Corporate Social Responsibility: Challenges and Strategies

This report discusses the challenges faced by companies in implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and explores the strategies to overcome them. It focuses on Tesco Plc, a multinational retail company, and its efforts to address CSR issues. The report also examines the impact of code of conduct and professional support on CSR initiatives.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Issue or challenge chosen............................................................................................................3
Code of conduct which assist in resolving it...............................................................................4
Support from professional body..................................................................................................4
Impact of code of conduct and support on the issue...................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
Continuous personal development plan......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................8
Continuous personal development plan......................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
There are many ethical issues which is faced by the companies in their modern era. The
ethical issues involves gender bias, economic injustice, racial prejudice and many other. The
companies working in the global environment faces these common issues. The global
environment is one such think where the businesses are very much affected which involves
international interactions and the uncontrollable local which influence the operations of the
companies (Yin, 2017). The organisation chosen for this report is Tesco Plc, a retail based
multinational company which was established in the year 1919. it deals in groceries and general
merchandise retailer. This report shall cover the ethical issue or challenge faced by the company,
code of conduct which assist in resolving it, support from professional bodies and impact of
support and code of conduct on the issue. Further it will have a continuous personal development
plan.
PART 1
Issue or challenge chosen.
Corporate social responsibility is the concept of management where the organisations
integrate environmental and social concerns within their business operations and the interactions
with the stakeholders (Dura and Driga, 2017). The CSR helps the organisations to build the
brand identity and good will as it showcases the social responsibility of the companies. The
activities or programs of the CSR may boost the morale of the workforce and lead them towards
the greater productivity.
CSR is the new idea where the companies incorporate new strategies to deal with the
environmental and social concerns and plays a responsible role in the country. Tesco is one such
organisation which faces the challenges of corporate social responsibility. The issue of CSR
affects the corporate reputation and brand image of the companies. The organisations must have
such business strategies in their organisation which can coordinate with the expectations of the
society (Karmasin and Apfelthaler, 2017). Tesco is being affected by this issue in the early years
when this concept came into existence. It has established a CSR committee which is entrusted
with the role to ensure that the organisation pay sufficient attention to the community
responsibilities. The company works for the CSR strategies in order to meet the customer
expectation.

The company has taken this issue positively by implementing healthier recipes in the
food. It has cut down the sugar by 5% every year in their soft drinks and also put healthier
snacks on the checkout rather than high calorie products. It has also reacted negatively to the
CSR as the company is under pressure to implement the strategies of CSR in their organisation.
The organisation Tesco believes that CSR contributes to their brand image so it satisfy the
requirements of it. For instance, the company makes the efforts to promote healthy food by
offering free fruit to children in its large stores but due to pressure if cost, these fruits are
available only in large stores and not in each of the shop. Also the company Tesco have received
the worst rating for its policy of using toxic chemical in the electronic products and as a part of
CSR strategy it has pledge for the zero discharge of the hazardous chemicals but it did not
included electronics in it and included only textile, agriculture and leather (Frynas and
Yamahaki, 2019).
Code of conduct which assist in resolving it.
The companies Act of UK deals with the CSR where it provides that CSR is a voluntary
action which has to be taken by the companies so that they can make the world a better place to
live in and address the impact on society. The code of conduct of company for dealing with the
issues of CSR involves Animal welfare policy, animal testing where it does not support the
testing on the animals for the household or cosmetic product. It has also removed the genetic
modifications from its all brand products and increased the non genetic modifications where it is
planning to launch the largest organic range. Its code of conduct also involves approaches for
climate change where it is planning to bring zero carbon business by 2050, to bring green
products by 2020 and many other (Park, Meglio and Schriber, 2019).
These code of conduct helps in improving the company's good will and makes a great
brand identity. The community is becoming a better place to live in where it promotes zero
carbon business.
Support from professional body.
The Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (ICRS) is aimed to develop
and support professionalism in the CSR by establishing the code of conduct, and standards. This
professional body is supported by many large companies like IBM and Marks & Spencer. It
creates the learning and development opportunities . The aim of this body is to support the

