Analyzing Bentley's Corporate Social Responsibility

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Business Communication
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Table of Contents
Part 1................................................................................................................................................3
Part 2................................................................................................................................................8
Reference list.................................................................................................................................12
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Part 1
Introduction
The study will have a focus on Bentley and CSR activities in it. Bentley is an automobile
company with headquarter in UK. It was established in 1919 and the CEO is Wolfgang
Durheimer. Their products range from various luxury cars to SUVs and current revenue is 1458
million Euros. The report will consist of all four parts of “Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR” and
evaluation will be on Bentley. It will assess various activities of this company and will
understand their contribution to the society as well as the company itself. A recommendation will
be provided at the end of this study to improve CSR activities.
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Discussion and analysis
Impacts of “Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR” in Bentley
Figure 1: “Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR”
(Source: Carroll, 2016)
Economic Responsibilities
Bentley once used to act only as economic unit for the society. The primary motive was to
generate profit for any entrepreneurship. CSR for economic components refers to maximising
earnings by performing in a certain way. A competitive position has been maintained and
Bentley makes sure that they take care of employees, as well as generate good amount of profit.
This profit has a social impact, as stakeholders get profit and in return, investors give more
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financial support to Bentley. A great profit margin will take the company to a better position in
business and employees will get various benefits such as promotion and increments (Carroll,
2016).
Legal responsibilities
The society expects Bentley to operate inside some legal boundaries. The legal boundary is made
of some laws and legislations for Bentley to follow. The organisation can only operate according
to laws set by government of UK. There are other federal and state regulations, which are
required to follow. Bentley fulfils legal obligations for every member of the society and
stakeholders. Therefore, Bentley can only sell products, which meet the minimum legal
requirement (Baden, 2016). There are laws set by the government of UK such as “Environmental
Protection Act”, “Consumer rights act”, which ties the operations of Bentley and secures it with
a legal way to conducting business. Bentley understands their legal responsibilities and makes
their car in such ways, that it increases fuel efficiency and decreases carbon emissions. They
were the first company to achieve ISO 140001 “environmental management standard”
(corporate.bentley, 2019).
Ethical responsibilities
Bentley operates according to society’s expectations and ethical norms. A random altering
society will expect the company to evolve and accept new moral norms of society. The corporate
objectives do not hinder or become a barrier in maintaining norms of society. It requires Bentley
to protect civil rights and act responsibly to the degrading condition of environment. Ethical
norms may not always match with laws and therefore, Bentley comes up with a human approach
towards the society to keep up to their ethical responsibilities. In addition, finding the difference
between right and wrong can be difficult and following CSR may become challenging
(Meynhardt and Gomez, 2019).
Philanthropic responsibilities
Bentley takes an approach to become a “good corporate citizen”. They contribute resources for
communities to develop quality of people’s life. The businesses serve the charitable expectations
of citizens. The philanthropic attitude is mandatory for sustaining the business and society.
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Therefore, managers motivate employees to participate in charitable activities for local
communities. In addition, the company is donating for many charitable organisations and one
example is “BEN motor and allied trades benevolent fund”. They donate to society for
sustainability and take care of various health and social issues. The company provides care for
dementia, rehabilitation and many more. Therefore, it is evident that they are maintaining the
CSR in their organisation (ben.org.uk, 2019).
The barriers of CSR are evident in Bentley. Economic barrier is huge and it restricts Bentley to
spend money on CSR activities due to shortage of it. Due to shortage of resources, the
organisation may want to focus on developing business only by focusing the money on profitable
activities and it creates a clash between ethics and business. Staffs, shareholders, trade unions
and customers cause social barrier. The interest of these people may not match and CSR
implementation will fail due to this (Crowther and Seifi, 2018).
Conclusions and recommendations
The article considered Bentley and performed a study on the impact of “Carroll’s Pyramid of
CSR” for the organisation. The four sections of this pyramid helped to understand the way
Bentley manages their “corporate social responsibilities”. Bentley pays attention to keep their
economical responsibilities. They make sure that the company is generating maximum amount of
profit and taking care of its employees. A suggestion for improvement has been provided for this
section. Bentley follows proper legislations to operate under legal boundaries and the company
understands their moral contribution to the society. Bentley participates in charitable activities
and understands philanthropic responsibilities.
