UGB262 Report: Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Assessment

This report delves into the realm of corporate responsibility and sustainability, specifically within the context of social media platforms. It begins by defining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its significance, exploring the interplay between CSR and social media, and highlighting the various categories of social media. The report then identifies key challenges associated with corporate responsibility and sustainability, such as awareness gaps, communication issues, and privacy concerns. It further analyzes the best practices within the social media sector, discussing ethical considerations and recommending improvements. The report emphasizes the importance of stakeholder engagement, ethical business practices, and sustainable leadership in achieving CSR goals. This report is a detailed examination of the challenges and opportunities in aligning social media practices with corporate social responsibility and sustainability objectives.

Running head: CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Corporate responsibility and sustainability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
1 Introduction...................................................................................................................................3
2 Key challenges relating to corporate responsibility and sustainability........................................5
3 Analysis of the best practice of the chosen sector........................................................................9
4 Recommendations.......................................................................................................................11
5 Reference....................................................................................................................................13

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1 Introduction
The foremost determination of the paper is to focus on the corporate social responsibility
of the different categories of social media platforms which are increasingly been used in the
present time. This paper will be highlighting the social responsibilities of the social media
platforms and the users of the social media platforms along with that it will also discuss the key
issues of corporate sustainability and responsibility. The best practice of social media will be
discussed in details in the paper along with the different categories of ethical issues associated
with it (Jeble et al. 2018). This paper will also have a recommendation unit stating the changes
required in a specific way considering the fact that social media are used all over the world.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): It is defined as the global self-regulation
business responsibility of all the business and corporate organizations. Different categories of
international laws and environmental regulations are associated with this category of changes.
This public firm policy helps corporate agencies to enhance their existing market reputation and
increase their brand recognition.
According to renowned economist Adam Smith, there are four factors of production
such as the land which is a category of natural resource, labour which is a human effort provided
to the production rooms, the capital stock which includes the technologies used in the production
rooms and the enterprise which are created for the business ventures can be of many sizes such a
small, medium and large (Helbing et al. 2019). The collective effort to and from all these factors
of production are very much required for the economic profit of the business organizations.
According to Howard R Bowen, the social responsibilities of the businessman are very
much important for maintaining the CSR. He stated the importance of maintaining ethical

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behaviour for all the stakeholders of the business. The fundamental moralities of workplaces are
highly focused by Howard along with the managerial decision-making techniques.
The normative stakeholder’s theory proposed by Friedman in the year 2006 states about
the different techniques by which the managers and the stakeholders of the organization should
work so that the mission and the vision of the organization is reached. The importance of
maintaining ethical principles were stated in the paper. Edward Freeman also highlighted the
values and moral associated with managing a business organization. The normative stakeholder
commitment model can be used for maintaining social responsibilities as well.
Social media sector: The extensive development in the field of communication
technology has led to the growth of different social media platforms which can be used for both
personal as well as professional purpose, this paper will be highlighting the corporate
sustainability and responsibility of the social media platforms. There are different categories of
social media such as the microblogging platforms, media sharing, social news, bookmarking
sites and social networks.
CSR Relationship with social media: The different categories of social media
platforms are increasingly been used in the corporate organization so that it achieves corporate
social responsibilities. Engagement of the stakeholders in the internal business decisions are now
possible with the help of the social media platforms. The communication issues with the distant
stakeholders of the business are possible with the help of the asocial media platforms such as
Facebook and Twitter. New business opportunities can be created with the help of social media
platforms as well.

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CSR issues in social media: The application of social media in maintaining the corporate
social responsibilities have both advantageous as well as disadvantages. The most significant
CSR issue of the social media in the recent time is when the failure of maintaining CSR in The
Volkswagen was circulated all over the world, it had a direct negative impact on the brand
reputation of this organization.
Positive examples of CSR: Better pay scale of the labours and fair-trade policy
applicable for all the stakeholders of the business, charity for the needy peoples of the local
community, effective environmental policies, economic responsibilities, ethical business
practices and the direct philanthropic giving are the most popular contributions of CSR in the last
few years.
Division of good practices: The different business unit of the workplaces such as the
finance department, HT department and the other departments can categorically get the best
practice of social media considering their needs and requirements. Community knowledge and
the transparency of options are the two most essential aspects of social media for the above-
discussed departments.
2 Key challenges relating to corporate responsibility and sustainability
There are different categories of challenges associated with the corporate responsibility
and sustainability of the social media industry. The key challenges of the of the corporate
responsibility is the awareness issue between the stakeholders of the business who do not know
about the professional application of the social media platforms to maintain the corporate
responsibilities such as the reduction of the carbon foot prints to mitigate the adverse climatic
changes and the improvement of the labor policies so that the labor is more motivated in their

