The Impact of CSR on Project Success

This assignment explores the crucial link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and project success. It delves into how CSR practices, such as ethical sourcing and environmental sustainability, can shape various aspects of a project lifecycle. The analysis considers the influence of CSR on project planning, resource allocation, and the overall environmental impact. Furthermore, it identifies areas within CSR that require further development to enhance project outcomes.

Managing A Successful
Business Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Project aims and objectives based on Corporate Social Responsibility:...........................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Establishment of management plan:.................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P3 Work break down structure and Gantt Chart for time frames:..........................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Small scale research methods suitable for meeting project aims and objectives:.............8
P5 Analysis and interpretation of data:................................................................................10
TASK 6..........................................................................................................................................14
P6 Recommendations for TESCO:.......................................................................................14
TASK 7..........................................................................................................................................15
P7 Reflecting value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives, learning and
performance:.........................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Business projects are undertaken by the managers as to develop plans and policies for the
company. These plans and strategies are developed for improving companies productivity and
efficiency. The managers who are managing the project development should consider all the
facts and figures for understanding the variability of different factors. This helps them in
ensuring that right information is being used for developing the project. The project should also
focus on breaking down the work by using proper work breakdown structure and Gantt chart.
CSR(corporate social responsibility) is an activity which is undertaken by organisation to
establish good relationship with society and people. It also help the business in increasing its
brand value and recognition among people (Carvalho, and Rabechini Junior, 2015). CSR
activities have its own impact on the organisation performance. Chosen organisation is TESCO
plc which is running various CSR activities for society and business development
TASK 1
P1 Project aims and objectives based on Corporate Social Responsibility:
Project aims and objectives are set as to define why the project has been set up. What is
to be achieved by undertaking project. It is very vital for the project manager to set the aims and
objectives as it helps people in understanding the reason behind project existence. Aims and
objectives cover all the important issues which the report has addressed. The size of organisation
have an influence over the aims and objectives of project. Also the addressed issues impacts the
project (Chih, and Zwikael, 2015). There is a project initiation plan which needs to be
established to ensure that all the requirements have been taken into consideration before fixing
aims and objectives of the project:.
The project initiation plan describes about various topics:
 Project purpose: It states about why the project has been set up. What is the reason
behind it.
 Alternatives Analysis: Before setting any objectives and plans it evaluates about various
alternatives which has to analysed as to gather appropriate data. This data helps us in
analysing feasibility of alternatives.
 Planning Estimates: Plan are the blueprint which states various estimates which has been
taken as to prepare a plan.

 Preliminary environmental evaluation: The project manager has to do environmental
audit for checking the authenticity of the research and validity of the research project.
The project initiation plan helps the project manager and employee's to understand various
requirements which needs to be fulfilled by the team (De Visscher, 2016). The Aims of
objectives will cover the following points:
 Mission and Vision: They will cover the short term and long term goals of the
organisation.
 Goals: They are the end results which will be required to be achieved by the organisation.
 Objectives: These help the manager in measuring the performance of employee's.
 Core competencies: These are the core values and ability of an organisation which
enables it to perform its task.
The chosen project research title is “Corporate Social Responsibility and Its impact on
Coates effectiveness”. The project is being undertaken with certain aims and objectives:
AIMS:
 To check the impact of CSR activities on organisation effectiveness
 To check the need to increase or decrease CSR funding
 Measure Community improvement in standard of living
 Impact on the environment.
Objectives:
 Improve CSR activities impact on the society
 Enhance relationship between organisation and society
 Provide data for developing more activities
 Increase the benefits for the society

TASK 2
P2 Establishment of management plan:
Management plan is the method which helps the manager in aligning the whole project
into one format. This plan includes all the indispensable factors which are necessary to be
considered as to make it more effective (Duffield, and Hornstein, Henry 2015). Management
plan should analyse all the fixed and variable factors which might impact the research project in
future. Fixed and variable factors location varies as some of them are internal factors and others
are external.
The management plan should have a structure which helps in reducing confusion over
roles and responsibilities of individuals. It should outline specific factors:
 Scope of project: This part of report states about the purpose for which this research has
been undertaken by the organisation. This report is being prepared to understand
Corporate Social Responsibility and Its impact on Tesco effectiveness. This research will
help Tesco in analysing whether they should increase or decrease the CSR activities with
the effectiveness of individual activity.
 Risk management: Risk is associated with every aspect of life and business. It is the
factor which comes with everything we buy and sell. Risk management helps in
understanding, analysing and addressing risk as to ensure that goals and objectives are
achieved by the organisation. For research report the project manager has to do analysis
of various cost and risk associated with those cost (Dutta, and Bose, 2015). This will
ensure that the expenditure wont turn into loss.
 Cost control: Cost control is a step which helps in keeping all the expenditure in control.
This helps in identifying and reducing various expenses which is being done for
completion of research project. The manager is able to calculate the actual results with
the standards and understand the variances involved in it. It is a important factor which
helps in maintaining profitability of an organisation.
 Quality control: This helps in keeping the untaken research quality as per the defined
standards. The project manager will be able to keep up the quality of research if the team
is well informed and everyone is focused on achieving goals and objectives.
 Resource management: Project manager has to ensure that all invested resources are
being utilised in a proper manner or not (Flouris, and Lock, 201I). The resource

