CSR and Equality in Workplace: A Literature Review

This report presents a detailed literature review exploring Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its intersection with workplace equality. The introduction defines literature review and its purpose, emphasizing its role in academic research by summarizing existing knowledge and identifying gaps. Task 1 delves into the concept of a literature review, outlining its structure, including introduction, main body, and conclusion. Task 2 focuses on CSR, examining its impact on financial performance, as highlighted by various authors. It also discusses key issues like workplace equality, working environment, and reward systems, and the importance of equality within the workplace. The analysis section aligns CSR with business ethics, highlighting the significance of ethical practices for achieving organizational goals. The report concludes by summarizing the importance of CSR and workplace equality for business operations, considering environmental, legal, social, and ethical factors. The report emphasizes the need for companies to prioritize equality and ethical conduct to build trust and customer loyalty, thereby enhancing their financial performance and brand image.

Assignment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1) Literature review................................................................................................................1
2) Purpose of literature review...............................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
1) Literature review on Corporate Social Responsibility.......................................................2
2) Key issues relating to the corporate social responsibility..................................................3
3) Analysis..............................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Literature review is a review of previously published papers or information on a
particular selected topic or area of subject. It is used by researchers to mention the previous work
of authors on a similar topic and find out a problem from it, and further continues research on it.
This report contains a detailed information about literature review and purpose of literature
review and how it is important. To understand literature review following report contains
literature review on a topic corporate social responsibility and Equality in work place. It focuses
and explains the importance of equality in work place an corporate social responsibility from the
point of view of different authors.
TASK 1
1) Literature review
It is a type of research which gives information of previously published papers on a topic.
It is a simple summary of the topic from the point of view of various different authors, it
combines synthesis and summary and is mainly base on organisational pattern to provide a
related information which helps researcher to identify the problems which other various authors
failed to address (Hart, 2018). A synthesis is a reshuffling, or reorganising of information
highlighted in a summary of different authors on a similar and relevant topic and a summary is a
brief recap of various important and relevant information and of that particular sources. It is
considered as a basis of further research on a similar topic with the help of that particular
information in the field academics. When a research paper is written on a similar topic various
researcher provides their opinions and explaining their experiences as well as the knowledge
which they gained in the process of research. A good literature review helps researcher to
identify, describe and evaluate previous research papers. The structure of research includes three
main parts such as follows:
 Introduction: This part of a research include the brief information related to importance
and explanation of topic. It also explains the researchers understanding about the title and
what they are asked to do, it should clearly state the objective of research that what a
researcher is going to do, it also reflects the outline that which aspect of a subject or topic
is covered in a research. It draws a map for a reader which tells them about the route
which is adopted to reach the final conclusion of the research.
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 Main body: The main body of research contains the arguments which are being
developed using various ideas, opinions, evidences, facts and figures, theories, models
and quotations taken from experts and authorities and quotations from primary text. It
contains the key points developed by researcher and are supported with different
evidences and bring together various ideas and opinions of the subject matter and the
conversation between previous researchers which are mediated by the researcher.
 Conclusion: Conclusion is a summary of the research which includes the presentation of
different evidences supporting the key points of a topic and presents the significance of
subject matter. The gaps are highlighted and suggestions related to practical applications,
implications and possibilities which are submitted for future research on same topic.
2) Purpose of literature review
Literature review serves various purpose, following are some main purpose of literature
review:
 It report on ideas and knowledge which have already been established on a similar topic.
 It shows the strengths and weaknesses which allow researcher to discover the agreed
academic opinion on the topic.
 It provides prospective to the readers and position the research paper.
 It demonstrate the knowledge of the researcher regarding the subject.
 It helps to understand and identify the relationship between various contributions and
resolve any contradiction, determine gap and answer the unanswered question.
 It also determines that what each sources have contributed to the topic.
It helps in determining each work according to its contribution to the research in order to
describe relationship between the work various researchers (Cocchia, 2014). It also helps in
identifying new techniques in order to solve the problems which were associated with previous
research and reveals the gap to describe key areas which can help in achieving high quality of
work in existing research.
TASK 2
1) Literature review on Corporate Social Responsibility
According to Habisch and Jonker (2015), financial performance of the companies are
directly linked with corporate social responsibility of a company. The financial performance of
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the companies are affected if they complete their duties towards the society and internal parties.
Meeting its corporate social responsibility will develop a good image of a company in the minds
of consumers due to which the sale of a company will be enhanced resulting in the improvement
of financial position of the company. If a company is completing their responsibilities towards its
employees then they will work with full efficiency and effectiveness which will have a direct
impact on companies financial performance. CSR plays an important role in developing
company's image the more company is involved in CSR will result in the development of
company's image and will enhance its performance and financial position.
As per Claire (2017), Corporate social responsibility is important for any organisation it
is duty of every organisation to serve its society as the people living in a society are responsible
for its growth and revenue generation. CSR is a considered as a business approach which
contributes to the sustainable development of society by delivering environmental, social and
economic benefits of all its internal as well as external stakeholders. It is considered as a broad
concept which addresses various topics including corporate governance, health and safety,
working conditions, human right, contribution to economic development and environmental
effects. Some companies try to improve their market stability by implementing unique corporate
social responsibility initiatives .
