business rivals and CSR is one of the strategies of achieving that edge in the market. The society has to feel comfortable with the ethical measure of the companies. Because the main reason for CSR is to promote ethical measures and ring about smooth running of the business without any problems occurring. CSR has become more popular over the years and many companies have implemented the use of CSR because they are finding the best way to give something to the society that is to appreciate. Some of the companies engage themselves in environmental projects by providing the best environment for the society, some can build playgrounds, some can set up hospitals and some can come up with programmers to keep the environment clean. Some other companies also help those disadvantaged children in the society or those children that are orphans. The nature of helping those people in the society is an example of human nature and it makes everyone feel good. The concept of corporate social responsibility it engages the fact that every kinds of businesses should both look forward at the benefits of their companies and the benefits of the society. In the 1800s, America had the total rights to take a business license and operate as per the business act of United States of America.
In the corporate world, there is the feeling of being a good businessperson and feeling good about the business. To sustain the implementation of CSR there has to be creation of a competitive strategy .being a business person does not mean that one must be successful in everything. There must be some downs and also ups. In addition, for a company to be well related with the society and there business partners, it must implement the CSR to be able to involve the society in their business for a better and a brighter future.
Organizations have to implement the use CSR in their companies. A CSR activity help in developing a company and also makes the society put a positive attitude towards the company and in this way there will be an assurance of success in the company. To meet the intended objectives of the organization the organization has to implement the practice of CSR activities. This is because the CSR activities will bring all the people together that is including the employees and all the workers in the organization, without leaving the, most important one which is the society. Moreover, to accomplish this there as to be evidence which is illustrated through a project management plan. This is because this will enable one to device or come up with good aims about the project and the objectives.
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Project management plan
This is the first part of the evidence concerning the implementation of CSR in organizations. Currently, almost all the companies are implementing CSR in their manifestos. The main aim of this project is to give the importance of CSR and the benefit of CSR sustainability as well as competitive advantages. The second aim of this project is to show the interaction or the relations between business organizations and the society as well as how this relationship can be improved in order to enhance the level of business standards. These aims will be guided by the objectives, which in this case is; to know how CSR has helped some of the companies, is the use of CSR legit, or is it bad. Is the community accepting the fact that CSR activities can involve all the people in the community? Another objectives is that, how is the CSR helping the workers and the whole organization are there any profits or losses? Lastly, CSR implementation working well or there are some disadvantages.
A good company or a good business organization must have a project management plan that is to make a good plan about the costs, the scope of the business, the time that will be used, the quality, communication and lastly the risks and the resources.
Costs
A organization that has implemented CSR has to manage its costs very well, that is the budget of the organization has to be flexible, no one should take part in destroying or misusing the funds of the company this is because the costs are divided into two, the business side and also the societal side. Both have to share the costs equally, so there is no way a finance disagreement will come about because all the costs will be shared between the two. The budget provided must cover all the needs of the organizations and those activities that the corporate will give to the society. The budget must be fist looked up by the managers and the executives; this is because they are the final decision makers on whether to continue with the budget or some adjustments may be done.
Scope
In this case, the scope deals with the environment where the business is located and the whole society as well. A business area must have the most favorable conditions for working because a good area will definitely offer the best services and the results will be automatically good. CSR activities may be including the building of hospitals, roads and churches. The scope will aim at the activities that are done and where they are done. A building may be built where it is not needed and this will affect the people living near it and this will be a big disadvantage to them. On another case, a factory may be built near a church or a hospital, there will be air pollution and this may cause many problems to the people living near the factory. The best scope for a business as per the American business act of 1976, it is where a business institution can be able to render services to customer and offering goods without the harm of the customers or the harm of the society.
