Preparing for a Professional Career: CSR Issues, Codes of Conducts, Professional Bodies, and CPD Plan

This report on preparing for a professional career discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues, codes of conduct, professional bodies, and a CPD plan. It explains the positive and negative impact of these practices on organizations. The report provides examples of organizations like Tesco and Morrison that have implemented CSR practices and benefited from them.

PREPARING FOR
PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Table of Contents
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
CSR ISSUES................................................................................................................................3
CODES OF CONDUCTS ...........................................................................................................3
PROFESSIONAL BODIES.........................................................................................................4
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMPACT.....................................................................................4
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................5
PART B............................................................................................................................................5
CPD plan......................................................................................................................................5
Smart Objectives..........................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

PART A
INTRODUCTION
The report will comprehensively illustrate the issues faced in the global business
environment. Issue chosen will be corporate social responsibility which will be explained in
detail with the help of appropriate organizational examples. Further various codes of conduct
which can help solve such issues will be elaborated. Various professional bodies and their
assistance and guide in dealing with the issues of CSR will be explained in detail. Further
positive and negative impact on the organization resulting from such professional bodies and
code of conduct will be brought to light. At last a CPD plan will be created for the overall
development.
CSR ISSUES
CSR stands for corporate social responsibilities which is a type of business model
through which organizations try to make a cooperative effort to operate in ways which enhances
the society and environment rather than degrading the same. CSR helps a company increase its
customer retention and improve the brand image (Staniškienė and Stankevičiūtė, 2018). When a
business operates in a global environment it tends to have CSR responsibilities, organization try
to meet these responsibilities yet many a time it gets in the way of business operations which
makes the CSR less viable for the organization, hence it impacts the business negatively.
Yet those companies who constantly put efforts to meet the CSR have positive impact on
the organization, it makes company more trust worthy, employee engagement is amazing,
attracts investment opportunities etc. Organizations try to eradicate the issue of CSR by
contributing in terms of charity for a cause, understanding the environmental responsibility and
incorporating such business practices which does not cause environmental harm. Companies are
trying to understand the economic problems in the business environment and are trying to
operate in such way which helps to deal with such issues (Bapat and Upadhyay, 2021). e.g.
Tesco has made a commitment to reduce its carbon emission to zero by 2023 which is very great
action towards the CSR.
CODES OF CONDUCTS
Code of conducts are the set standards and principle which should be followed by all the
people associated by the organization. It is the responsibility if the CSR individuals to abide by
the codes of conduct. “Act with integrity” is a code of conduct which expects the businesses to

be fair, honest and trustworthy in their relationships and business dealings. Maintaining the
confidentiality of the work is another such code of conduct which needs to be abided (Urbancová
and Vrabcová, 2020). As an organization must give a due training to its employees about the
importance of following these code of conduct and implications in case of failure to do so.
As these code of conduct helps to encourage the work culture of the organization to
understand and put efforts in the direction of the corporate social responsibilities. Abiding by
these codes of conduct in a way takes care of the corporate social responsibilities like being fair,
honest, environmental conscious, cultural understanding etc. (Nouwen, 2020). code of conducts
like legal compliance, safeguarding, equality, health & safety, inclusivity, confidentiality etc.
will help an organization in the following the direction of the CSR fulfilment. Tesco has a strict
code of conduct which needs to be followed and such practices have enhanced the CSR of the
organization.
PROFESSIONAL BODIES
These are the authorities or institutions which works in the interest of organizations and
public both. Whenever an organization is failing to abide by the laws and CSR, such bodies
intervenes and looks after the reasons for failure of the abidance and actions which needs to be
taken to ensure healthy future of CSR practices in the organization. UK's first professional body
which is institute of corporate responsibility and sustainability is a professional body which is
constantly making efforts and acting as a watch dog for making sure that each organization
understand the corporate social responsibilities attached with their business operations (Joseph
and Hashmi, 2018).
This institute helps in developing professionalism in the field of CSR by forming code of
conducts, standards which have high impact on the organization. This body has helped shift the
CSR discussions from being marginal to the board room discussions. It is very evident in big
organization like Tesco and Morrison where employees are constantly given training and
workshops on enhancing the business practices in the direction of meeting the corporate social
responsibilities. This professional body gives true guidance and advice to the businesses which
can improve their CSR activities, and also provides criticism in case of failure to meet the CSR.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMPACT
There are many positive and few negative impact on the organizations caused by the
professional bodies and codes of conduct. Benefits are plenty such as these bodies and codes of

