Report on Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility in Logistics

This report delves into the ethical, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and sustainability concepts within logistics and supply chain management. It examines the importance of ethical practices, such as eliminating child labor and promoting fair wages, alongside CSR principles encompassing philanthropic, environmental, economic, and ethical responsibilities. The report highlights the selection rationale for logistics as a crucial supply chain practice, emphasizing its role in boosting customer service, reducing operating costs, and improving financial positions. It further explores the theoretical issues, features, strengths, and weaknesses associated with ethics, CSR, and sustainability in the context of supply chain and logistics, focusing on environmental protection, employee commitment, and collaboration with non-profit organizations. Finally, it addresses key sustainability and ethical issues affecting various stakeholders and sector responsibilities, underscoring the need for organizations to adopt sustainable practices, reduce carbon footprints, and contribute to charitable activities.

Logistics and Supply
Chain

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Ethical, corporate social responsibilities and sustainability concepts based on the supply chain
management and logistic........................................................................................................1
Reasons for selecting the particular practice of supply chain................................................3
Concepts and definitions along with their theoretical issues, features, strength and weaknesses
of ethics, corporates social responsibilities and sustainability of supply chain and logistics.5
Key sustainability and ethical issues which affect different stakeholders and sector
responsibilities........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Logistic majorly focuses on the delivery of goods and services in effective and efficient
manner to the end users. On the other hand, supply chain management is a wider term which
includes various activity such as sourcing material, facilitates management and planning for
allocation of resources. It helps in adding value to the delivery so that customer can get satisfied
with the fast and efficient delivery of products. Logistics and supply management chain also
represents different networks that organisations create in order to maintain coordination and to
work together to sustain in market (Muessigmann and et.al., 2020). This report will include
corporate social responsibilities, ethical and sustainability on supply chain management. Various
reasons are included in this report for the selection of a particular supply chain practice along
with the evaluation of theoretical issues, strength and weaknesses and features of particular
practice. Effect of sustainability issues on stakeholders is also reflected in this report.
MAIN BODY
Ethical, corporate social responsibilities and sustainability concepts based on the supply chain
management and logistic
The ethical concept of supply chain management follows all three elements in which
includes environment, economic and social responsibilities respectively. They focus on
delivering products and services by maintaining highest level of sustainable operations and
ethics. Organisations have to ethically carry out their operations so that they can minimise and
reduce the risk of injury, liability and damage (Novais and et.al., 2020). Various ethical activities
involved eliminating child labour, hygienic working conditions, fair pay of wages, anti
corruption, ethical procurement and sourcing, environmental sustainability and awareness.
Organisations should maintain a healthy relationship with their customers, suppliers and clients
so that they can maintain transparency. Businesses who offer supply chain management and
logistics services should maintain integrity, honesty, excellence and safety while delivering
products and services of the customers. Supply chain management and logistics share relevant
information and news regarding operation to their customers and shareholders so that they know
the actual position of an organisation. Rapid growing and fast moving businesses should
maintain accuracy and deliver products and services within particular time period so that it can
create a good brand image in the market.
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Corporate social responsibility is very essential to be followed by supply chain
management and logistics so that they can protect the natural resources and environment and
contribute in the Welfare of the social elements. Corporate social responsibilities are majorly
divided into four categories which includes philanthropic, environmental, economics, and ethical
responsibilities. It helps organisations in achieving various competitive advantages which results
in a establishment of brand image of an company in effective manner (Lai, Sun and Ren, 2018).
It also helps in attracting attention of stakeholders and other businesses towards the organisation
which helps in developing new business relations. Supply chain management focuses on
maintaining the balance in economic and environmental management which help in creating a
healthy environment for all the creatures. It preserves human rights which includes child labour,
slave labour and working conditions so that they can satisfy the needs of their employees.
Organisations maintain sustainable production, occupational health and environmental practices
so that they can eliminate negative factors from the society. They have to track their day to day
operations which should be carried out in ethical and legal manner which help them in higher
revenue generation. They should perform fair trade practices and create policies which can
provide benefits to environment so that they can develop positivity. They adopt various methods
which can reduce the carbon footprint which eliminates the harmful gases from environment.
Organisations should involve themselves in voluntary work and contribute themselves in
charitable activities.
