Challenges of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability in the Fashion Sector

This report examines the challenges of corporate responsibility and sustainability in the fashion sector, focusing on the case of Mark & Spencer. It discusses issues such as lack of community participation, the need to build local capacity, transparency issues, and low perception towards CSR. It also analyzes best practices, including accounting ethics, addressing harassment and discrimination, and promoting health and safety. Recommendations are provided for businesses to be more responsible by considering global considerations.

Business Ethics,
Responsibility and
Sustainability

Table of content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Examine and discuss the key challenges relating to corporate responsibility and sustainability
relating to your chosen sector.................................................................................................3
Analyse and explain what you consider to be 'best practice' within the sector, making
references to ethical and moral issues....................................................................................3
Make recommendations for businesses in the sector to show they are being more responsible
by taking into account global considerations.........................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERNCES...................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
An internal obligation of an organisation due to which a number of private businesses use
self-regulatory requirements in order to contribute to the society through voluntary or charitable
spending is called corporate social responsibility (Bansal and Song, 2017). As the time passes
there are various number of laws which have been developed in order to make sure that
organizations in order to make it a security to invest in society and attain corporate social
responsibility. Sustainability of an organisation is directly linked with corporate social
responsibility. This happens as part of a social responsibility helps in fulfilling the sustainability
aspects in an organisation so that in return society provides the organisation with various
resources required for its business. For the following report Mark and Spencer have been chosen
which is the British multinational company and is trading in clothing and fashion products
throughout United Kingdom. Michael Spencer is a fashion brand which sells apparels throughout
the world. Mark and Spencer employees approximately 150000 people throughout the world. It
has approximately 1000 stores. In the following report there are discussions with all various
challenges which are related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility of Mark &
Spencer. Topics like best practices for this sector and ethical and moral issues compiled with
CSR for this organisation are also included. At the end there are recommendations to following
company so that they can increase business taking corporate social responsibility into
consideration so that they can attain sustainability.
MAIN BODY
Examine and discuss the key challenges relating to corporate responsibility and sustainability
relating to your chosen sector
Corporate social responsibility is on essential part of every organisation which is needed to be
fulfilled by every organisation in order to complete all the applications and commitment of
business towards society. Mark and Spencer are the building branding selling fashion as well as
clothing sector which it provides throughout the world. Spencer is required monthly
sustainability along with all its social responsibility which it has two words the society which it
has towards society (Bird and Davis-Nozemack, 2018). This provides a company with a number
of benefits but in order to develop social responsibility plan a company needs to solve a number

of issues as well as problems which are related directly to the implementation of corporate social
responsibility activities within an organisation.
Lack of participation of community in corporate social responsibility activities: Corporate
social responsibility can be said to be a combination of corporate and society. It is often seen that
these days the local community act alone and does not take participation in the corporate social
responsibility. This stays to be an important factor for Marks & Spencer as well. This have been
challenging the functioning of the company towards CSR (Brusoni and Vaccaro, 2017). There is
issue that people in society face problem in understanding the motive of organisations behind
CSR. The community does not think that CSR is important this have negatively impacted the
functioning of CSR by various companies including Marks & Spencer.
Need to build local capacity: NGOs face problems and cannot successfully carry on various
CSR activities efficiently for the society at large. It is also seen that they face a number of
problems such as low level of resources presents with them to serve society. Due to this it
becomes important for Marks & Spencer to make sure that they identify and develop the capacity
for building both local government and non- governmental organisations. Company needs
trained and skilled employees for this who can help them in achieving this goal towards ongoing
CSR activities in the organisation. This will help company to take steps towards CSR effectively
and also reduce scope of such issues as well as challenges.
Issues related to transparency: Due to reduction in transparency by organisation the challenges
in CSR performed by them often arises. It has often been seen in Marks & Spencer that they are
not transparent about the funds spend by them in CSR which often results in various issues for
developing a program for CSR by them.the utilisation of funds for CSR also becomes an issue in
such cases. Company needs to understand the morale and ethics of community and bring
transparency between organisation and local community. They need to win the trust of local
community through this. This will be the key to success for company towards their CSR
program.
Low availability of well organised as well as non-government organisations: It is recognised
that often in the rural areas of a nation NGOs are not very well organised. This also results in a
set back for company because these organisations face problem in working with company due to
their disorganisation. If these are well organised CSR activities can be successfully implemented
on every aspect society. They take efforts by working in local community, getting involved with