The company can perform better and be more responsible in case of marinating responsibilities
relating to economy. They can come up with better cars in future by doing market research to
generate more profit. Bentley can keep their legal responsibilities by ensuring stricter policies
inside the organisation. They can improve the moral of employees to make this practice more
effective. It is possible for Bentley to research more about their car engines and introduce bio
fuels in their models. It will automatically generate low amount of CO2 emission and reduce
environmental hazard. Customers should be ensured that their safety would not be overlooked
during any kind of purchase from Bentley. It can be done by implementing better cybersecurity
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to protect customer’s personal information. The operation, which follows laws of consumer
protection, automatically becomes ethically responsible. Employees will have to take out time
from their busy schedules, as well as managers to participate in charitable activities in a major
way. They need to become more active in social causes and concern themselves to make a
positive impact. Bentley can overcome barriers by dividing its resources separately for CSR
activities and business activities. If they can amalgamate these two factors, then they will be
more beneficial (Crowther and Seifi, 2018).
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Part 2
Introduction
The following section of the study concentrates on various skills that are required by an
individual to be successful within the walls of an organisation. The development procedure and
the analysis of that particular skill are also bisected in the following study. This skill set includes
ICT skills, Team Work skills, Problem Solving skills, Communication skills, Research skills and
Numeracy skills. An individual needs to carry an efficient composition of all these skills to be
successful in the corporate world.
Communication Skills
Effective communication skill is the primary set of skill that should be possessed by an
organisation to penetrate the corporate world. It enables both the managers and the employees of
an organisation to provide their essential contribution towards organisational goals with the help
of various processes like organising, controlling, planning and motivating. Communication skill
can be sub-divided into three parts. These are verbal skills, presentation skills and written skills.
Efficient communication skills construct the pillar of any business activity (Brink and Costigan,
2015).
When it comes to my end, I must express that I possess a strong and efficient communication
skill to be it verbal, presentation or written. I spent almost half of my life span writing blogs over
the internet. The habit of mine helped me a lot in possessing an efficient set of communication
skills. Apart from that, during my school days, I used to give a lot of effort into making
presentations for my fellow mates. During the initial stages, I used to do it casually, but after a
particular period, I got pretty recognition for that, and then I took the habit of mine seriously.
The preliminary thing that influenced me to take up all these aspects is my love towards the
language English.
ICT Skills
ICT skills stand for ‘Information Communication Technology’. In recent times, with the
advancement in technology, this is one of the most needed skills to penetrate in the corporate
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world (Falck et al., 2016). In this fast-paced environment, the population is using various
technological devices to cater to their refurbished needs. It does not matter what type of work an
individual is opting for, but the person is likely to use a computer in his/her workplace. Apart
from that, various organisations mainly in the field of Information Technology are cutting down
their operating cost by bounding their physical existence to an extent and providing their
employees with the facility of working from home. In this case, an individual should possess a
fair amount of ICT skills to penetrate in these types of industries.
I must express that; I do carry an efficient amount of ICT skills, which I think should be enough
to penetrate the corporate world. The habit of making presentations enabled me to possess strong
ICT skill. The primary device that I used to construct my presentations was computers, and
therefore I always tended to know more and more about it. Gradually after a particular period, I
understood that a computer helps an individual to increase his/her work performance. Moreover,
I also figured out that it is essential for an individual to get well versed about the computer,
which will help the individual to be competent in his/her workplace. These are the factors, which
stills drive me to acquire more and more knowledge about computers.
Research Skills
Research skills can be depicted as the ability to provide a certain amount of information about a
particular topic after doing extensive and in-depth research of it. This includes referring to
subsequent sources, generating a problem statement and acknowledging the observation and
findings in the form of a report (DuBrin, 2015). Research Skills enables a person to recognise a
problem, collect certain information about it and address it. This will help the person to construct
an effective solution to the problem. In today’s world, solving conflicts is the main area of
concern for the managers as this has a direct impact on the productivity of the organisation.
In the current scenario, I must express that I do not possess a fair amount of research skills, as I
am not much habituated of it. I am a newbie in the corporate world, and I do not have much
experience with the working procedure and working culture of an organisation. I have done a lot
of research in my life span but not on the particular addressed problem. I carry a fair amount of
experience about researching, but I think I could further improve it with my inclusion in any of
the organisation.
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Team Work Skills
Teamwork is considered as the major area of concern of an organisation because it enables the
management of an organisation to enhance the performance of their employees and maintain a
healthy working ambience. Apart from that, efficient teamwork also results in employee unity,
which can act as a competitive edge for the organisation over its competitors. All these aspects
collectively work as a motivator from the employee point of view, which have a direct effect on
the productivity of the organisation and in turn boosting the annual turnover of the organisation
(Brock et al., 2017). In recent times, organisations need a continuous adaptation of their products
to cater to the refurbished needs of the customers. In this process of launching a new product,
teamwork within the organisation plays a big role.