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working hours (Zhalechian, Tavakkoli-Moghaddam and Rahimi 2017). There is huge
communication gap between the distant stakeholders of the business which is the main reason the
application of the social media platforms and ant sort of connectivity issue between the distant
communication devices are the other essential challenges associated with the social media
industry. Issue and trust factors are the other significant issue between the stakeholders of the
business as the use of social media is not every time sufficient enough for the stakeholders.
Lack of consensus for the governing bodies of the business organizations regarding the
addressing the issue that ware raised during the CSR activities is a very important challenge as
collaborative approaches require huge investments which is again a concern for the management
team (Hoey et al. 2018). The adverse environmental conditions can have a direct negative impact
on the communication between the stakeholders of the organization as any kinds important
business decisions may needed to be taken in terms of the corporate social responsibilities such
as the progress of the economic responsibilities which are practiced in the business and the legal
responsibilities such as the environmental was associated with the organization. The adverse
environmental conditions such as extreme snowy conditions can be reason for the poor network
coverage and the application of the social media platforms is not at all possible under those
circumstances.
Construction of the communication strategy or the sustainability plan with the help of the
social media platforms may have challenges such the decision-making capabilities of the
stakeholders, as some of the stakeholders might not have the experience of having quick
decision-making abilities in the online applications such as WhatsApp (Seele 2017). The other
category of challenges sharing the business plan is the privacy and security issues of the social

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media platforms as any involvement of outsiders can have a direct impact on the growth and
productivity of the business organization.
Non-availability of the non-governmental organizations is the other challenge associated
with the corporate responsibilities. The CSR vision of the corporate business organizations needs
sustainable leaders and they may not be entirely comfortable using the social media platforms.
To meet the CSR vision, it is very important to get the recommendation from the consumers
regarding their opinions and the role of the social media platforms are very much important for
the role of this aspect.
Business issues and disagreement between the stakeholders of the business can be serious
concern in the workplaces along with that the utilization of the workplace resources for the
sustainable development of the organization is the other challenges which are faced by the
management team of the business organizations (Semanjski et al. 2016). Distribution and the
engagement of the sustainable information of the organization to the other sources are the other
key challenges associated with the corporate responsibilities. There are data privacy issues in the
social media platforms which are increasingly been due for meeting the corporate
responsibilities, such as the cyber security issues.
The lack of participation of the communities or any kinds of disagreements are the other
challenges of corporate sustainability, for this reason local capacities are needed to be built for
those communities. The application of the social media engagement tools is the very much
important regarding the implementation of the CSR practices but it have considerable
disadvantage associated with it such as their compatibility issues with the devices of the
stakeholders of the business (Stock and Seliger 2016). International standards of business

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practices are needed to be maintained by the social media tools for the elimination of the issues
regarding the corporate responsibilities and sustainable development.
The relationship between the different stakeholders of this organization are the other
concern regarding the corporate social responsibilities (Vivitsou, Tirri and Kynäslahti 2016). The
implementation of the different categories CSR practices using the social media platforms
requires choosing the right model of CSR among different categories of models which is a
significant business challenge (Seele 2016). Choosing the appropriate CSR strategy is the other
issue associated with the corporate sustainabilities. Management of the customers, suppliers,
environment, local communities and employees are the main challenge reading the maintenance
of the corporate sustainability and responsibility.
The leaking of the environmental concerns of the workplaces are the other issues
associated with the use of the social media platforms as any kinds of internal data leakage may
have a direct negative impact on the corporate goals of the organization. The quality of life of the
workforces needs to be effectively maintained with the help of the corporate social
responsibilities and the main issue with this aspect is the changing lifestyle of the workforces
(Massaro et al. 2018). Local communities and associated societies of the business organization
should be suing the same social media platforms so that their quality of life is enhanced.
The integration of the different types of stakeholders regarding any corporate discussion
of the changes required in the CSR of a business organization is the other challenge associated
with the use of social media platforms (Özdemir and Hekim 2018). In few corporate
responsibilities, the role of the government officials is very important and the practical
application of social media is not at all suitable for the governmental officials die to the old and
conventional practices (Manetti and Bellucci 2016). The underestimation and the overestimation