them and undertake developmental steps and projects at the local level effectively. Poor
infrastructure in such places is also a challenge for company. Due to this it becomes almost
impossible for company decide on the factor they need to invest upon.
Low perception towards initiative of CSR: a number of governmental and non-governmental
agencies do not understand the motive of companies and they narrow their outlook towards
activities regarding CSR of companies like Marks & Spencer(De Stefano, Bagdadli and
Camuffo, 2018). The local community finds it difficult to understand the perspective of company
due to which they face dilemma in understanding the motive of organisation and taking the
decision that whether they want to participate in it or not. This is also a challenge for Marks &
Spencer because government also do not show interests in the activities performed by them and
they do not gather any support from them.
Sustainability also holds an important role when organisation work on improving the
performance and maintaining goodwill of the firm in the marketplace as well as in the society.
There are a number of factors for an organisation which an organisation needs to keep in check
for building a sustainability concept in the society as well as bringing in the changes and benefits
for the society through this concept:
Changes in climate and public policy: This includes all the factors which are dynamic in nature
and keep on changing continuously which is a challenge for world as well as future generation of
the society. There can be seen direct impact on all aspects of economy of society as well as
environment due to climatic changes taking place in a society. Sustainability is directly related to
this factor as it is important for a company to create various strategies so that they can affectively
face all these challenges of environment. Mark & Spencer had taken special steps to avoid the
negative aspects of these dynamically changing factor on their organisation.
Increase in hazards and risk to business: There are a number of factors in a business which lead
to rest for a business strategy, operations, financial compliance as well as reputation of a
business which a company needs to consider before implementing sustainability concept. All
these have direct impact on activities of a business and are also responsible to reduce the
performance of an organisation in its market place (DesJardins, 2016). A company needs to
classify all these issues and solve them accordingly in order to implement a successful
sustainability program. Mark & Spencer is also required to gather all the information about the

risk which can have a negative effect on its performance and can reduce profitability for the
organisation.
Analyse and explain what you consider to be 'best practice' within the sector, making references
to ethical and moral issues
Achieving all the goals which a company have set up regarding its corporate social
responsibility is good for a company as it helps it in various ways such as increased profits as
well as enhanced goodwill of the company. In today’s era customer pays focus towards all the
aspects of a company before investing in it or getting involved with it in any manner. Due to this
companies are also taking interest in developing their activities. Mark & Spencer have
effectively developed a number of programs for CSR which includes environmental programs,
ethical practices for labour, philanthropic efforts and a number of other voluntary programs. In
order to increase such efforts companies, need to focus on various ethical as well as moral
practices. This will help company to implement their corporate social responsibility plan
effectively and also enable them to attain sustainability. This will also bring welfare for
organisation. There are a number of such moral and ethical practices which can be used by
organisations which are mentioned below:
Accounting: There are a number of steps in which accounting books are hampered and
unethical practices in accounts are taking place in a business organisation and also ethical issues
arises in business due to this (Hussain, Rigoni and Orij, 2018)
(Marques, 2017)
. The employees of a company are practising such unethical practices due to which organisation
have to suffer. This have also impacted Marks & Spencer because company is also n suffering
from this unethical practice in company and their CSR is targeted negatively due to it.
Harassment and discrimination: There have been seen sexual harassment, radical
discrimination and inequality are most of the ethical issues which employers as well as
employees have to encounter every day in their workplace. In order to deal with such issues it is

