Corporate Social Responsibility Analysis of British Petroleum

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), defining its importance and evolution in business practices. It explores the benefits of CSR, such as enhancing brand reputation and integrating sustainable development. The report uses Archie Carroll's pyramid to define the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of a business organization. A case study of British Petroleum (BP) illustrates CSR initiatives, particularly in environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The report highlights BP's efforts in environmental sustenance, community development, and economic empowerment. It assesses BP's performance against Carroll's pyramid, identifying strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the report explores the rationale behind businesses practicing CSR, including improved customer engagement and employee loyalty, along with the challenges of CSR implementation such as increased customer interest and employee behavior. The report concludes by emphasizing the role of CSR in improving brand image and retaining stakeholder loyalty. The report also includes references to relevant literature.

CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPOSIBILITY
NAME OF THE STUDENT:
NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY:
AUTHOR’S NOTE:

Introduction
 What is CSR
 Corporate Social Responsibility, a self-regulating business
framework, helps a business organisation to become socially
responsible to the company itself, its stakeholders, and to the
people (Tai and Chuang 2014).
 Importance of CSR
 CSR helps a company to take initiatives for the society,
atmosphere, consumers, and its stakeholders
 Why businesses should practice CSR
 To enhance the brand reputation and public image of the
company, CSR is beneficial for the company (Sheehy 2015).

What is CSR
 CSR is the evolving business practice which integrates
sustainable development in the business operation of a company.
 It can be said that CSR, a management concept, through which
business organisation integrate its social and environmental
concern in its business operation (Tai and Chuang 2014).
 To maintain the balance between its economic, environmental,
social activities with the demand of its stakeholders and
shareholders, the management team of a company follows CSR.

Carrols pyramids definition
 Carrol's pyramids of Corporate Social
Responsibility was developed by Archie
Carroll.
 The rationale for which a business
organization should fulfil its CSR is
analysed by this framework.
 This framework identifies mainly four
responsibilities of a business organization
which are economic, legal, ethical, and
Philanthropic. However, these four
responsibilities are complementary to each
other (Carroll 2016).

Carrols pyramids definition
 Economic:
It is the basic and essential responsibilities of a business organization (Carroll 2016).
 Legal:
Business organization are bound to follow the rules and regulations fixed by the respected
authorities.
 Ethical:
Ethical responsibility is connected with legal responsibilities. The executive team and
manager of a business organization has to follow ethical business practices (Carroll
2016).
 Philanthropic:
A business organization has to serve society and contribute to society.

Company background
 Headquarter of British Petroleum, an international oil and gas company, is in London,
England.
 This company was established in 1909 by William KnoxDArcy (BP global 2020).
 Throughout the world, this company provide products like petroleum, natural gas,
motor fuels, aviation fuels, and petrochemicals.
 In 2019 total revenue earned by this company was US$282.62 billion (BP global 2020).
 In 2019, the operating income of this company was US$11.71 billion (BP global 2020).
 Total assets of this company in 2019 was US$295.19 billion (BP global 2020).
 In 2019, the total number of an employee of this company was 73000 (BP global 2020).

CSR example in British Petroleum
Environmental sustenance
 BP took the initiative of moving the location to the western side
of Tangguh expansion project in Indonesia to avoid the mangrove
habitat falling under the offloading facility for the liquefied
natural gas plant (Bp.com 2018).
 The organization has taken the opportunity of setting goals for
reducing the carbon emissions from the different processes to
zero by 2025 along with regulating and controlling the emission
of GHGs (Green House Gases) (Bp.com 2018).

CSR example in British Petroleum
Social sustenance
 BP’s Community development programs, specifically in
developing countries like India and Egypt while conducting
training and skill development programs for motor vehicle
mechanics, are commendable efforts for empowering the lifestyle
of the people.
 BP established the Mauritania British Business Council (MBBC) in
the Islamic state of Mauritania with the purpose of improving the
economic development and trade relation with the nation
(Bp.com 2018).

CSR example in British Petroleum
Economic sustenance
 The sustainability report of the organization that the venture
specifically aimed at empowering the use of renewable sources
of energy for empowering the different business practices
(Bp.com 2018).
 The innovativeness of the organization is specifically led by the
coalition of the same with different Youth-led activities relating to
SDGs (Bp.com 2018).

Carrols’s pyramid on British Petroleum
 Economic:
This company is successful to continue its sustainable growth for its investors.
 Legal:
This company is not successful to fulfil its legal responsibilities.
 Ethical:
The management team of this company is interested to fulfil its ethical
responsibilities as this is the first oil company who is interested to reduce carbon
emission by 10% (BP global 2020).
 Philanthropy:
This company is fulfilling its social responsibilities by supporting the society and
community.

The rationale for businesses practising
CSR
 Moreover, the CSR related activities of an organization support the same in
improving the rate of customer engagement in the different operations while
operating as per the common goals of the venture.
 the CSR activities of the organizations relating to operational health and safety
measures support business in influencing the commitment and loyalty of the
employees.
 The commitment and loyalty of the employees towards an organization permit the
same in empowering the continuous functioning of the different systems in
accordance with the innovative designs (Mellahi and Rettab 2019).

The rationale for businesses practising
CSR
 CSR is mostly undertaken by the organizations with the purpose
of minimizing the cost of operations while successfully achieving
the long term goals of sustenance of the businesses while
operating in intensely competition markets (Berkowitz, Bucheli
and Dumez 2017).
 Adherence to the environmental protection related concerns
supports an organization in minimizing the chances of being
penalized under stringent legislative frameworks.

Challenges
 Increased interest of the customers
Organizations take the initiative of implementing CSR
activities with the purpose of improving the customer
experience and community development (Carollo and
Guerci 2017).
 Change in employee behavior
The changed mentality of the employees might result in
huge turnovers in the organization even though the
organization invests huge capital on the welfare and safety-
related concern of the communities (Kolyperas et al. 2016).

Conclusion
CSR practices of the organizations are aimed towards improving the
brand image while retaining the loyalty and commitment of the
different stakeholders like employees, community and government.

References
Berkowitz, H., Bucheli, M., and Dumez, H., 2017. Collectively designing CSR through meta-organizations: A case study of the oil and gas industry. Journal of Business
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BP global (2020). Our history | Who we are | Home. [online] BP global. Available at: https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/who-we-are/our-history.html [Accessed
3 Mar. 2020].
Bp.com., 2018. Responding to the dual challenge. [online] Bp.com. Available at: https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/
sustainability/group-reports/bp-sustainability-report-2018.pdf [Accessed 3 Mar. 2020].
Carollo, L., and Guerci, M., 2017. Between continuity and change: CSR managers’ occupational rhetorics. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Carroll, A.B., 2016. Carroll’s pyramid of CSR: taking another look. International journal of corporate social responsibility, 1(1), p.3.
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Janssen, K.L., Blazevic, V. and Lauche, K., 2018. Integrating CSR in Innovation Value Networks. In Innovation Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (pp.
75-97). Springer, Cham.
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Management, 25(3), pp.267-280.
Mellahi, K. and Rettab, B., 2019. CSR in the Middle East: From Philanthropy to Modern CSR. In Practising CSR in the Middle East (pp. 39-51). Palgrave Macmillan,
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