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of the resources are the other key challenge associated with corporate sustainability and
responsibility.
The higher expectation of the local communities and the environmentalist are the other concerns
of the corporate social responsibility of the business organizations as they need to ensure
business profit for the management team of the organization also (Linkov et al. 2018). There is
increasing risk in the supply chain management of the business organization regarding their
pledge to ensure all the corporate social responsibilities. Risk management of sustainable
practices is the other challenge for corporate organizations (Leonhard and von Kospoth 2017).
The moral and ethical behaviors of the stakeholders who are involvement in meeting the
corporate goals are the other challenges associated with the business organizations.
3 Analysis of the best practice of the chosen sector
There are different categories of social and ethical issue associated with the social media
industry and these issues is a serious concern for the administrators of the social media
platforms. Identification of the ethical considerations is itself a challenge for the management
team of the social media platforms (Kara, Yurtsever and Fırat 2016). Ethical considerations
include posting confidential business information on the social media platforms and misguiding
the consumers with invalid or wrong information about any products or services. Breaching the
confidentiality of the business meetings is the other sort of moral issue associated in this social
media industry, thus the best practice of the social media industry is very much important for the
growth and progress of this industry (Kuribayashi, Hayashi and Akaike 2018). The best practices
of the social media industry are as followings:

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o Responding promptly to all the users of the social media platforms is very much of a best
practice as it helps to save time for them.
o Engaging the different managers of business organizations with the non-governmental
organizations, charity organization and the environmentalists are among the other best
practices of this industry.
o Sharing of essential business details in the form of conversion Ads, creatives templates,
collages to the consumers for increasing the brand reputation and profitability of the
business is the other significant best practice of this industry.
o The social media platforms act as a communication forum between the internal
stakeholders of the business with the internal stakeholders of the business which can be
also considered as the best practice as the quality of products and service offered by this
organization can be significantly improved with the help of this communication channels.
o The business process of the global manufacturing corporations is optimized with the
application of the social media platforms such as Instagram which can be the other best
practice of this industry as it helps them to enhance their existing business procedures.
o Measurement of the success and the failure of the organization with the help of the social
media platforms are the other best practice of the social media industry.
o Monitoring of the daily activities of the different categories of internal and external
stakeholders are also among the best practices of the social industry.
o Establishment of a dedicated team within the business organization to deal with internal
issues of the business organizations are the other best practice of this industry.

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o Creation and coordination of the business campaigns regarding the business process,
corporate social responsibilities using social media platforms are the other best practice
of the social media industry.
o The performance evaluation of the different stakeholder associated with the business can
be done with the help of social media platforms.
o Attracting new clients and increasing the business area of this organization are the prime
application of social media in different types of organizations.
Considering all the above best practices for this industry it can be said that there are different
types of ethical and social issue associated with the social media industry such as the privacy of
the data which are being transported from one device to another containing the confidential
information (Grigore, Molesworth and Watkins 2017). The rise of the social engineering attacks,
attacks coming from the ethical hackers and the attack coming from severe cyber security
challenges such as ransomware are the privacy concerns of this industry (Govindan, Paam and
Abtahi 2016). Selective and controlled access to the information or data has have lots of ethical
considerations.
Business integrity risk is the other category of risk associated with this industry as any kinds
of misuse of power and use of the social media platforms in an irresponsible way can have a
significant impact on the business sales and business reputation. Any negative comments to the
consumers of the industries can be enough for the downfall of the organization (Ghadimi et al.
2016). Spamming over the promotional messages which are forwarded to the clients of the
organizations is also considered as one of the biggest ethical concerns.
Social media are also used in the recruitment practices in business organizations and any
ineffective means of recruiting a resource have a very bad impact on the overall success of the

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organization (Frederick 2018). Dishonesty and distortion are the other ethical concerns of the use
of social media as any kinds of offensive comments mat jeopardize the reputation of the
organization. Misuse of free expertise and the contexts are the other moral issue associated in
this social media industry.
4 Recommendations
This unit of the paper will be discussing the recommendations which can be given to the
different business which are using the social media platforms so that they are more responsible
considering the global standards (Dubé et al. 2018). Validation of the data which are being
transported from one system to another is the of the most important recommendation for the
different types of business processes which uses these social media platforms for communication
purposes. Knowing the users and their profiles are very much recommended as there are lots of
cyber crimes involved where fake user accounts are used (Djuric and Filipovic 2015). Encryption
techniques should be applied while sending any essential data with the help of a social media
platform. The security of the devices in terms of the virus and worms where the social media
platforms are installed is also very highly recommendable. Engagement of the consumers of the
business organizations in the right platforms is important. Apart from the business to business
(B2B) consumers, the social media platforms can be also used in the business to consumer
operations (Camarinha-Matos, Fornasiero and Afsarmanesh 2017). Understand the value of
social media is one of the main recommendations which can be given to all the users of the
different categories of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. There are security
concerns in the social media platforms which is the main reason behind the need of maintaining
secondary recovery email address which is highly recommended regarding the business use of
the social media (Barile et al. 2016). The tools which are used in the social media platforms must