Sustainability refers to the requirements of organisation 's own needs without
compromising the future abilities of generation. It suggests that organisations use in natural
resources and renewable resources in effective and efficient manner so that they can not deploy
them. The three main pillars and elements of sustainability our environment economic and
Society. Organisation should contribute their value so that they can maintain policies of day to
day activities which help over all environment. Sustainable management and logistics should
evaluate their respective environment so that they can understand what they have to use and what
they have to save for the future generation (Tu, Lim and Yang, 2018). They follow circular
economy principal so that they can manage their waste and improve resource efficiency in best
possible manner. Other sustainability principles include content innovation and research,
sustainable material choices, energy savings, environmental product declaration. Economic
sustainability include aspects of ecological and social consequences. Economic sustainability
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include aspects of ecological and social consequences. All human beings can involve themselves
in decision making process so that they can acquire enough resources or in order to meet that
needs of community and families in safe and secure manner.
Reasons for selecting the particular practice of supply chain.
It is noted that logistic is the important practice of supply chain management because it
helps in moving of the inventory, goods and services from one place to another place. It involves
all the channels including sellers, distributors and end users of the product so that they can assist
all of these in moving their products (Zijm and et.al., 2019). It reduces complexities and control
various risk during the movement of goods and products so that buyers and sellers can
effectively offer their services to their customers. All organisations require logistic services so
that they can offer services to their customers and save lot of time. It measures the customers
responsiveness and competitive priorities along with the perfect deliveries at right place and right
time. There are various other rationales also included which can be discussed as follows:
Boost customer service: Customers expect assorted and accurate quantity of their product
which should be delivered on time which is only possible with the help of logistics services.
Practices of Logistic is responsible to deliver the product and goods at right location which
satisfy the demands of customers in best possible way. It also helps the organisation in satisfying
the needs of their targeted audience which results in higher revenue generation. It provides sales
support to an organisation which save their cost by hiring and recruiting other employees for that
particular department.
Reduce operating cost: It assist retail organisations to deliver highly expensive products
which eliminates the unnecessary inventory and storage for the longer time period. In this
manner they can decrease purchasing cost by avoiding high cost of inventory which is very
beneficial for the organisations in reduction of excessive cost (Liu and et.al., 2018). It also
decreases production cost because logistic practices assist in assembling of plants and materials
which are used during the production. It help organisations in achieving various competitive
advantages by decreasing the overall supply chain cost because it eliminates the storage of
inventory, raw materials and finished goods in warehouses.
Improve financial position: It increases profit leverages by reduction of the cost of
delivering products and services by involving unnecessary middleman. Logistic practices also
decrease the fixed asset cost of an organisation because they do not need warehouses plant and
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transportation vehicles to supply their products to the end users. They can maintain better
network between retailers wholesalers and customers without investing huge amount and
structure with the help of supply chain and logistics. It increases the cash flow of an organisation
by maintaining a effective flow of products and goods between one place to another place.
There are various other roles of supply chain management and logistics which made it
best practices for the organisations. These roles can be discussed as follows:
 It maintains various societal roles by ensuring the survival of human in correct manner.
Various basic products which are necessary for the survival of human being such as water
and food are supplied by these chains and logistics which help human beings in effective
survival. Any breakdown and delays in these deliveries can affect the normal routine of
human beings. It also helps in improvement of the healthcare of human beings by
delivering various health care products and medicines on time (Liu and et.al., 2018). For
example various supply chain management organisations uses rescue helicopter which
helps in transporting accident victims quickly to their respective hospital for the essential
and fast treatment. Supply chain management and logistics also provide various benefits
of climate changes by providing electrical energy to the customers and other businesses
which includes air conditioning, light, refrigeration and heat.
 It focuses on improvement of the quality of life of an individual by facilitating the
economic growth of society. Supply chain management and logistics try to reduce the
middleman and provide services in low cost which help businesses in maintaining their
large customer base. In this manner all the organisations can earn higher revenue which
contribute in the growth of economic. It also improves the living standard of the society
as it increases the affordability rate of products and good which can be acquired by large
number of people. It reduces the pollution from environment because of product
transportation and packaging which logistics can eliminate the uses of cardboard and
carbon dioxide which generate harmful gases.
 Supply chain management and logistics focus on the protection of development and
cultural freedom by defending human rights. To facilitate human freedom they also offers
services of military logisticians which transports aircraft, tanks, ships and missiles so that
they can assist soldiers for the protection of citizens (Montoya-Torres and et.al., 2021).
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Logistics use technological and innovative ideas to pack the sophisticated products which
eliminates the risk of damage which fulfils the demands of their customers.