conduct makes clear pathway for do and don't in the organization. It helps employees cooperate
with the management which establishes good relations between them. Such bodies and codes
assist the organization in fulfilling the corporate social responsibility which can benefit the brand
image of the organization, can improve the employee retention and engagement, makes the
business more acceptable by the public (Fifka and Jaeger, 2020).
Negative impact of these bodies and codes are that new organization has a lot of things
on the plate while starting the business and such CSR responsibilities makes them overburdened.
Professional bodies acting as a watch dog makes business really conscious of being called out by
the institutions in case of any failure. Further, many a time these abidance needs huge funds and
resources by the business which makes it very less viable for corporates to fulfil the
responsibilities. Tesco is a big organization which invests huge amount of resources on just
meeting the CSR, such resources otherwise could be used for the business expansion and growth.
CONCLUSION
The above report of preparing for the professional career has focused on the very
important issue of corporate social responsibility which is faced by the organizations in the
global business environment. Also, the various vital codes of conduct which assist the business
in dealing with the issues has been brought to light. Further, various professional bodies which
play crucial role in guiding the organization for facing and dealing the issue of CSR has been
elaborated. At last various negative and positive effects of such codes of conduct and
professional bodies in the businesses in the broader aspect has been highlighted.
PART B
CPD plan
CPD PLAN
What do I want to learn? What will I do to achieve
this?
What resources or su
(Identify topics of learning from module) (Detail what you have learnt
about the topic)
(identify how learning will assist
Understanding the corporate social
 By reading the module
which are set by the
government
Various resources can be used
For this like modules of the
companies

responsibilities of the organization

bodies(Larson, 2019).
 Through understanding
the various case studies
 Online material
 Understanding the
importance of Reducing
carbon footprint,
improving energy
efficiency
 Reducing waste, water
use and emissions
 Support community
initiatives
Laptops to read the rules and
Regulations of the
Government bodies.
Online searches can be worth
Resource to use.
Monetary resources can also be
Used in the field of corporate
Social responsibilities.
Codes of conduct that needs to be followed
by the businesses
 While writing code of
conduct avoid jargon and
write complete document
for the reader.
 Cover all the details
while writing and look
into it carefully before
applying
 Don't make it precise it
has to be comprehensive
so that people can easily
understand it.
 It has to be easily
accessible for the people
 Design the document in
line with the use of the
company's brand name.
Monetary resources of the
Companies of which codes of
Conducts are written.
Professional bodies assistance in the Through the knowledge of Resources which can be used are

organization principles and standards of
government bodies in the UK.
The modules of this organization.
Smart Objectives
Smart objectives is the acronym of specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and time-based.
Specific: The specific word here refers to that in order to have the specific goal it has to be
specific in all the terms. They are always precise and get clear to all the team members of the
company.
Measurable: After the specification of the goal the next step is measure. If the goal is
measurable then it is very much possible to track the goal and understand the growth of the goal.
Achievable: Another important thing while deciding a goal is that is need to be
achievable(Salameh., Chbeir and Camblong, 2019). If the objective is forced upon your team
member then definitely it cannot be achieved how hard it, team can try so make goals which
might give challenges, but they are achievable.
Relevant: To understand whether the goal in relevant or not first analyse the potential of the
team, will they able to achieve it or it is just a virtual objective which has been set by them.
Relevant goals are always achievable when all the things are on their place from potential to
resources.
Time-based: This is one of the important part of the objective(Fitsilis, 2018). Time-based goals
helps in determining the speed of the team whether they are on right time, or they have to
increase the speed of their effort.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bapat, S. and Upadhyay, P., 2021. Implications of CSR initiatives on employee engagement.
Social Responsibility Journal.
Fifka, M. S. and Jaeger, J., 2020. CSR in professional European football: An integrative
framework. Soccer & Society. 21(1). pp.61-78.
Fitsilis, P., 2018. Standards for smart and sustainable cities. 10442/15809, pp.00-17.
Joseph, G. and Hashmi, A., 2018. Legitimacy and institutionalization of code of conduct: the
management of business ethics. In Research on professional responsibility and ethics in
accounting. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Larson, S. and et.al., 2019. Development of a tool to assess and advance the effectiveness of
preceptors: the habits of preceptors rubric. American Journal of Health-System
Pharmacy. 76(21). pp.1762-1769.
Nouwen, M. F., 2020. Inside the EU Code of Conduct Group: 20 years of tackling harmful tax
competition (Doctoral dissertation, NARCIS).
Salameh, K., Chbeir, R. and Camblong, H., 2019. SSG: An ontology-based information model
for smart grids. In Transactions on Large-Scale Data-and Knowledge-Centered Systems
XL. (pp. 94-124). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Staniškienė, E. and Stankevičiūtė, Ž., 2018. Social sustainability measurement framework: The
case of employee perspective in a CSR-committed organisation. Journal of cleaner
production. 188. pp.708-719.
Urbancová, H. and Vrabcová, P., 2020. Factors influencing the setting of educational processes
in the context of age management and CSR. Economics & Sociology. 13(3). pp.218-
229.