Analyzing CSR Practices and Organizational Performance at Hilton Hotel

This project proposal investigates the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices on the organizational performance and branding of Hilton Hotel. The introduction outlines the research aim, objectives, background, rationale, and research questions, focusing on CSR's significance in t...Read More

FOUNDATION PROJECT
(FND002)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Research Aim...............................................................................................................................1
Research Objectives.....................................................................................................................1
Background..................................................................................................................................1
Rationale......................................................................................................................................2
Research Questions......................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
PROPOSED METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................3
Research type...............................................................................................................................3
Research approach.......................................................................................................................4
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................4
Data collection.............................................................................................................................4
Sampling......................................................................................................................................4
Data analysis................................................................................................................................4
Reliability and validity.................................................................................................................5
Research limitations.....................................................................................................................5
Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................5
PROPOSED ANALYSIS................................................................................................................5
Questionnaire...............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

Title: To analyse the impact of CSR practices on the organizational performance in the context
of UK hospitality sector: A study on Hilton Hotel
INTRODUCTION
Research Aim
The aim of current study is to evaluate the extent to which CSR practices impact the
organizational performance and branding of Hilton Hotel.
Research Objectives
 To build understanding of the concept and models of Corporate Social Responsibility.
 To assess the significance of CSR practices within the UK hospitality sector.
 To ascertain the impact of CSR practices on the performance and branding of Hilton.
 To recommend effectual strategies pertaining to CSR practices boosting the
organizational performance.
Background
In the recent era the UK hospitality sector is at boom and is growing with a faster pace
contributing in the economic development. It has generated significant employment
opportunities, tourism and development of the economy. Further, with the rise in the industry the
expectations of the society are also rising simultaneously. The companies are trying to boost
their organizational performance and efficiency by fulfilling their corporate social responsibility.
CSR refers to a business model that is adopted by the company itself in order to stay accountable
and maximize the satisfaction of the stakeholders. It involves practices like sustainable
development, clean and green environment, reducing carbon footprints, corporate governance,
pollution control and ethical trade practices (Abbas, 2020). In today's environment of cut-throat
competition it is difficult to survive without activities that can satisfy the consumers in the
market and attract them to the products and services of the company in comparison to the
competitors. In the current study Hilton hotel has been selected which incorporates various CSR
practices ensuring improvement in its organizational performance. The proposal shall determine
the level of impact that is caused to the branding, marketing, profitability, customer satisfaction
and development of the future growth prospects by conducting the CSR practices effectually in
the hotel. The research shall shed light on the various tools and techniques that are used in order
to analyse the research problem and prove the hypothesis regarding the significant impact of
CSR on performance of Hilton.
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Rationale
The main reason for conducting the investigation is to ascertain the impact of CSR
practices on the performance of Hilton. CSR is the major practice these days due to the growing
concerns on the environmental issues, sustainable development corporate governance. The
various techniques applied shall shed light upon the influence that is led by corporate social
responsibility on the performance of the company.
Research Questions
Q.1 What is CSR and the relevant models that are used in an organization?
Q.2 What is the significance of CSR practices?
Q.3 What is the impact of CSR practices on the organizational performance of Hilton?
LITERATURE REVIEW
As per the opinion of the Resmi, Begum and Hassan (2018) corporate social
responsibility is a self-regulation model that is applied by the businesses to stay accountable
towards the society and its inhabitants. They are the activities that are conducted by the
companies to boost the morale and satisfaction level of the stakeholders and maximize the
organizational performance. These are the practices and policies that are related to social welfare
and environment protection. The policies that are designed to maintain sustainable development,
pollution control, ethical and fair trade practices etc. forms part of the corporate social
responsibility of the company. Waples and Brachle (2020) contradicts that in the process of
conducting these CSR practices the company has to incur huge costs and expenses of installing
the pollution control equipments. By establishing these additional costs at the similar level of
activity and production capacity it is difficult to ensure the i9mprovement in the organizational
performance. Apart from that the employees has to trained in order to adapt to the new working
policies and many a time when they are resistant to changes, the employee turnover ratio of the
organization increases. Franco and et.al. (2020) evaluates that the Carroll's CSR pyramid shows
the model which shall be followed by the businesses to incorporate the practices and policies and
achieve the benefits in terms of the organizational performance of the company. It starts from the
basic level of economic advantages that is the profitability and survival of the company. The
policies must initially lead to economic development, post which it should ensure that all the
legal requirements are being fulfilled and laws are complied with by the company. Further it the
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activities of CSR must ensure that the ethical requirements of the fair trade practices are being
satisfied and the last level are the additional needs of the society in terms of philanthropic duties.