Concepts and definitions along with their theoretical issues, features, strength and weaknesses of
ethics, corporates social responsibilities and sustainability of supply chain and logistics.
Supply chain management and logistics follows their operation by involving various
ethical methods so that they can generate revenue by avoiding risks. They also follow corporate
social responsibilities which involves various key concepts such as business ethics,
accountability, corporate environmental reporting, corporate citizenship, ethical consumerism,
human rights, risk management, NGOs, sustainable development and stakeholder theory.
Features of supply chain and logistics can be discussed as follows:
Environmental protection: Company should raise the awareness regarding the protection
of environment among their employees, customers, clients and suppliers This can be only
possible by involving various methods and activities which influence the behaviour of the people
to save environment by reducing wastages. Organisation can install recycling Dustbin, encourage
people to reduce the wastage of fuel, reduction of unnecessary energy consumption and
promotion of sustainable products.
Employee commitment and safety: Organisations should respect their employees because
they are the human asset of an organisation which are responsible for most of the operations.
They should formulate ethical and sustainable policies which can satisfy the needs of their
employees at the workplace (El Baz, Laguir and Stekelorum, 2018). Organisation should focus
on maintaining positive work environment so that they can reduce conflict and motivate
employees for achievement of organisational goals.
Work in collaboration with non profit organisations: Along with making profits in an
organisation they have to contribute some efforts for charitable and non-profit organisations so
that they can generate revenue for those foundations also. By providing support to non profit
organisations, businesses can build their brand image in ethical manner which is necessary for
the growth and expansion.
Strengths and weaknesses of supply chain and logistics in performing ethics, corporate
social responsibility and sustainability.
There can be seen various strength of supply management chain and logistics which is mentioned
below :
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 Improved quality control: It can maintain quality in different aspect involving on time
delivery which is the first priority of customers. It manages all the issues with the
suppliers and reduce the cost of different transportation which help customer in finding
their right quality product on prescribed time period.
 Reduced overhead cost: It helps in adoption of right automation solution which helps in
the enhancement of productivity by implementing an effective inventory management
system. It assess the needs of customers which help organisations in reducing the stock of
unnecessary products which are not demanded by the customers.
 Improved risk mitigation: Supply chain management analyses the market area which
helps in understanding the potential risk which can affect the operations of the company
(Angolia and Pagliari, 2018). Logistic services take proactive actions which help in
container supply of product so that the customers can engage in company for the longer
time period which is necessary for sustaining for longer time period.
Weaknesses of the supply chain management and logistics can be discussed below:
 Lack of visibility: Sometimes supply chain failed in evaluating the location of products
which results in delay. They should adopt various upgraded technological methods and
artificial intelligence to analyse the information and data which help them in
identification of accurate location.
 Lack of diversification: Most of the businesses outsource production to cut down the
excessive cost of overhead distribution which results in reliance on locations, suppliers
and regions of supply chain. This can disturb the operation of supply chain if an
organisation opt for their personal distribution and transportation of goods and services.
Key sustainability and ethical issues which affect different stakeholders and sector
responsibilities.
It is important to give respect and benefits to the stakeholder of company because they are
responsible for the growth and expansion of an organisation. Unethical activities of an
organisation may harm the stakeholder’s pride and trust of investors which is negative aspect for
a business.
Toxic workplace culture: Organisational work culture plays major role in maintaining
healthy relationships with their stakeholders and shareholders. Some of the organisation may
follow unethical activities like taking bribes, pressuring their employees, manipulating data and
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figures and disrespecting their employees which is not acceptable by the shareholders (Angolia
and Pagliari, 2018). In order to attract customers and shareholders, companies have to eliminate
the factors of toxic organisational environment and adopt activities and practices which can
create healthy and positive work environment.
Discrimination and harassment: Equal employment opportunity should be provided to
each and every employee working in an organisation so that they can feel valuable. Organisation
should provide equal training to their employees, hire diversify work force and formulate equal
policies so that they can support the morale of employees. They should give equal respect in
order to their gender, race, disability, ethnicity and age which can attract the sentiments of
shareholders towards the company which help in generating higher profitability.
Conflicting and unrealistic goals: Organisations should set their targets and goals
according to their performance which do not seems unattainable and unrealistic (Richards and
Grinsted, 2020). Managers should formulate targets and goals which can match the level of the
productivity and performance of employees so that they do not of any unethical practices and
activities in their operations. Leaders should evaluate the performance of employees on regular
basis so that they can train them in desired manner which improves the overall performance of an
organisation in ethical manner. Managers should also resolve conflicts on initial stages so that it
can not create disturbances in work environment.