2) Key issues relating to the corporate social responsibility.
There are various issues related to corporate social responsibility of a company,
following are some issues:
 Equality in Workplace: This is a issue which varies from employer to employer, this
issue highlights the unequal rights given to the employee. In workplace employee are
discriminated as per their colour, gender, race and religion which results in the negative
workplace environment and may lead to higher employee turnover in an organisation.
 Working Environment: This is a issue which is related to the unhealthy working
environment in an organisation. If the environment in workplace is not favourable it will
lead to the absenteeism and will increase the labour turnover ratio in an organisation.
 Unfair reward system: If the reward system prevailing in an organisation is unfair it will
lead to a negative motivation in an organisation. Reward system should be fair in order to
retain its employee for a long term and increase the performance of a company.
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3) Analysis
As per the Epstein (2016), corporate social responsibility is aligned with the business
ethics as CSR is directly related to the development of the society in which a business is
operated. If a company does not follow and operates its business ethically it is not possible for a
company to achieve its organisational goal and improve its financial position. CSR is a self
regulatory business model which helps company to b socially accountable and it is important for
a business to follow ethics in business in order to make compliance with CSR. It is only possible
for an organisation if they follows business ethics, as in the absence of ethics there would be
several conflicts and difficulties for a company to follow CSR.
As per Kang, Germann and Grewal (2016), corporate social responsibility is a model
which is required by the companies to build and maintain its efficient as well as long term
relationship. These relations helps companies to build trust and customer loyalty which results in
establishing and improving its brand image which ultimately results in increasing companies
revenue and its financial position. In order to sustain its market position and contribute to
corporate social responsibilities companies ties up with various government NGO which support
various issues related to child labour, education for all, women empowerment, development of
society and various other issues. Companies pool their resources with different NGO and
governments to contribute in the development of society and meeting its CSR policy needs and
develop good image of the company.
As per Supanti, Butcher and Fredline, (2015) CSR is required in all types of business.
The plans, programmes and policies are prepared after considering the legal, social and
environmental factors. CSR also includes the relation between employer and employee in order
to provide equality in work place. Work place equality can differ from one employer to the other
employer for some employers race can be the basis of equality and for some employer religion,
and for some gender can be the basis on which employer is partial. This results in a negative
impact on the companies image and profit, if employer is partial towards male employee than the
female employees working in an organisation will not feel good and will result in the resignation
of those employees which will hurt the image of a company indicating that this particular
organisation is not safe for female employees which will result in the negative marketing of
companies image which can hurt the companies profit and its financial position. In order to meet
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CSR requirement companies should start it from within the organisation by providing equal
rights to every member of its organisation irrespective of their colour, race, gender etc.
According to Gazzola, Sepashvili and Pezzetti (2016), Corporate social responsibility can
help the organisation to improve the equality in work place as the employees who are not treated
equally are also the part of society. If a company is not treating its every employee equally and
promoting CSR are doing no god to the society, equality in workplace is one of the important
factor for the growth of any organisation as human resources are the backbone of an organisation
if they are not treated in a right way they will surely switch to a new organisation which treat
their employees equal. Unfair treatment some time lead to the unfair award, which demotivate
the employees who are working hard and still does not get the recognition for their work whereas
other employee who is not working but is favourite of its senior management is getting awards
and recognition will lead to dissatisfaction in the work and will result In the leaving of
organisation. This is harmful for companies reputation and image and decreasing in its market
share as company will loose its efficient employee only due to the improper way of treatment.
CONCLUSION
The above report focuses on the understanding of the concept of literature review and its
importance in the research paper, it is necessary for a researcher to write literature review as it
covers the arguments and opinions of other researchers on a similar topic. The above report also
establishes importance of corporate social responsibility from the point of view of six different
authors. It consists of the literature review on CSR and Equality in workplace. The above reports
states the importance of equality in workplace and importance of CSR and why should
companies follow it. It also covers the various issues related to CSR and their analysis in a
detailed manner. This report also highlights concerns of CSR with the performance of companies
business operations by considering various aspects such as environmental, legal, social and
ethical.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Cocchia, A., 2014. Smart and digital city: A systematic literature review. In Smart city (pp. 13-
43). Springer, Cham.
Habisch, A., Jonker, J., Wegner, M. and Schmidpeter, R. eds., 2015.Corporate social
responsibility across Europe. Springer Science & Business Media.
Claire, M. D., 2017. Human rights: The emerging norm of corporate social responsibility. In
Human Rights and Corporations (pp. 149-178). Routledge.
Epstein, E. M., 2016. The corporate social policy process: Beyond business ethics, corporate
social responsibility, and corporate social responsiveness.California management
review. 29(3). pp.99-114.
Kang, C., Germann, F. and Grewal, R., 2016. Washing away your sins? Corporate social
responsibility, corporate social irresponsibility, and firm performance.Journal of
Marketing. 80(2). pp.59-79.
Supanti, D., Butcher, K. and Fredline, L., 2015. Enhancing the employer-employee relationship
through corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(7). pp.1479-1498.
Gazzola, P., Sepashvili, E. and Pezzetti, R., 2016. CSR as a mean to promote gender
equality. Economia Aziendale Online. 7(1). pp.95-99.
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