Corporate Social Responsibility

This document discusses the importance, impact, and challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR) through seminars on social media, global sustainable development, whistleblowing, and workplace ethics. It highlights the benefits of CSR for companies and society, the role of social media in promoting CSR, and the need for sustainability in SMEs. It also explores the relationship between CSR and workplace ethics, emphasizing the role of whistleblowing in promoting ethical practices.

CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
a) Write- ups on three seminars..............................................................................................3
b) Reflection on relation with CSR........................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

MAIN BODY
a) Write- ups on three seminars
Seminar 1
The first seminar addressed the topic social media and the corporate social responsibility
wherein the discussion was made on the concept of social media. Along with the concept
importance and impact of social media was made on the SME that is the small and medium
enterprises. Also, the discussion was made on the difficulties faced by SME in use of social
media (Crane, Matten and Spence, eds., 2019). With the help of this seminar I learnt that social
media is the combination of different websites and applications which are used in the sharing of
the views and content with other people. On the other hand, the CSR is referred to as protection
of the environment by the company. This is essential because of the fact that the company takes
all the raw materials from the environment so it is the duty of the company to take care of the
environment.
Also, with help of the seminar I learnt that the social media is helpful for the SME for
many different reasons. The major importance is that this help the companies in marketing the
goods and services in the market with low cost and maximum coverage. Also, the impact of
social media on the SME was both the positive and also negative. The positive impact is because
of the reason that use of social media helps in reducing the cost of the media advertising which is
high as compared to social media and other advertising sources (Wright, 2018). But the negative
impact of the use of social media for the SME is that this require a lot of time to design the site
and post the advertisement and also there is high requirement of knowledgeable personnel to
operate it.
But in the seminar some people argued that there are many difficulties which are faced by
the SME while the use of social media. With the discussion I learnt that the most common
difficulty is the lack of knowledge. This is majorly pertaining to the fact that the use of social
media involves some of the technical knowledge which is not sure that every person has.
Another difficulty which was discussed was that the companies were small and medium scaled
thus, it was not possible for them to employ high use of social media into business (Livingstone
and Local, 2017). Also, one more argument on the difficulties of social media over the SME is
that it can have bad publicity as any one can post on the website of the company.

Earlier I presumed that social media is not a good option for the companies but with this
seminar I changed my mind and gathered knowledge that use of social media is beneficial for
companies. This is pertaining to the fact that this help the small companies in covering a large
market for advertisement and that to with low cost (McWilliams, 2015).
Seminar 2
The second seminar discussed the topic of CSR and the global sustainable development.
With the seminar I learnt that the global sustainability is defined as the condition in which the
company need to think of the future development and future working as well. It is very necessary
for the companies to think of the future as well because the resources are very limited. So, it is
necessary for the company to maintain the resources for the future use as well. The social
responsibility is the act of employees and company of safeguarding the environment in which the
company work and operates.
With the seminar I learnt that for having sustainable development it is very necessary for
the companies to employ social responsibility practices in the company. This is necessary
because of the reason that if the environment will not be protected then the company will not be
able to have sustainable development. If the environment will be protected by the SME then the
resources will be made available for the future use as well. Thus, this will help the companies in
having a better future growth and development for the company. Also, in this lecture I learnt
about the fact that global sustainable development is very important for the SMEs. This is
because of the fact that the competition is very tough and intense and it is very essential for the
SME companies to sustain. For this the company have to work by taking care of the environment
as this will attract more of the consumers and this will increase the profitability of the company.
The other arguments in the seminar discussed about the challenges which the SME faced
at time of global sustainable development. With this seminar I learnt that the major challenge
faced by the companies at time of working sustainably is the environment. This is a challenge
because if the company is not paying attention towards the environment then the consumers will
not like this. Another challenge is the social factors or the thinking and attitude of the people
living in the society (Lins, Servaes and Tamayo, 2017). This is a challenge because of the fact
that the social values keep on changing and if the companies do not take into consideration these
changes then the consumers will not like the goods and services.

