A report by Price Water Cooper House in 2010 shows that the CSR initiatives and reporting has increased despite the sagging economy and this points to a positive change in the mindset of the management of companies. "PWC explains that such reports have become critical to a company's credibility, transparency and endurance." (Business & the Environment 2010, p.5). The reduced role of the Government in business circles is only going to further increase this trend because companies feel they have an obligation to the society at large and they want to make this country a better place for living. All this is done out of their own interest and initiative rather than any force by any external institution. Also, many companies understand the significance of undertaking such initiatives to their company and so they want to continue doing it.
Sustainability Development
As companies are having a growing presence in communities due to their voluntary programs, it gives them greater confidence to make public their goals and aims for the future. More and more people belonging to different groups are following the reports, goals, news and other milestones of well-known companies that play a role in their life, directly or indirectly. This public attention, in turn, forces the company to set tangible and sustainable goals within a reasonable time period. These goals helps the company to have a focus and helps the management to formulate policies that will help them to reach these goals. According to (Wootliff 2010 as quoted in Business and the Environment, 2011, p.6), "There is no doubt that one of the most important advances in sustainability reporting has been the growing preparedness of corporations to publicly state what they aim to achieve. & #8230; Goals provide observable and measurable results that need to be achieved within a timeframe. & #8230; They provide a compass to managers who need clear, benchmarkable targets that can steer them in an agreed direction." It can provide more meaning to the employees, managers and to all other people who have a stake in the company.
Sustainable development goals not only describe the goals of the company, but it also extends to how the environment can be preserved and the resources used for production can be renewed so that the natural world can be available for posterity. In the context of such an environment-friendly approach, these sustainable goals are an important step for every company. Sustainability development and CSR go hand in hand because a company can set goals only as part of its CSR campaign that aims to protect the environment as well as improve the community in which it operates.
Problems that come with CSR
Though the benefits of CSR and sustainability development are enormous, it becomes difficult to implement in practical terms and this can be attributed to numerous reasons. Firstly, the concept of CSR and community development is more prevalent in advanced economies than developing and under-developed economies due to the difference in the societies. As more and more countries are moving their operations to third-world countries, it becomes difficult to estimate the environmental damage. Many developing economies do not have stringent environmental laws and there is little accountability for the perpetrators, thereby making it difficult to hold anyone responsible for any environmental damage. In the light of this situation, the idea of corporate social responsibility becomes moot because the companies are focusing their attention primarily in the developed countries. These countries no longer have processing and manufacturing industries that pollute their environment and the people enjoy a greater standard of living when compared to those who live in abject poverty in under-developed and developing countries. In other words, the countries that need support from corporates as part of their CSR are not getting and so the money spent by the businesses is not really being used in the right direction.
Other problems arise in the implementation aspect of CSR. Many companies prefer to work with NGOs to ensure that their money reaches people who need them the most. but, these NGOs should be on the same wavelength of the company for successful implementation of any project. These NGOs evaluate and act as a watchdog for the CSR activities of the company and this can prove to be a major point of dissent.
Another common problem is when the company announces a big initiative and fails to follow it up with action due to a number of factors including lack of resources and external problems like recession. "In our view, CSR is a journey. You don't need to solve anything. You perfect yourself and your community. There are so many companies failing to live up to their aspirations, so if you're making progress, at least you are getting somewhere." (Billington, 2008, p.2)....
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Organizational Responsibility to the Community and Socially Responsible Strategies According to the work of the Kenexa Research Institute, "participation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities provides more benefits to an organization than just giving back to the community and doing the right thing. The latest research suggests that an organization's active participation in corporate social responsibility efforts has a significant influence on employees' engagement levels and views of senior management." (p.1)
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To evaluate weak areas of the current strategy and propose solutions for improvement. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction According to Zou and Cavusgil (1995), the subject of global strategy has attracted a lot of attention in the recent past. Zou and Cavisgil (1995) calim that a major reason behind this has been the increasing progress in the telecommunications and other technological areas that has brought the world closer and transnational existence of organizations Eastcompeace
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