Project Management

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16 March 2021

Michelle, thorough review of how CSR actions can be applied to the value chain elements and principles in action.  Thank you for the ample detail and precision of your report.

· Again: Part 2 of the report does NOT apply the elements of critical thinking shown in the module announcements and the faculty connect presentation. The critical thinking factors are not applied to the ref sources, as directed.

· The ref list still needs attention to format. Look at the reviewed paper attached to note basic errors and adjust.

Revise the paper and submit again when ready.

---JPH

Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Value Chain Management

Michelle Freeman

Purdue University Global

GB570M2

Professor, Jerry Haenisch

March 11, 2021

The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Value Chain Management

Corporate social responsibility entails how companies integrate environmental and social factors to their operations and ensure the integration is beneficial to the stakeholders. Value chain management involves integration of the company resources at all stages by maintaining the highest value. There are six key areas of social responsibility in supply chain management. They include organizational practices, environment practices, practices of human rights and working conditions, practices of occupational health and safety and practices to create relationship with the society (Crifo & Forget, 2015). Corporate social responsibilities employed by the company can create competitive advantage where the integration of resources is properly practiced maintaining highest standards. It is an important part of the corporate actions to society.

The effective management of corporate social responsibility engagements and programs creates a strong reputation and promotes employee loyalty to the company. Valuable partnerships arise through good practice of corporate social responsibility hence creating a good competitive advantage for the company (Hsueh, 2015). Companies adopt different approaches to corporate social responsibility that integrate their social and environmental policies systematically into their business strategies. The adopted approaches should match their policies to the organization’s decisions when engaging with their stakeholders.

The value seeking approach advocates for companies to close links with their stakeholders and persuade them to adopt and integrate the social and environmental policies to their business processes. Corporate social responsibility is important in determining to what extent values of the company are considered in making purchase decisions (Bair & Palpacuer, 2015). The company’s reputation which is expressed through the corporate social responsibility activities has proved to be of great importance in well developed economies. Companies utilize corporate social responsibility strategies to create competitive advantage through their values and how they influence customers purchasing decisions.

Companies can demonstrate corporate social responsibility in various ways. Companies invest in environmental and social initiatives to demonstrate corporate social responsibility. They support the society through organizing events or donating funds to initiatives that promote the cause awareness. Through such participation, the integration of values and processes will be effective as the reputation of the company will remain strong (Quarshire, Salmi & Leuschner, 2016). This in return will bring a lot of benefits to the organization such as high sales and general business growth. Therefore, it is prudent for firms to be ecofriendly.

Customers are increasingly favoring doing business with companies that support activities that they value. Customers would pay higher prices for goods that are sold by socially responsible companies as they feel more associated with such companies. This in turn is good for the companies as the integration of values and culture enhances the value chain management of the companies (Hsueh, 2015). Entities can also demonstrate corporate social responsibility by donations in terms of services, money, or products. This mostly targets charities and community organizations. The donations of products and services can lead to customer referrals which will be beneficial to the company as the products and services will sell more hence an important link to effective value chain management.

Enterprises demonstrate corporate social responsibility by attracting talented employees. Employees seeking business management will prefer companies with core values that match their personal values during application of jobs (Nyborg & Zhang, 2013). Companies make high earnings from talented employees. Corporate social responsibility is key in employee retention and satisfaction. This in turn leads to effective value chain management of the company as employees form a key aspect in operations to the customer level. These employees will help in improving customer service.

Companies taking part in community relations through charity activities encourages and challenges others to join in the program. This creates an opportunity for companies to work with other companies which creates new collaborations and a new potential client base. The working together creates friendly competitions among companies involved and employees get to network and learn new methods of business engagement which leads to the companies gaining more (Crifo & Forget, 2015). This networking as a demonstration of corporate social responsibility behavior leads to company gains hence evidence of effective value chain management.

Shareholders can be made aware of the company’s corporate social responsibility endeavors by establishing metrics to use in measuring their impact. The resources used in the activities should be determined and how they relate to the gains achieved out of them. The amount of time used should also be explained to the shareholders (Quarshire, Salmi, & Leuschner, 2015). Various activities on social responsibility that the firm is engaged in must be highlighted to the shareholders in the general meetings. This will aid them know if their interests also are being safeguarded at the same time of being socially responsible entity.

Employees can be made aware by grouping them into various activity groups. Giving them the authority to sort out the programs and activities that should be undertaken and develop mechanisms to see the actions work (Nyborg & Zhang, 2013). Companies should make it a culture to have corporate social responsibility leading teams within the employee workforce. The staff of the entity must be given chance to give their views and opinions on how they will be incorporated into the value chain to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. This will motivate them and as a result they will be enjoy the work environment that is favorable to them.

The customers and the society can be made aware through sensitization programs, promotions, voluntary programs and promoting environmental sustenance. Branding products for customers, having reward systems for purchases and building customers relations. The firm must charge them fair prices for goods and services they offer them provide true information about advertisements, better quality and quantity products, and provide safe goods and services to the customers (Bair & Palpacuer, 2015). The society can also be made aware through campaigns and taking part in community development projects. During this forums the company should inform the society on the various programs that are lined up to be implemented to ensure that they are socially responsible to the society as they want bring efficiency to their value chain management.

There are many risks related to corporate social responsibility. The risks differ from sector to sector. When not managed properly and checked well, involvement in corporate social responsibility can lead to slow business operations as a result of internal business bureaucracy resulting from the practice (Hsueh, 2015). Personal interests may develop in the management of the company. Key employees tasked with the running of the corporate social responsibility of the company can let personal interests overtake the company goals and even use company resources for their personal interests.