management is a concept which helps in identifying the available and potential resources
which can be used for the research.
TASK 3
P3 Work break down structure and Gantt Chart for time frames:
Work break down structure defines how the hole task will be divided between different
people as to produce better results. The project manager has to determine various levels between
which the work will be divided. The concept helps the project manager in dividing the whole
task and getting it completed on time as to improve efficiency and effectiveness. It is developed
in a hierarchal subdivision of a project into work area's. The lowest is usually considered as a
activity or a work package. The lowest activity should be consistent and agreed with the making
of whole work break down structure (Kerzner, 2015). The work break down structure acts as a
foundation of all the activities which will be undertaken for the purpose of research. It helps in
planning cost and effort estimation, scheduling and resource allocation. There are certain benefits
of creating a work break down structure:
 Defines scope of research project
 Helps in assigning work to different individuals.
 Helps in establishing a control baseline
 It measure the performance on the basis of objective achievement
 collects and shares the information to all appropriate levels.
 Establishes relationship between aims, work, organisation and cost.
Work break down structure for the research report is:

WORK BREAK DOWN STRUCTURE
The organisation also have to fix a specific time frame to conduct all the activities. The
project manager is assigned with this task as to set a time frame for each activity. This will
ensure that the whole research is completed within a certain time frame.
Gantt Chart is a tool which helps the project manager in simplifying the process of devising
time frame. The Gantt chart explains various start and end date of different task as assigned in
work break down structure (Müller, 2016). The modern gantt chart also specifies various
dependency relationship between different activities. Gantt chart for specified activities is as
follows:
This chart will help the manager in measuring performance of various employee's.
Environment Evaluation
Project planning
Resource Allocation
External and
internal
Environment
Evaluation
Research Process
Evaluation of Results
Implementation
Area which need
development by
CSR

Activities 1 to 7
Day
8 to 14
Day
15 to
21 Day
22 to
28 Day
29 to
35Day
36 to
42 Day
43 to
49 Day
50 to
56 Day
Setting aims and
objectives
Environment Evaluation
Project planning
Resource Allocation
Collecting data
Evaluating data
Implementation
Evaluation
TASK 4
P4 Small scale research methods suitable for meeting project aims and objectives:
An organisation like TESCO have huge sum of funds and hence they can adapt any
method of choice. But the most suitable method for doing research is questionnaire which will
provide exact information about the customer mind set. This is a primary data collection method
which has proven its worth.
Questionnaire:
Questionnaire
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Occupation:
1. Does CSR helps in society development?
 Yes

 No
2. Is there any relationship between CSR and competitive advantage?
 Yes
 No
3. Is it the sole responsibility of organisation like TESCO to do CSR activities?
 Agreed
 Disagreed
 Neutral
4. Is TESCO is doing enough CSR activities?
 Yes
 No
5. Have you ever been a part of any CSR activity?
 Yes
 No
6. Did you receive benefit of any CSR activity done by TESCO?
 Yes
 No
7. Whose responsibility is it for developing and measuring CSR activities in organisation?
 Top Management
 Middle Management
 Lower Management
Sign
Qualitative method is useful in the given project. As this research method will help in
analysing the most important factors and knowledge of people regarding CSR activities
conducted by TESCO. This will also help the organisation in developing better understanding

with the effectiveness of different CSR activities undertaken by TESCO. This method will also
help the project manager in simplifying the whole data interpretation method.
Secondary Data: This data has been collected from the available case studies on CSR activities
of Tesco. These case studies were taken from online sites. They described about the possible
benefits of the CSR activities undertaken by Tesco to promote communities and the business
profitability.
According to the case study published on European Monitoring Centre on change and IBS case
development centre, Tesco is slowly growing its share in CSR activities which is helping it in
retaining the market share and grow its profitability to new heights (Peters, Blohm, and
Leimeister, 2015). The CSR activities has been very profitable for company as it was able to
develop better image in the market while its support improved the standard of living of people.
P5 Analysis and interpretation of data:
The number of consulted people were 1000. These people were chosen randomly as to
keep the process of data collection unbiased and fair. The data is interpreted as per the result.
1. Does CSR helps in society development?
 Yes -800
 No -200
Interpretation: 80% of people agree that CSR activities help the society in developing and
improving living.
2. Is there any relationship between CSR and competitive advantage?
 Yes -660
Yes No
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900

 No -340
Interpretation: 66.6% people agree that these CSR activities help the company in gaining
competitive advantage over its competitors. Only 33.4% people disagree.
3. Is it the sole responsibility of organisation like TESCO to do CSR activities?
 Agreed- 50
 Disagreed- 650
 Neutral- 300
Yes No
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700