required by company to make some policies under which they specify that their will be no
discrimination done in employees of an organisation on the basis of sex, creed, caste, colour,
background etc. Company should also take various steps to bring in diversity in their
organisations while working on the principles for reduction of harassment as well as
discrimination in their organisations.
Health and safety: companies are facing problem as governments have made a number of rules
and policies regarding protection of health as well as safety of the employees in the working
environment (Martínez‐Ferrero and García‐Sánchez, 2017). There are a number of policies in
Marks & Spencer which are formulated in relation trisks as well as work related stress in
employees of the organisation.
Company can choose from within number of ways present in market in order to fulfil its
responsibility towards the society and bring in sustainable development in the organisation in
order to increase social benefits for an organisation. Below mentioned are various such steps
taken by Marks & Spencer and various other business organisations to fulfil their social
responsibility which they owe to society.
Charity and communicative fund donation: This are the best practice of Marks & Spencer
which they practice through their local stores. In this company have to focus on the most
important issues faced by them and they have some small budget allocated for this task. They
identify issues which will provide maximum benefit to society.
Clothing and equipment: In this company donates the clothes and equipment manufactured by
them in society. This proves to result in dual benefit for company as they are fulfilling their CSR
requirement and they are also promoting their brand and increasing brand awareness about their
product. Mark & Spencer donates it to ill children.
Food donation: It is another important activity undertaken by M&S. they donate some part of
their foods to those in need. They do it through charitable organisations. They have established a
network for food through which they perform this task effectively.
Waste management: Company have developed an eco-plan in which they make sure that no
resources from land are utilised. Company is not sending the wastes to landfills instead they are
using them to create green energy which is good for environment. Company uses anaerobic
digestion technique for this.

Training and development: This are the responsibility of company towards their employees. It
will help in future growth of employees. It also provides them with various benefits regarding
their career development.
Ethical trading: Mark & Spencer is an organisation which consists of a number of culture as
they are from different religion, places or nation Psederse, Gwozdz and Hvass, 2018. Company
have come into alliance with a number of nations. Company have created an effective
relationship with their suppliers and thus they can demand more standards from suppliers. It also
brings in actions related to promotion initiatives for an organisation. All this can be promoted by
companies’ collaboration with a number of companies, trade unions and some human right
groups which was an initiative of UK government.
Make recommendations for businesses in the sector to show they are being more responsible by
taking into account global considerations
It is important for every organisation and taking steps regarding compensation responsibility.
Similarly Mark and spencer also requires to take more steps for corporate social responsibility
so that they can efficiently bring sustainability in the organisation. This help them in
pperforming their operations in an effective manner. This also helps an organisation to fulfil
their obligation towards the society. In order to do so there are some recommendations for Mark
and Spencer so that the company can attain maximum advantages from its operations related to
corporate social responsibility and also this will help company in fulfilling the needs and
requirements of their customers:
 Corporate Social Responsibility Should be incorporated in the culture of company. It is
essential for company to establish values and a sense of relevancy within an organisation
regarding corporate social responsibility. This can be helpful for employee as well as all the
human resources of an organisation as it provides them with a guideline on what to do and
how should they do it to make sure that organisation moves towards growth. This is also very
helpful for organisation to make sure that they understand the reasons behind their behaviour
and values as well.
 Company also requires to identify a number of potential projects which will enable them to
attain corporate social responsibility and fulfilling their responsibility towards society. While
the work for CSR goes on in an organisation, they may keep their normal business functions
going on accordingly. They can build a proper network for research as well as study for study
in order to fulfil the potential need of CSR activities. They can also go on for building a