There is risk of investing in corporate social responsibility over other more urgent business needs. More essential business needs such as recruitment of new employees, adopting new and advanced technology, investing on research may be overlooked (Crifo & Forget, 2015). The companies can feel obligated to engage in corporate social responsibility and forego key aspects of business development. Corporate social responsibility undertakings can trick customers and be used to make critics less judgmental and eventually lead to marketing fraud which will greatly affect the company reputation.

Lego is a toy company which has a great reputation in the world. Based on Lego Company (2017), their strategy is not just helping children in their development through kid games and creative play but also promoting a healthy planet conducive for children development for the future. Lego has pledged to the world climate change to help reduce carbon impact on the environment. Lego intends to produce environmentally friendly toys and other children playing materials by the year 2030. This successful integration of corporate social responsibility by Lego has seen its place as one of the most reputable companies in the world grow.

Ben & Jerry’s is an ice cream making company. According to Ben & Jerry Company, [The name in the citation should match the name in the author position of the ref list.] (2014), it is promoting environmental preservation by balancing profit and business purpose by attaining highest levels of environmental and social performance and public transparency. The company’s corporate social responsibility integration has seen it set aside huge budget for human rights organizations across the US and environmental justice health organizations. This has helped the company to keep growing and attract top talents across the US and their products favored than those of competitors.

Volkswagen is a car producing company in the US. As per Volkswagen Company (2015), the company designed a way to go around emissions control. This strategy was aimed at giving Volkswagen unfair competitive advantage over their competitors. The unethical practices saw the resignation of key employees including their CEO which adversely affected the company. Hence qualifying as case for poor corporate social responsibility integration.

CenturyLink is one of the largest internet and telephone service providers in the United States. Based on CenturyLink Company (2015), most customers dislike the company due to its poor reputation. This entity’s ACSI score of 59 for its internet service is among the worst of any company in any industry. In terms of the customer service poll done by Zogby, nearly 43% of the respondents recounted undesirable customer service experience. In addition, the staff gave a subpar rating indicating that employees’ satisfaction was very poor. In 2018, the company publicized it was going to do away with merit-based raises for all its staff. This is a clear picture that the company is not socially responsible.

An entity is required to think critically so that it can choose its corporate social responsibility goals. It does not create any sense for a company to rush into CSR by confronting any project related with this idea. First, I have to think critically, will I focus on abating the environmental effect of the entity maneuvers, will I incentivize staff to volunteer for charities, and will I construct a hospital in the far-flung areas and will generosity be part of my CSR and value chain portofolio (Presutti, 2013). Coming up with objectives entails probing hard questions. Second, a successful CSR program dictates that an entity should think critically about approaches.

Managing is not easy regardless of an issue at hand, management involves use of strategy. Corporate strategy must incorporate CSR in value chain for effective management of the value chain. Finally, successful CSR programs require employee commitment. If the entity is going to pretend that they value the community first, but the employees know it’s “profit above all, “they will undermine the entity’s CSR activities (Presutti, 2013). Therefore, it is prudent for organizations to engage their employees so that they can be motivated to take part in CSR activities.

In conclusion, a company can attain its CSR by being effective in management of its value chain. The manner in which the activities of the value chain are fared on determines the greater effects that the society will achieve, whereas the societal factors affect the working of those events (Presutti, 2013). This effort must be directed by the model of shared value, that there exists an affinity of paybacks to the company and the greater society of which it is a part. A firm cannot deal with all of society’s matters. Consequently, it should emphasize on those that overlap most meticulously with its trade. We must consider a firm’s efforts at accomplishing the triple bottom line: economic, social, and environmental not as a compromise between earnings and social responsibility but to advantage both the firm and society. Corporate social responsibility successfully implemented over value chain events, and earnings that offer a satisfactory yield to shareholders are not conjointly exclusive (Presutti, 2013). The prospect of social responsibility seems to be one of sustained attention and progression.

[Discussion is still missing Part #2 addressing elements of critical thinking applied to the ref sources, as directed in the module announcements.]

References [Basic format errors in the list. Show the actual article titles from web pages. The list is not in alphabetical order. Why not list the course textbook correctly?]

Bair, J., & Palpacuer, F. (2015). CSR beyond the corporation: contested governance in global value chains. Global Networks, 15(s1): S1-S19.

Benjerry. M. (2014). Corporate Social Responsibility. [Show the actual article title] https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2014/corporate-social-responsibility-history

CenturyLink.(2015).CorporateSocialResponsibility. [Show the actual article title] https://www.csrhub.com/CSR_and_sustainability_information/CenturyLink

Crifo, P., & Forget, V. D. (2015). The economics of corporate social responsibility: A firm-level perspective survey. Journal of Economic Surveys, 29(1):112–130.

 Hsueh, C. F. (2015). A bi-level programming model for corporate social responsibility collaboration in sustainable supply chain management. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 73, 84-95.

Lego Company. (2017).Corporate Social Responsibility. [Show the actual article title] https://www.marketingweek.com/lego-talks-up-social-responsibility-as-profit-rise-gives-brand-its-best-ever-year/

Nyborg, K., & Zhang, T.  (2013). Is corporate social responsibility associated with lower wages? Environmental and Resource Economics, 55(1): 107–117. 

Quarshie, A. M., Salmi, A., & Leuschner, R. (2016). Sustainability and corporate social responsibility in supply chains: The state of research in supply chain management and business ethics journals. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 22(2): 82-97.

Volkswagen. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility. [Show the actual article title] https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2015/csr-after-volkswagen-scandal/30846.

 Presutti, W.D. (2013). Supply and Operations Management Collection. (1st Edition ed.). New York: Business Expert Press. eBook. [The Presutti and Mawhinney textbook is a part of this collection. Cite the textbook with both authors, NOT the online collection from the BEP.]