Interpretation: 65% disagree that it is the sole responsibility of Tesco to do CSR. They had a
collective view regarding this. They believe that most of the people said that it is Collective duty
of every industry player.
4. Is TESCO is doing enough CSR activities?
 Yes -600
 No- 400
Interpretation: 60% people think that Tesco is doing enough of the CSR activity to make an
impact on the society. While 40% disagree.
5. Have you ever been a part of any CSR activity?
Agreed Disagreed Neutral
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Yes No
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700

 Yes -450
 No -550
Interpretation: 55% people said that they have never been a part of any CSR campaign while
45% people said otherwise.
6. Did you receive benefit of any CSR activity done by TESCO?
 Yes -780
 No -220
Yes No
0
100
200
300
400
500
600

Interpretation: 78% people have been benefited by the CSR activity done by Tesco while 22%
disagree.
7. Whose responsibility is it for developing and measuring CSR activities in organisation?
 Top Management- 600
 Middle Management- 200
 Lower Management- 100
Interpretation: 60% people believe that it is the top management which have to analyse the
need of doing CSR activity while 20% and 10% thinks otherwise.
Yes No
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Top Management Middle Management Lower Management
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700

The individual analysed by the project manager have given their answers for the CSR
activities and its effectiveness for Tesco. This move has helped company in gaining better
recognition and building its image as a caretaker in the market. This result matches the result of
case study finding which stated that Tesco has been able to propel a better market image and
recognition via using CSR as a tool (Ramazani, and Jergeas, 2015). The case studies states that
CSR activities done by Tesco is way more than its competitors do together.
TASK 6
P6 Recommendations for TESCO:
This is the part where the project manager will inform higher authority about the research
undertaken by him and his team. He will inform them about the possible outcomes and also
recommend for developing better strategies for future CSR activities. These recommendations
are being made after analysing findings and impacts of the research undertaken. It depends on
the company top management to follow or not follow all the recommendations. The objective of
this report was to understand and measure the impact of CSR activities on Tesco. This research
was also concerned with the Tesco future CSR activities.
Recommendations:
 Increasing CSR activities: The company needs to increase its CSR activities as to
improve its position in market further more. This increase should be done while keeping
all sectors of society in mind.
 Enhance the funds for CSR department: CSR department of Tesco suffers from the
budget constraints and that is why it is not able to improve the existing programs and also
developing new program is not possible (PSerrador, & Turner, 2015).
 Collective CSR: Tesco being a market leader should take the lead and motivate other
market players to increase CSR activities. Tesco can develop programs in partnership
with other major players.
 New Program Development: Tesco needs to boost new program development as to
establish program as per the need of time. The new program development process also
needs to increase its speed.

 Engage more sections of society: Tesco need to engage more sections of society as to
make the CSR program more successful. They can offer people opportunities like
voluntarily for CSR activity and getting benefited in shopping at Tesco super market.
 Adapting Market Trends: Tesco needs to keep on adapting market trends. This will
help the company in grabbing the attention of public. But this does not mean that CSR
will lose its reason.
TASK 7
P7 Reflecting value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives, learning and
performance:
The research project did achieved the desired targets. It achieved all the objectives
because it was managed properly. It was the learning and performance improvement which will
enhance because of the research project. The performance of company improved while the
quality of Corporate social responsibilities was improving. The basic thing learnt by undertaking
this project was that the society and organisation can improve and enhance themselves
collectively. No organisation today can grow while they do not help in building society and
people. Everyone has to do their part to help in building society (Taherdoost, and
Keshavarzsaleh, 2015). These CSR activities help people in increasing their standard of living
which ultimately enables them in purchasing products and services of company.
The CSR activities also reduces the burden from government as they have to spend less
on the welfare of people. These companies also provide exclusive services to the poor, like
protection from cold- shelter. The performance of company also improved as people bought
more products from supermarkets because they wanted to contribute their part in the social
welfare programs. Last years Tesco did CSR activities of worth GBP 75 million. Which makes
them market leader in CSR too. They need to keep on developing new programs to establish
them self in this sector too (Peters, Blohm, and Leimeister, J2015). Also it is very important for
the company to manage the CSR program properly as to enhance its effectiveness.
CONCLUSION
It is very important for business to manage projects successfully as this help them in getting
more productive results. The company has to focus on the requirements for conducting research
in a successful manner. This reports has given its finding about how Tesco has kept its CSR

activities at par with the standards of governments. They have a very well maintained
infrastructure which allows them in keeping the activities running. This CSR activities also
allowed them in maintaining better relationship with society.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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target benefit formulation. International Journal of Project Management. 33(2). pp.352-
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business. Springer.
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Management 33. No. 2: 291-298.
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benefits of investment in project management training and education. International
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Taherdoost, H and Keshavarzsaleh, A., 2015. How to lead to sustainable and successful IT
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Online
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[Accessed on 26 May 2017].