Seminar 3
This seminar took the discussion on the topic whistleblowing and workplace ethics which
is very necessary to be maintained in this competitive world. With this lecture I learnt that
whistleblowing is the concept or act of gaining the attention of the people or the authority within
the company towards some unethical practices or the wrong doing of the business (Kang,
Germann and Grewal, 2016). The common activities concerning to the unethical practices are
like fraud, corruption, violation of laws relating to health and safety, bullying and many others.
The person drawing the attention of the unethical or the wrong practice is termed as the whistle-
blower. This person can be anyone who is either related to the company or not like employees,
supplier or any other person who is hired by the company to do this work only. The other thing
highlighted from the seminar is the workplace ethics which is defined as the fact that the work at
the company must be taken in good and correct manner. This include the fact that the work done
is carried on the basis that the work is correct morally and lead to development of the business.
Also, with some arguments within the seminar I learnt that there whistleblowing impacts
the workplace ethics to a great extent. This is majorly because of the fact that whistleblowing
helps the company in promoting the ethical working as the as if there is any misconduct then it is
outlined by the whistle- blower. Thus, this enhance the workplace ethics at the company and
improves the performance of the company. But then also there are some challenges faced by the
whistle- blower at the workplace. This is majorly due to the fact that this increases the rivalry of
the whistle- blower with the people whom wrong practices have been outlined by the whistle-
blower. Also, other people may try to defame the whistle- blower as they other people did not
like the fact that their unethical practices have been outlined by these people.
Earlier I believed that workplace ethics are not necessary for the company to maintain the
ethical practices. But after the seminar I gathered the knowledge that it is very necessary for the
companies to endure that all the working of the company is in ethical and morally correct
manner. The different ethical practices are like integrity, fair responsibility, correct
accountability, respect, loyalty, trustworthiness and many others (Jamali and Karam, 2018).
b) Reflection on relation with CSR
With the help of this discussion it can be included that all the above discussed lecture or
the seminar are related to the corporate social responsibility. With this study I learnt that
maintaining corporate social responsibility is very crucial and necessary for the company as this

help both the company as well as the society. The company is benefitted by this because of the
reason that if the company will pay attention to the environment protection then the brand image
of the company will increase (Carley and Spapens, 2017). This will in turn also increase the sales
of the company because more of the consumers will like the company taking measures to protect
the environment.
On the other hand, the community will also be beneficial for the community and society
because this will protect the environment of the society. Another benefit which the community
gains with the maintenance of CSR is that it creates sound and attractive environment for the
people and they like the company for that. Also, I learnt that another benefit for the society is
that they get superior quality of products and services as the company take into consideration all
the quality standards for working in ethical manner. Further I learnt that the social media is also
helpful in maintaining the corporate social responsibility. This is helpful because of the reason
that companies can promote its product through these social media sites and this is helpful
because this will reduce the paper advertisement and this will save the environment. Also, the
companies can share different views, ideas and ways of protecting the environment through these
websites.
In addition to this, I learnt that maintaining sustainability is also very necessary for the
future development and growth of the company. Also, I learnt that for sustainable development it
is very crucial for SMEs to maintain CSR. This is majorly pertaining to the fact that maintenance
of CSR will improve the environment and the surroundings. This will save the resources from
the unnecessary consumption and wastage and this will lead to the safeguarding and proper
utilization of the limited and scarce resources. This will help the companies in optimally using
the resources which will automatically result in the optimum utilisation of the resources.
In the end I learnt that the CSR not only limits to maintaining the society nice but it is
also the responsibility of the company that they maintain good working environment. The good
working environment here pertains to the environment which is free form all the unethical and
wrong practices (Vandekerckhove, 2016). Thus, for this the companies are planning and
implanting whistle- blower which highlights those people who uses or perform any of the
fraudulent, unethical or wrong behaviour, misconduct or working within the company. At last it
can be concluded that the corporate social responsibility is the most important thing to be
maintained for achieving success in this highly competitive world. This is because of the fact that

if companies will stake care of the society and the environment then it will gain respect from the
consumers or the society people and this in turn will increase the working and efficiency of the
company (Ferrell, 2016).

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Carley, M. and Spapens, P., 2017. Sharing the world: sustainable living and global equity in the
21st century. Routledge.
Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L. eds., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: Readings and
cases in a global context. Routledge.
Ferrell, O.C., 2016. A framework for understanding organizational ethics. In Business ethics:
New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders (pp. 15-29). Routledge.
Jamali, D. and Karam, C., 2018. Corporate social responsibility in developing countries as an
emerging field of study. International Journal of Management Reviews. 20(1). pp.32-61.
Kang, C., Germann, F. and Grewal, R., 2016. Washing away your sins? Corporate social
responsibility, corporate social irresponsibility, and firm performance. Journal of
Marketing. 80(2). pp.59-79.
Lins, K.V., Servaes, H. and Tamayo, A., 2017. Social capital, trust, and firm performance: The
value of corporate social responsibility during the financial crisis. The Journal of
Finance. 72(4). pp.1785-1824.
Livingstone, S. and Local, C., 2017. Measurement matters: difficulties in defining and measuring
children’s television viewing in a changing media landscape. Media International
Australia. 163(1). pp.67-76.
McWilliams, A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility. Wiley encyclopedia of management,
pp.1-4.
Vandekerckhove, W., 2016. Whistleblowing and organizational social responsibility: A global
assessment. Routledge.
Wright, M., 2018. Cyberbullying victimization through social networking sites and adjustment
difficulties: The role of parental mediation. Journal of the Association for Information
Systems. 19(2). p.1.