Ahmed and et.al. (2020) presents that the major significance of the CSR policies in the
company is to build the brand image and positively place it in the minds of the people. If the
organization is engaged in the welfare activities and are contributing to the society in terms of its
development, sustainability and making it a better place to live, then in that case it will generate
brand awareness and attract the new potential customers to the company. On the contrary Islam
and et.al. (2018) specifies that simultaneous benefit that is generated by investing in these social
activities cannot be measured by the company in terms of the generated revenue. This poses
challenge to the management in order to identify the cost benefit analysis of CSR.
Rothenhoefer (2019) states that CSR policies have led to positive impact on the
organizations performance and have helped in the fulfilment of the dual objectives of the
business which is profit maximization and the customer satisfaction. The financial performance
of the company is maximized in terms of generating revenue for the business and capturing
larger market share. On the other hand by incorporating policies that are for the welfare of the
society and their sustainability, it boosts the confidence and morale of the various stakeholders
and strikes to maintain their loyalty with the company. Against the opinion Ashraf and et.al.
(2017) specifies that too much focus over the CSR activities shall lead to the clashes in the
objectives of the company as it shall lead to increase in the costs and decrease in the productivity
or profitability of the company. Another objective of maximizing the wealth of the shareholders
shall also not be fulfilled with the decreasing profits of the company. Kaur (2018) assesses that
the major impact is felt over the branding and marketing of the products and services which
helps in overall development of the company. The brand awareness and a positive word of mouth
shall be the major contributor to the promotions of the company.
PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
Research type
The research can be of two types one is the qualitative which considers the experience
and ideas and the other is quantitative which involves the numerical facts and data. In the current
study the researcher shall be using the qualitative research type to analyse the impact of CSR
practices on the organizational performance.
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Research approach
In order to assess the impact of CSR policies on the performance of the company
inductive approach shall be used by the management. The inductive approach shall build
generalizations regarding the research problem and assist in p[roving the hypothesis. Apart from
that it shall be beneficial because since the scholar is conducting qualitative type of research, this
approach is appropriate.
Research philosophy
There are two types of research philosophies that are majorly used in conducting the
investigation one is the interpretivism and the other is positivism. The scholar shall be using
interpretivism research philosophy for evaluating the impact of CSR. It shall help effectual study
on the basis of logical reasoning and interpretations as derived from the study.
Data collection
The data can be collected either from the primary or the secondary source in order to
conduct the study by the scholar. The primary data is collected for the first time whereas the
secondary data already exists in the form of books, journals and published articles (Mohajan,
2018). For undertaking the current investigation the scholar shall use both the primary and the
secondary source of data. The primary data shall be collected by survey method through
questionnaire sent to 30 employees of Hilton.
Sampling
From the survey population a relevant sample shall be collected which possesses all the
characteristics of the population. The sample can be collected by using two techniques one is the
probabilistic and the other is non-probabilistic. Scholar uses the probabilistic sampling technique
and collects the sample using the random sampling method. The responses as gathered from the
sample population shall be used to derive the required outcome of the study.
Data analysis
The data gathered from the respondents is analysed by using two techniques one is the
thematic perception test technique and the other is the statistical packages of social sciences. The
prior is used to evaluate the qualitative data in the form of experiences, opinions and ideas of the
respondents. SPSS shall be used to derive conclusions from the numerical data. In the current
study the researcher shall be using thematic perception test technique for analysing the influence
of CSR.
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Reliability and validity
To ensure the reliability and validity of the data the researcher shall be ensuring that the
references that are used belong to the recent years and are accurate as per the topic of study. It is
also to be ensured that the secondary sources that are used by the scholar are all from the
copyright protected sources which can be reliable.