people and organisation to become brilliant in their Corporate social responsibility and
sustainability work. It advice the people and companies to grapple with the issues of CSR.
This professional body support Tesco in dealing with the issues of CSR by advising on its
working and how it can implement its strategies for promoting corporate social responsibility.
The company is also supported by the professional accountants who implement the standards and
rules set out by the professional body and focus on past rather than future and present which
help in reporting environmental and social issues.
Impact of code of conduct and support on the issue.
The code of conduct and the professional body helps in eradicating the issues of CSR and
support the companies to bring such strategies which fulfil their environmental and social
concerns. The positive impact of these code of conduct and professional body is that it helps the
company to bring such strategies which helps in fulfilling their obligations towards society but
the negative impact can be that it put pressure on the companies to implement it irrespective of
their rise in cost or degrading the profitability (Loosemore and Lim, 2018).
From the viewpoint of community, these code of conduct and professional body makes
the organisation responsible for taking care of the society and environment but these standards
and rules may result in high cost for the companies which affect the price of the products.
PART 2
Continuous personal development plan.
In Appendices

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that the corporate social responsibility is one of the
major concern which the companies are facing nowadays. Tesco has been working hard to
eradicate this issue. It has brought many strategies to implement the obligations of CSR so that it
can build its brand identity and reputation. It implement such strategies as it is likely to rise the
customers expectation and help companies to gain loyal customers. The company law regulate
the corporate social responsibility and Tesco has its code of conduct which helps in
implementing such strategies. The institute of corporate social responsibility is a professional
body which support and guide the organisation to deal with the issue.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dura, C. and Driga, I., 2017. The impact of multinational companies from Romania on
increasing the level of corporate social responsibility awareness. Contemporary
Economics. 11(1). pp.45-67.
Frynas, J.G. and Yamahaki, C., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: An outline of key
concepts, trends, and theories. In Practising CSR in the Middle East (pp. 11-37).
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Karmasin, M. and Apfelthaler, G., 2017. Integrated corporate social responsibility
communication: A global and cross-cultural perspective. In Handbook of integrated
CSR communication (pp. 237-250). Springer, Cham.
Loosemore, M. and Lim, B.T.H., 2018. Mapping corporate social responsibility strategies in the
construction and engineering industry. Construction management and economics. 36(2).
pp.67-82.
Park, K.M., Meglio, O. and Schriber, S., 2019. Building a global corporate social responsibility
program via mergers and acquisitions: A managerial framework. Business
Horizons. 62(3). pp.395-407.
Yin, J., 2017. Institutional drivers for corporate social responsibility in an emerging economy: A
mixed-method study of Chinese business executives. Business & society. 56(5). pp.672-
704.

APPENDICES
Continuous personal development plan
Area of learning Reflection of learning Future implications
Corporate social responsibility The concept of CSR has been
very interesting as it helps in
two ways, one of it is that it
helps the companies in
building the brand reputation
and also helps the in
improving the society and the
nature. I have learnt the
importance of CSR from both
company's perspective and
from the view point of society.
As noted from the point of
view of company, I have
learned that CSR helps in
meeting the customer
expectation and helps in
building the loyalty customer
base and from society's
viewpoint, I have learned that
it helps in social welfare. I
have also learned the impact of
not implementing the strategy
of CSR as it may result in
negative impact. Tesco is the
correct company whose study
helped me in learning the
concept and importance of
This study will help me in
future to meet the corporate
social responsibilities easily as
I have learned this concept in
detail and also identified its
advantages. It is a two way
advantageous concept which
will help me in meeting the
customer expectation in the
future. I will implement the
strategies relating to corporate
social responsibilities in my
working so that I can create the
brand identity and goodwill.

corporate social
responsibilities.
Animal welfare From this concept, I have
learned the importance of
animal welfare and how it
must be implicated in the
business. I have seen the
negative impact of animal
testing and I am becoming
ready to stop this practice. I
also learned the importance of
animal welfare from the point
of view of society.
This concept will help me in
stopping the animal testing and
work for the welfare of the
animals. I will try to build
some policies which will focus
on animal welfare. Also I will
try to implement some rules
and regulations in my working
which will strictly adhere to
the animal welfare and their
protection so that they can live
peacefully in the environment.