Questionable use of Technology: Stakeholders believe that their companies should use
technology in effective and efficient manner so that they can utilise resources in ethical manner.
Improper use of resources and internet can damage the brand image of an organisation which
hampers their growth and expansion in market. Organisations should create policies and
procedures to utilise advanced technologies so that they can create innovative ideas out of it
without any wastage.
Unethical leadership: All the managers and leaders of an organisation should behave
politely and respectfully with their employees so they can work in effective manner. An
unethical behaviour at workplace may lead to disturbances and losses which create negative
impact on stakeholders of company. Various unethical activities like manipulating reports and
data, spending unnecessary money on inappropriate operations and negligence behaviour can
results in poor performance and productivity of the company.
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It is evaluated that unethical activities should be avoided by the organisation because it
may create negative impact on the brand image in the market. In order to sustain for longer time
period in market an organisation should modify their policies and procedure in ethical manner so
that they can engage large number of customers on regular basis (Kain and Verma, 2018).
Organisation should follow and develop corporate social responsibilities in their day-to-day
routine because it helps them in maintaining a healthy environment which is preferable by all the
human beings whether they are clients, customers or suppliers. Supply chain and logistics
organisations should develop policies so that they can utilise resources in effective and efficient
manner so that they can maintain balance in their economic, environmental and social elements.
Corporate social responsibilities help in satisfying the needs of employees, stakeholders,
customers and clients in effective manner by providing them quality goods and services.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that supply chain and logistics services are
essential for each and every organisation so that they can maintain a proper flow of their
products and goods in the market. It help in storing raw materials, inventory and other finished
products so that organisations do not face any problems and issues in their operations. It help in
saving time and money of both organisation as well as customers because it deliver products and
goods in less time period and reduces excessive cost of transportation. Organisations should
work in ethical and sustainable manner by following all the corporate social responsibility which
help them in maintaining and establishing their brand image in all over the world. In this report
corporate social responsibilities ethics and sustainability are discussed in relation to the supply
management supply chain management. Strengths and weaknesses, features and theoretical
issues are measured of the relevant concept of the practice. various sustainability issues and
ethical factors are discussed which affect different stakeholders in this report.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Angolia, M.G. and Pagliari, L.R., 2018. Experiential learning for logistics and supply chain
management using an SAP ERP software simulation. Decision Sciences Journal of
Innovative Education, 16(2), pp.104-125.
El Baz, J., Laguir, I. and Stekelorum, R., 2018. Logistics and supply chain management research
in Africa: A systematic literature review and research agenda. The International
Journal of Logistics Management.
Kain, R. and Verma, A., 2018. Logistics management in supply chain–an overview. Materials
today: proceedings, 5(2), pp.3811-3816.
Lai, Y., Sun, H. and Ren, J., 2018. Understanding the determinants of big data analytics (BDA)
adoption in logistics and supply chain management: An empirical investigation. The
International Journal of Logistics Management.
Liu and et.al., 2018. Analysis of logistics service supply chain for the One Belt and One Road
initiative of China. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation
Review, 117, pp.23-39.
Liu and et.al., 2018. The impacts of distributional and peer-induced fairness concerns on the
decision-making of order allocation in logistics service supply chain. Transportation
Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 116, pp.102-122.
Montoya-Torres and et.al., 2021. Mapping research in logistics and supply chain management
during COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Logistics Research and
Applications, pp.1-21.
Muessigmann and et.al., 2020. Blockchain technology in logistics and supply chain management
—A bibliometric literature review from 2016 to January 2020. IEEE Transactions on
Engineering Management, 67(4), pp.988-1007.
Novais and et.al., 2020. Lean production implementation, cloud-supported logistics and supply
chain integration: interrelationships and effects on business performance. The
International Journal of Logistics Management.
Richards, G. and Grinsted, S., 2020. The Logistics and Supply Chain Toolkit: Over 100 Tools for
Transport, Warehousing and Inventory Management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Tu, M., Lim, M.K. and Yang, M.F., 2018. IoT-based production logistics and supply chain
system–Part 1: Modeling IoT-based manufacturing supply chain. Industrial
Management & Data Systems.
Waters, D., 2019. Supply chain management: An introduction to logistics. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Zijm and et.al., 2019. Operations, logistics and supply chain management: definitions and
objectives. In Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management (pp. 27-42).
Springer, Cham.
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