number of community gardens, they can also serve as mentor or teacher to various school
programs in their locality. This will increase awareness about company along with increasing
their revenues and fulfilling the need for corporate social responsibility.
 It is important for companies to determine about various skills which are related to corporate
social responsibility. An example can be taken suppose an employee of organisation is weak
in providing with resources they can focus on activities which will help in management of
time and talent in the organisation then. In this various skill of company are included which
take into account voluntarily doing work outside the company as well. Skills also helps
company in maximising their wealth as well as since company is offering programs and other
capabilities, they have they are enabling their workforce towards developing their personal
skills and morale along with it.
 It can also be recommended that it is not important for company to look for people who arr
willing to work in CSR programs. But the company is required to look for various traits in
the groups of the organisation who can fulfil these responsibilities effectively and efficiently.
In this those volunteers are required who do not look for incentives or credits for such work.
The person in a company who are willing to work for non-profitable activities efficiently are
required to be looked after.
 At the end it can also be recommended that companies need to look for special incentives so
that they can directly link their work to society and environment. Companies can take in use
the carious pillars of CSR for this. This will also help company in saving their cost and
money in the terms of overhead required as well as the cost required for CSR. An example
can be taken such as company can effectively use solar powers so that they can effectively
reduce the various impact of their activities on the environment. This will help company in
reducing its cost and also fulfil its social responsibility.
The waste management is also a great step towards CSR. Along with-it company can also use
training and development so that they can maintain sustainability in the organisation. In the end
from the following report it is concluded that company needs to follow all these
recommendations so that they can effectively fulfil all the CSR along with working towards long
term profits for the business.

CONCLUSION
From the above-mentioned report, it can be said that it had become important for an
organisation to take various steps towards Corporate social responsibility so that sustainability
can be attained along with smooth functioning of business environment. It is also important to
increase their brand value of the firm. It is important for the industries which are working
towards customer services and the products are clothing and accessories. From the following
report it is also identified a number of challenges are there which companies have to face as they
choose the sector for which they will perform corporate social responsibility. Various issues are
transparency issues, building of local capacity, low availability of well organised government
organisations, low availability of resources and so on. Mark & Spencer also have to face similar
issues as they perform corporate social responsibility for their development. Company have to
consider various ethical and moral issues also so that they can develop program for corporate
social responsibility. This includes some issues like health and safety of employees, accounting
mishandling, discrimination in working environment and so on. There are various factors
through which companies can attain this such as communicative fund donation, charities,
clothing as well as donation of equipment. These various efforts are effective for creating a
perfect program for corporate social responsibility.

REFERNCES
Books and Journals:
Bansal, P. and Song, H.C., 2017. Similar but not the same: Differentiating corporate
sustainability from corporate responsibility. Academy of Management Annals, 11(1),
pp.105-149.
Bird, R. and Davis-Nozemack, K., 2018. Tax avoidance as a sustainability problem. Journal of
Business Ethics, 151(4), pp.1009-1025.
Brusoni, S. and Vaccaro, A., 2017. Ethics, technology and organizational innovation. Journal of
Business Ethics, 143(2), pp.223-226..
De Stefano, F., Bagdadli, S. and Camuffo, A., 2018. The HR role in corporate social
responsibility and sustainability: A boundary‐shifting literature review. Human
Resource Management, 57(2), pp.549-566.
DesJardins, J., 2016. Is it time to jump off the sustainability bandwagon?. Business Ethics
Quarterly, 26(1), pp.117-135.
Hussain, N., Rigoni, U. and Orij, R.P., 2018. Corporate governance and sustainability
performance: Analysis of triple bottom line performance. Journal of Business
Ethics, 149(2), pp.411-432.
Marques, J.C., 2017. Industry business associations: self-interested or socially
conscious?. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(4), pp.733-751.
Martínez‐Ferrero, J. and García‐Sánchez, I.M., 2017. Sustainability assurance and cost of capital:
Does assurance impact on credibility of corporate social responsibility
information?. Business Ethics: A European Review, 26(3), pp.223-239.
Pedersen, E.R.G., Gwozdz, W. and Hvass, K.K., 2018. Exploring the relationship between
business model innovation, corporate sustainability, and organisational values within
the fashion industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(2), pp.267-284.