Management Communication: Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Its Impact

Running Head: MANAGEMENT 0
MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Model of CSR............................................................................................................................2
The 21st century CR surge.........................................................................................................3
Corporate responsibility and the media......................................................................................4
The upside of CR.......................................................................................................................4
Reputation Risk Management....................................................................................................5
Brand differentiation..................................................................................................................5
Talent attraction and retention...................................................................................................5
CR and Corporate Reputation....................................................................................................6
Consumer values and expectations............................................................................................6
Investor pressure: the development of socially responsible investing.......................................7
Responsibility inside and out: employee association in CR......................................................7
Being green................................................................................................................................8
Communicating about CR..........................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
In every industry and organisation, there is a certain policy related to CSR where it is also
required to produce a report annually specifying its activity (Dahlsrud, 2008).
There are various definitions of CSR where each represents a particular dimension of the
issue. Carroll and Shabana (2010) defined corporate social responsibility a procedure by
which organisation manager their business process to generate an overall positive impact on
society. Other than core business, it ensures that the organisation follows all practices related
to sustainability, social impact and ethics.
Model of CSR
The basis of what is considered to be modern definition of CSR is rooted in Carroll’s –
“Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility”. It includes four levels-
Source: (Jones, Bowd and Tench, 2009)

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The first level in the pyramid signifies the economic responsibilities which are attained
supreme profit. This need to be the first reasonability of a business as it is important to be
profitable so as to pay their employees, contractors and vendors. Moreover, if it will not be
profitable and this will create difficulty for the organisation to pay for the vendors and
employees leading to the failure of business.
The second level of the pyramid comprises of organisation legal obligations. Not just some of
the laws, but all laws and all the time. These laws can be related to food safety, employees
wage, working condition, etc. (Arnold and Valentin, 2013).
The third level in a pyramid includes ethical responsibilities which are described of doing the
right thing and being fair in all situations. Various questions arise to business while fulfilling
ethical responsibilities such as can a business always be fair so as to earn a profit? Whether
these ethics apply to all stakeholders including employees and investors. How to considered
competitors? So yes, these ethics would apply to deal with competitors.
In last and at top of pyramid, it includes Philanthropic Responsibilities. From long time,
many organisation and firm were being criticized for their carbon footprint, their portion in
pollution, using natural resources and more (Arnold and Valentin, 2013). To settle out these
negatives, they should “give back” to the society they take from.
The Pyramid significance persists given its fundamental framework which helps the
organisation to understand the essential principles of social responsibility and set forth the
practices to attain each level of pyramid with the definitive objective to reach the top.
The 21st century CR surge
Companies cannot thrive in collapsing societies and the future of business is grim without
political stability. Even in most of the developed and stable nations, organisation requires
community approval to function effectively. For example, the attacks on pharmaceutical
companies over the pricing of AIDS drugs in Africa.
In current environment, all business firms are functioning into a new reality whereas some of
the corporations slow to adapt to this new reality pay a price. One of the examples is cited
considering example of Wal-Mart 2004 where 8% of their customers ended with shopping
due to its reputation includes a perceived CR deficit (Baines, 2014).