When it comes to my end, I must express that I do not carry a fair amount of teamwork skills. It
has always been a challenge for me to work in a team and from my point of view; I have never
been able to reach my potentials working in a team. Starting from school days to my university
days, I have been successful as an individual in almost every aspect, but I have not received that
much success working in a team. Whenever I am working in a team, I feel suppressed by the
thoughts of my other team members. I know this is a very bad habit of mine and I am laying
much focus on it and trying to overcome it as soon as possible.
Numeracy Skills
Numeracy skills are all about being good with numbers. It helps an individual to keep a close
encounter on his/her performance and at the same time helps the person to maximise his/her
potential. Apart from that, an efficient amount of numeracy skills enables a person to interpret
technical data, which is a major area of concern for the managers in recent times (Lee-Post,
2019). Due to this reason only, the numeracy test is being introduced in the recruitment process
of a maximum number of organisations. Maximum organisations are inclined towards adapting
updated technologies, and these are making the need for numeracy skills more validate.
In this scenario, I carry a fair amount of numeracy skills. In true words, from my school days
only I am a person who is not that good with numbers. I am good at tracking my performance,
but I drastically fail when I try to align it with numbers. Numbers are my major area of a query
from my childhood only, and it is still the same in my university days. I think, interpreting
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technical data is not my cup of tea, and I am very weak in doing that. I have tried working with
binary numbers and decoding it several times, but every time I have failed drastically. I am
trying my level best to overcome this issue by indulging myself in various numerical problems
though I am facing an immense problem overcoming it. I hope to meet the industry requirement
soon.
Problem Solving Skills
A problem is regarded as an unpleasant situation, which acts as a barrier to achieving
organisational goals. Any activity, which helps an organisation to overcome the challenges faced
by them, is termed as problem-solving. The problem-solving skills of an individual help the
person to overcome the challenges faced by him/her efficiently within a certain period (Hesse et
al., 2015). This leads the organisation to carry on with their productivity in an efficient manner
and not harming the annual turnover of the organisation. The process of problem-solving
includes identifying the problem, constructing alternative solutions, selecting and evaluating the
best alternative and then implementing the best possible solution. All problems and challenges
are never similar, some are quite easy to solve, and some are quite complex, but these set of skill
will allow an individual to overcome any problem subsequently.
In this case, I must assure you that I carry a strong problem-solving skill. I generally detach
myself from the problem to know the primary reason behind it. Then I try to break it down in
several parts to have a detailed look over it. I arrange the problem hierarchically and try to solve
it from the initial stage and then move further. Apart from that, I always keep myself open to any
solutions be it intrinsic or extrinsic. This is the primary reason behind carrying an efficient set of
problem-solving skills.
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Reference list
Baden, D., 2016. A reconstruction of Carroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility for the
21st century. International journal of corporate social responsibility, 1(1), p.8.
Ben. (2019). Ben is the automotive industry's support service | Ben. [online] Available at:
https://ben.org.uk/ [Accessed 14 May 2019].
Bentleymotors.com. (2019). Official Bentley Motors website | Powerful, handcrafted luxury
cars . [online] Available at: https://www.bentleymotors.com/en.html [Accessed 14 May 2019].
Brink, K.E. and Costigan, R.D., 2015. Oral communication skills: Are the priorities of the
workplace and AACSB-accredited business programs aligned?. Academy of Management
Learning & Education, 14(2), pp.205-221.
Brock, S.E., McAliney, P.J., Ma, C.H. and Sen, A., 2017. Toward more practical measurement
of teamwork skills. Journal of Workplace Learning, 29(2), pp.124-133.
Carroll, A.B., 2016. Carroll’s pyramid of CSR: taking another look. International journal of
corporate social responsibility, 1(1), p.3.
Corporate.bentley. (2019). Bentley Motors Website: Bentley and the Environment. [online]
Available at: https://corporate.bentley/en/bentley-corporate/bentley-and-the-environment.html
[Accessed 14 May 2019].
Crowther, D. and Seifi, S. eds., 2018. Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald
Group Publishing.
DuBrin, A.J., 2015. Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.
Falck, O., Heimisch, A. and Wiederhold, S., 2016. Returns to ICT skills.
Hesse, F., Care, E., Buder, J., Sassenberg, K. and Griffin, P., 2015. A framework for teachable
collaborative problem solving skills. In Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills (pp. 37-
56). Springer, Dordrecht.
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