Research limitations
There are some research limitations that are attached with the current study are which are
to be regulated by the scholar so that effectiveness of the research is not hampered in the process
(Ngozwana, 2018). The limitation in respect of time, money and scarcity of the resources has to
be dealt with by coordinating the operations within available time frame.
Ethical considerations
The ethical considerations of the study shall be maintained by getting the consent forms
signed by the respondents on the prior hand specifying that their willing participation is included
in the research. Apart from that references are quoted at the end to justify that none of the matter
shall be copied from the past researches.
PROPOSED ANALYSIS
Questionnaire
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Q.1 Since how long are you working in Hilton?
a) Below 5 years
b) 5-10 years
c) Above 10 years
Q.2 Does your company perform its corporate social responsibility?
a) Yes
b) No
Q.3 What practices are conducted under CSR?
a) Ethical code of conduct
b) Legal compliance
c) Environmental protection
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d) All of the above
Q.4 Does your company publish a sustainability report?
a) Yes
b) No
Q.5 What is the significance of CSR in Hilton?
a) Fosters employee engagement
b) Developing competitive advantage
c) Brand image
Q.6 Corporate social responsibility has an impact on organizational performance.
a) Strongly agree
b) Agree
c) Neutral
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q.7 What impact does CSR have on an organization?
a) Boosts financial performance
b) Generates brand awareness
c) Builds stakeholder satisfaction
Q.8 Recommend effectual strategies to boost CSR practices of Hilton.
By conducting the secondary research we can find out that nowadays CSR is the major
concern of the businesses to boost their profitability and long term growth prospects. It has been
analysed that the customers prefer to buy the product and services from the company which is
engaged in sustainable development, providing eco-friendly services and maintains a code of
conduct in performing their operations. In order to attract larger customer groups towards the
company it has to strive to perform its social welfare and responsibilities with utmost care which
shall enhance the overall performance of the organization.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarized from the above proposal that the data gathered from the various
respondents is analysed by applying tools and techniques and deriving findings from it. On the
basis of these findings the hypothesis is proved. In the current study the researcher evaluates the
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positive impact of CSR on the organizational performance and ultimately maximizing the
satisfaction level of all the stakeholders of the company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abbas, J., 2020. Impact of total quality management on corporate green performance through the
mediating role of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Cleaner Production. 242.
p.118458.
Ahmed, M. and et.al., 2020. Impact of CSR and environmental triggers on employee green
behavior: The mediating effect of employee well‐being. Corporate Social Responsibility
and Environmental Management. 27(5). pp.2225-2239.
Ashraf, S. and et.al., 2017. Impact of CSR on customer loyalty: putting customer trust, customer
identification, customer satisfaction and customer commitment into equation-a study on
the banking sector of Pakistan. International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current
Research. 5(5). pp.1362-1372.
Franco, S. and et.al., 2020. Are you good enough? CSR, quality management and corporate
financial performance in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality
Management. 88. p.102395.
Islam, T. and et.al., 2018. Employees' response to CSR: Role of organizational identification and
organizational trust. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences. 12(1). pp.153-
166.
Kaur, S., 2018. A study on the impact of CSR performance on the financial performance of
Indian service sector. International Journal of Business Competition and Growth. 6(2).
pp.115-127.
Mohajan, H. K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People. 7(1). pp.23-48.
Ngozwana, N., 2018. Ethical Dilemmas in Qualitative Research Methodology: Researcher's
Reflections. International Journal of Educational Methodology. 4(1). pp.19-28.
Resmi, S. I., Begum, N. N. and Hassan, M. M., 2018. Impact of CSR on firm’s financial
performance: a study on some selected agribusiness industries of Bangladesh. American
Journal of Economics, Finance and Management. 4(3). pp.74-85.
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Rothenhoefer, L. M., 2019. The impact of CSR on corporate reputation perceptions of the public
—A configurational multi‐time, multi‐source perspective. Business Ethics: A European
Review. 28(2). pp.141-155.
Waples, C. J. and Brachle, B. J., 2020. Recruiting millennials: Exploring the impact of CSR
involvement and pay signaling on organizational attractiveness. Corporate Social
Responsibility and Environmental Management. 27(2). pp.870-880.
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