Time
Time is the most important aspect of all. For one to become a successful business person, time is the first aspect to look at. There is no way you can lead someone or guide someone without timing him. There has to be time for everything and at the best moment. When setting up a timetable in an organization, one has to look at everyone in the company even the guard at the gate has the right to be granted the right time. Every person has a time when he or she is free , that’s not the working time that’s the resting time, and in this case time management will help in success of the business, when doing or conducting the CSR activities to the society the organization has to have a timetable , when to have the activity and when. Lastly, time is not available to, time is found, and time is gold, without time there is no business there is no money.
Quality
Quality is the likeness of a good or how good a service is offered. In a company, both services and goods are offered but the difference comes, if the services and goods are of quality or not. A good and a successful company will offer quality services and give quality goods to their customers. In addition, for a company to gain and keep their loyal customers they must maintain the level of quality. When conducting the CSR activities quality is also needed. In simple words, quality is needed everywhere .many organizations will try to take the customers of other companies and they will do this by improving the quality of their goods and services.
Communication
Communication is a path in which people in a business organization communicate. Yes, there are different types of communication, and in this case, we are dealing with business communications where it includes the use of business language. Business language is a language that involves the use of terms. The communication part also will deal with the relationship between the society and the organization in promoting the CSR .not everyone will be able to communicate well, some will be in a situation where business persons will have communication problems with the clients and this can lead to business fall down.
Risk and resources
In each organization, there is risks .and in CSR the risks are shared between the two. An organization must have enough resources to be successful. The CSR mangers and experts will try everything to avoid the risks and increase the resources.
| Task name | Participants no | duration | ||||
| Project management | 35 | 2 days | ||||
| Product development | 35 | 7 days | ||||
| Event management | 35 | 4 days |
The three tasks that are above are all focusing on the implementation of CSR as a project. The first activity must be the project managements; the second is the product development and lastly the event management.
Project log book
For each organization there has to be good or a bad results. In this case, the project logbook will be able to cover the qualitative and quantitative methods that were used during the project. In this project the key research methods that were used including; first we will begin with qualitative methods, they include; direct observation, interviewing and lastly case studies. When it comes to quantitative methods they include; statistical methods, survey, questionnaires and qualitative analysis .this methods were used to give the results of CSR implementation in different companies and how the society reacted to the implementation of CSR. These results are the key aspects to follow in order to complete the project management plan. The objectives and the aims have to be attained after the results.
Performance review
The performance review is the last part that will conclude and give detailed information about the performance of an organization or the performance of the society. The performance will analyze some of the tools that were used to collect data and the techniques, the tools used were including, textbooks, computers palmtops, mobile phones, video recorders and also audio recorders. Techniques used were aiming at the type of the research method that is in order to give quality information.
After every results there as to be some recommendations which are appropriate. In this case, the CSR project is the big deal. From the study, all the companies should implement the CSR in their organization so that they can create a good relationship with the society and other business partners. Companies also have to financially manage themselves and plan for each activity that they do. The value of taking this project is to show the whole world and the business industry that, success is not about how big an organization is, success is how the organization offers its services and goods to the society and are the goods and services of quality. If they are not of quality then that is not a successful organization. CSR activities are very important to the society and to the organization. Managers will not discover the real problems that the organization suffers, those people that experience all these are the workers, they do every work in the organization and they are the best sources of information. Therefore, if an organization wants to implement the use of CSR in an organization the executives and the managers have to consult the workers and hear what they have to say about the idea.
In each organization in the world, decisions have to be done and by this a decision making process has to be there. The first people to give the idea of the decisions are the workers that are at the lowest level including the clerks and the secretaries, the second group to review the decision is the middle managers they will make their adjustments and send them to the senior managers. These senior managers will come at a conclusion on which is the best decision to make and send them to the last stage, which is to the executives. The executives are the top most leaders in an organization, they are the owners of the organization, they will implement the decision, and it will be put in practice right away.
Conclusion
In conclusion, CSR has helped many companies to accomplish their objectives and become better examples to those companies that have not still implemented the use of CSR. A good company will try to make a profit out of the CSR activities and by getting the best customers that are loyal to the organization. This has enabled many organizations to be known globally, some have been leading in the market over the last ten years because of the CSR.
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