Bank's CSR Campaign: Analyzing Potential Public Backlash & Solutions

This report delves into the potential negative backlash a bank might face from a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaign, especially considering its recent history of scandals. It examines the reasons behind potential public resentment, focusing on the disconnect between the bank's efforts t...Read More

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
Organizational Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1. Analyzing the Potential Negative Backlash from the Public Regarding the Advertising
Campaign.........................................................................................................................................3
2. Understanding the Various Reasons by a Backlash Could Occur............................................6
3. Recommendations that will help the Campaign and the Bank.................................................7
3.1. Launching the CSR Campaign first On Social Media to check Public Reactions............7
3.2. Introducing important Banking Reforms prior to the Launch of the CSR Campaign......8
3.3. Launching the CSR Campaign Successfully in Visual and Print Media..........................9
3.4. Emphasize the Financial Empowerment of Women as part of the CSR Campaign.........9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

2ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
Introduction
Banks and financial institutions always need to be accountable in their behavior towards
customers in order to be trusted by the latter with their hard earned savings. Customers expect
banking authorities to be transparent and honest in their communication especially when it
comes to banking schemes and initiatives that customers made to sign up for in either the short
or the long term (Arambaru and Pescador 2019). This assignment prepares a report that outlines
the pros and cons of a corporate social responsibility campaign that is undertaken by a bank
that has been recently in the news for all the wrong reasons such as charging deceased
customers for services that have not been provided, withholding payouts for insurance and
several breaches of anti-money laundering laws. The bank has also come in for a lot of criticism
because of its lack of diversity in terms of member composition in the board as well as structure
of the executive. The bank now wishes to undertake this corporate social responsibility campaign
in order to improve its image in the public eye and has developed what is known as community
practice for this purpose. The report is written by a bank employee and it highlights all the major
reservations that are being felt by the employee regarding the CSR campaign that is about to be
undertaken, providing in depth information about why a backlash can be expected and proposing
some recommendations or suggestions that can be taken into consideration by the bank in order
to improve its image and to ensure that its CSR campaign is a success.

3ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
1. Analyzing the Potential Negative Backlash from the Public Regarding
the Advertising Campaign
The corporate social responsibility campaign being designed and undertaken by the bank
definitely has the best interest of the public at heart. By carrying out such a campaign, the bank
wishes to give the public the impression that the bank is committed to the wellbeing of its
customers and society at large and will do anything and everything in its power to ensure that
customers are able to trust bank with its financial operations. The corporate social responsibility
campaign that has been designed so far is quite impressive. Gender equity forms an important
part of this campaign, with a budget for donation being set aside for contributions that are
going to be made specifically towards issues such as ending domestic violence for women. This
is a major social cause for the bank towards be working towards given that domestic violence is
on the rise and women in particular tend to be the worst possible victims of domestic violence. It
is also impressive that the bank is going to reach out to community members to find out about
possible ways and means by which it can contribute to the development of society and
community. However, there are a number of ways by which this corporate social responsibility
campaign undertaken by this bank can background. For one, people are more interested at the
moment in being able to keep their money in a bank that charges a low rate of interest rather than
one that works towards the upliftment of women. While working towards a cause as serious as
ending domestic violence for women is definitely going to make people impressed to some
degree, it is not going to keep them happy for too long. The urgent need of the hour is for the
people in the community and especially the bank’s customers to be able to trust the bank with
their savings. They need to know that they can invest their hard earned money in savings
schemes that are offered by the bank and earn an interest on it. They do not want to be charged

4ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
for services even when they are not using the services in question, and they do not want the bank
to charge them for services that are being provided for accounts that are held for people who are
already deceased (Chakroun et al. 2017).
It is imperative to remember that the corporate social responsibility campaign when
launched needs to be done in a low key and sensitive manner, given how angry the bank’s
existing customers are at the moment. The corporate social responsibility campaign on ending
domestic violence and improving social situation of members of various genders, can invite
immediate and negative backlash from the public if the bank’s PR authorities are not careful
about the manner in which the campaign is launched. If the bank truly wants to demonstrate that
it cares about its customers and the public in general, it needs to offer saving schemes and
customer friendly accounts that will enable customers to not only save large sums of money with
the bank without being questioned but on which they can earn a significant amount of money as
interest as well. At present a corporate social responsibility campaign that aims at bringing about
an end to domestic violence issues is not something that is going to work well with the public at
all. Customers are angry because of having to lose out money because of redundant saving
schemes and policies that have been offered by the bank of late, and are in no mood to be pleased
by social awareness campaigns. There is no doubt about the fact that the social awareness
campaigns are going to be beneficial for the community and for the public in the long run, but in
order to create a positive image in the eyes of the customers, it is imperative that the bank now
caters to the needs and requirements of the customers first by assuring them that their money is
safe in the bank and that penalties will not be unduly charged or imposed on the customers for
services that are supposedly being provided by the bank but which are of no apparent use to
customers. The bank should instantly announce that it is doing away with charging accounts of

5ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
deceased customers with penalties in lieu of services provided, given that the deceased customers
are not around to defend themselves and are in no position to benefit from the services that are
being offered by the bank for them (Garcia Marquez and Garcia Meca 2017).
2. Understanding the Various Reasons by a Backlash Could Occur
There are a number of reasons why a negative backlash can occur if the corporate social
responsibility campaign is immediately launched by the bank in order to improve its image in the
market. For one, the CSR campaign of the bank is going to focus on gender sensitivity issues and
measures with the aim of bringing about an end to gender based violence, especially as it is seen
to exist in the homes of people (Kabir and Qayun 2016). The CSR campaign is going to target a
complete reduction of domestic violence but while this is quite a noble cause and one that is
definitely worth fighting for, the public is in no mood to be compensated by a CSR campaign at
the moment (Jain et al. 2017). The public wants to know that its money is safe and secure with
the bank. It wants to know that undue penalties are not going to be imposed by the bank and a
CSR campaign is not going to assure the public and the customers of the bank in particular that
their money is not going to be tampered with or compromised with. The CSR campaign is
therefore not going to be viewed favorably by the stakeholders of the bank as they are going to
want their needs and requirements addressed instead of being impressed by a CSR campaign.
The CSR campaign is designed to benefit society at large but it is not going to benefit individual
customers of the bank, who are at present exceedingly angry about the penalties and undue
charges imposed by the bank for services offered (Forcadel and Aracil 2017).
The CSR campaign which is aimed at bringing about a reduction in domestic violence is
also likely to induce a negative backlash from the public given the fact that society in general is

6ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
quite gender insensitive in nature. The campaign which is aimed at reducing domestic violence I
going to be beneficial for women victims of domestic violence and children who get caught up in
such violence but it is not going to do much for the grieving and angry customers who are upset
with the way the bank has been conducting its operations of late. Many of the bank’s customers
are made up of middle aged and old aged chauvinistic men who couldn’t care less about
women’s issues and who would not be impressed by a CSR campaign that is directed at reducing
domestic violence in the least. These customers would be more concerned about their money in
the bank and the type of safeguards that are being adopted by the bank to ensure that the money
of customers is safe instead about the possible outreach and extent of a corporate social
responsibility campaign that is aimed at bringing an end to domestic violence (Gul and Kaytaz
2019).
3. Recommendations that will help the Campaign and the Bank
In order to make sure that the corporate social responsibility campaign is a success, and the
anger and resentment of the public and of the bank’s customers is something that is suitably
contained, the following recommendations need to be taken into consideration –
3.1. Launching the CSR Campaign first On Social Media to check Public
Reactions
The corporate social responsibility campaign of the bank that is directed at bringing about an
end to domestic violence should be carried out on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram first, in order to gauge the responses of the public to the campaign. Social media
is an online or virtual platform and by releasing the CSR campaign over here first, the bank
authorities will be able to get an understanding of how well the people are responding to the

7ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
campaign and whether there are any negative comments or posts being published in response to
the posts associated with this CSR campaign. If the responses are a bit too angry and hostile,
then the bank authorities will realize that the public is not yet ready to receive the campaign and
that it should not therefore be launched fully and completely as the reaction to the campaign is
most certainly likely to be hugely negative.
3.2. Introducing important Banking Reforms prior to the Launch of the CSR
Campaign
Another one of the recommendations that the bank can take into consideration is to introduce
a number of banking reforms first before launching the CSR campaign. The bank needs to first
ensure that the needs and the requirements of the customers are being met before it decides to go
ahead and launch a noble CSR campaign that is based on lofty goals. The bank needs to take
measures to ensure that the accounts of customers are safe from issues such as fraud and
duplication and embezzlement and that the customers are not being charged too much money the
services that they are being provided with. Once the bank is able to look into this, it will be able
to draw the attention of customers towards other initiatives such as the CSR initiative that it has
in mind and which it is looking to implement in order to bring an end to domestic violence. For
this purpose, the bank should also consider offering new types of saving accounts where
customers can keep a minimal amount of money as savings and earn a high rate of interest, thus
being in a position to benefit from holding an account at the bank. Over and above the campaign
that it is going to conduct to reduce the problem of gender based violence and domestic violence,
the bank should offer special types of saving accounts and schemes for female customers, in
order to empower them and help them out in a way that is effective and constructive. While the
campaign is going to help women who are victims of domestic violence undoubtedly, the female

8ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
customers of the bank will benefit more if the bank provides them with special financial schemes
and special account services to avail, that they can use to be empowered enough to fight out of
the situation of domestic violence in a more constructive way.
3.3. Launching the CSR Campaign Successfully in Visual and Print Media
After making sure that the issues and requirements of customers are duly looked into, the
bank can go all out to launch its CSR campaign, by advertising about the campaign in the visual
media and in the print media. Efforts need to be made on the part of the PR specialists to
highlight the positives of the campaign and the sections of society who are going to be directly
impacted by it (Mostafa and El Sahn 2016). Once this is done, the initiatives that form a part of
the campaign are going to be much better received than they would have been had the positives
of the campaign not been highlighted in the first place. The PR campaigners need to lay special
emphasis on pointing how gender based violence is a bad thing, how that it should not be
encouraged at a domestic level and how it is a crime that can be severely punished by the law. If
the campaign does a successful job of pointing this out, the goals and objectives of the campaign
will be duly achieved (Paulik et al. 2015).
3.4. Emphasize the Financial Empowerment of Women as part of the CSR
Campaign
Finally, the CSR campaign that is launched by the bank to end domestic violence and to
improve its image in the public is one that needs to lay a lot of emphasis on the financial
empowerment of women. This is especially important given the fact that a bank is a financial
institution and that its focus always needs to be on the financial empowerment and benefits of its
customers more than anything else (Malik et al. 2019). By announcing schemes and accounts

9ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
that cater to the wellbeing of the female customer, the bank will go a long way in making sure
that its CSR campaign is a success and that it is well received by the public. In fact the bank
needs to play an active role in getting its female employees and female members of the top level
management to come out in support of the campaign to get female customers to understand the
many benefits that the campaign is going to have. The special schemes and account services for
female customers need to be introduced side by side as the CSR campaign is in progress, making
it one of the most effective social awareness campaigns in history (Laidoo and Sokolova 2015).
Conclusion
Thus, there are a number of ways by which the CSR campaign that is launched by the
bank on the matter of reducing domestic violence can be positively received by the public
instead of generating a negative backlash. In light of the arbitrary measures that the bank had
been implementing of late, it is not surprising that the customers of the bank and public in
general are highly annoyed at the activities of the bank. If the bank launches its CSR campaign
based on the recommendations that have been given above, it will be able to do a successful job
of implementing the campaign goals and objectives while preventing a negative backlash from
the public at the same given time.

10ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
References
Aramburu, I.A. and Pescador, I.G., 2019. The effects of corporate social responsibility on
customer loyalty: The mediating effect of reputation in cooperative banks versus commercial
banks in the Basque country. Journal of Business Ethics, 154(3), pp.701-719.
Chakroun, R., Matoussi, H. and Mbirki, S., 2017. Determinants of CSR disclosure of Tunisian
listed banks: a multi-support analysis. Social Responsibility Journal, 13(3), pp.552-584.
Forcadell, F.J. and Aracil, E., 2017. European banks' reputation for corporate social
responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 24(1), pp.1-14.
García‐Sánchez, I. M., and García‐Meca, E. 2017. CSR engagement and earnings quality in
banks. The moderating role of institutional factors. Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management, 24(2), 145-158.
Gul, M.C. and Kaytaz, M., 2019. CSR and Social Marketing as Enablers of Recovery after the
Global Recession: The Turkish Banking Industry. In Corporate Social Responsibility: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 982-998). IGI Global.
Jain, A., Keneley, M. and Thomson, D., 2015. Voluntary CSR disclosure works! Evidence from
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Kabir, M. and Qayum, M., 2016. CSR Expenditure and Bank's Financial Performance: A
Comparative Study on Islamic Banks of Bangladesh. International Scholar Journal of
Accounting and Finance, 2(2), pp.1-12.

11ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
Kabir, M., and Qayum, M. 2016. CSR Expenditure and Bank's Financial Performance: A
Comparative Study on Islamic Banks of Bangladesh. International Scholar Journal of
Accounting and Finance, 2(2), 1-12
Laidroo, L. and Sokolova, M., 2015. International banks’ CSR disclosures after the 2008
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financial performance. Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, 26(3), pp.241-260.
Mostafa, R.B. and ElSahn, F., 2016. Exploring the mechanism of consumer responses to CSR
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Paulík, J., Kombo, F. and Ključnikov, A., 2015. CSR as a driver of satisfaction and loyalty in
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