Evaluating the Seriousness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

This essay explores the extent to which corporations take Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) seriously, examining its role in brand image, stakeholder engagement, and societal impact. It discusses CSR's core components—knowledge, well-being, and environment—and their implementation through various corporate activities. The essay provides examples of CSR initiatives by companies like Tesco, Marks and Spencer, and Ernst & Young, highlighting both UK and international efforts. It concludes that CSR is an essential part of a company's operations, influencing its growth, reputation, and sustainability, and is increasingly mandated for businesses worldwide. Desklib provides access to this and many other solved assignments contributed by students.

Essay on the extent to
which corporations take
Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR)
Seriously.

Table of Contents
INTRODCTION...................................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................8

INTRODCTION
CSR is a framework which depicts a businesses commitment and accountability for
contributing in the community from several social and environmental measures. This plays an
important role in company's brand image, for attracting the customers, employees and all other
stakeholders who are involve in the business for the success. This is adopted by the company to
possess a positive impact on the society. It includes the respect of the employees, giving back to the
society, promotes equality and diversity at the firm or an organisation, poverty eradication,
corruption, sustainable development and also assures that the decision-making in businesses are
ethical. The corporate social responsibility is essential for both society as well as company, it can be
small or mid size company also(Barnett, Henriquesand Husted, 2020).This activity can perform
either by involving the internal employees or by hiring an other party to conduct this activity. The
corporate social responsibility is operated world wide including UK and other international areas.
This essay includes the entire learning about the Corporate Social Responsibility, how it is adopted
by the company, the impact of CSR on environment and society, framework of CSR, their theories
and many more.
MAIN BODY
In today's era the company is judged by the activity it performs and how it effect the society,
through the different perspective of employees, customers and stakeholders which are involved ion
the businesses. The CSR is basically creating a share value for the society. This is a relation of give
and take it means when the company takes anything from the society and community, they have to
return it in any form. Such as when a paper manufacturing industry cut down the trees for making a
paper then in return company also do a campaign of tree plantation. The corporate social
responsibility is a process in which the company compounded the environment and social concern
in their business and interact with the company's stakeholder's. The CSR is to render the social,
economical and environmental services to the society. This activity is done for the sake of company
and society to remain sustainable. It has focused on three major areas that is knowledge, well being
and environment. This three components are also based on the principles of CSR that change
modification, diversity, innovative and leadership which affects the stakeholders like society,
government organisation, investors, employee's and customers. This components are implemented
in different scenario's at different situation(Rhou and Singal, 2020).
The first component is knowledge in which the company raise awareness
about the waste education programmes which includes the 3R's. This is used to spread the
knowledge about waste. This can be done through education and innovation. Education includes the

training session on the separation of waste products and recycling process of PET. This activity is
mainly conducted in the schools or universities. It helps to create the partnership with the
universities and schools and promotes the opportunities of learning. And the innovation considers
the new product which can be used as a sustainability of company, it involves the internal and
external collaboration which helps to cater the needs of society. The second component is well
being. In this element the company provides the facility of health and community care centres.
Basically it emphasis on the prime life and strengthening the society. This considers the quality of
life, health and wealth of all stakeholder's(Obara and Peattie, 2018). The quality of life leads to the
enhancement in the standard of living of community which can be done through conducting the
seminars and training programmes. The Health includes the contribution in community for the
health prevent and for declining the risk of health issues in community. A Wealth is used to create a
values which focuses on earning the profit for the family and society. The third and last component
is environment which helps to protect and conserve the environment for the sustainability of earth.
The main aim is to protect the natural resources through the collaboration with partner's around the
globe. An environmental factor includes the recycling and the development of ecological. The
recycling process is used to provide the deep knowledge about waste management and sorting as a
result to reduce the amount of waste(Elmaghrabi, 2021) Whereas the ecological development is
used to manage the sustainability of environment in order to secure an economic growth for long
term. This all component are used by companies in their CSR activity to raise the awareness among
the society to give them knowledge about this.
By adopting the corporate social responsibility in the corporate sector it
provides several benefit to the company. The CSR helps to build and protect the image of
company and increases the brand value or brand reputation. This also helps in the competition
advantage and intensify the culture of a corporate sector or organisation. The activities perform by
the companies attract the customers, investors and also offers an opportunity for education and
innovation which helps the business to grow. It also determines the transparency and credibility in
the corporate sector and and for the long term sustainability of organisation. It supports to raise the
productivity of employees and cut down the risk of strikes, boycotts and cost of risk management.
This activity impacts the society in several ways like installation of solar panels in villages,
eradicate the unethical practices of labour such as child labour and thrall. The companies used to
conduct various events in areas where they can promote about their organisation and which can
provide benefit to the society(Nyame-Asiamah and Ghulam, 2019). For example: free distribution
of sanitary pads in villages and small towns to women's, tree plantation campaign, construction of
wash-room in villages and giving them knowledge about hygiene. The firm used to perform various
activities for educating girl child and also giving fund to the non governmental organisation and in

charity. An organisation donate their some amount of profit for the society and government which
helps the society to grow. This helps the firm to make their brand image, increase loyalty and gain
the trust of employees, improving the relation with stakeholders and pull in the investors to invest in
their company(Hamed, Al-Shattarat, Al-Shattarat, and et. al, 2022).
The CSR activity is accessed everywhere in the world. This activity has been
followed by the UK companies and as well as international companies too. For example : the UK
based Tesco company initiated the corporate social responsibility in 2001. the activity has been
performed by the executives, they conduct a meeting in which they have discussion regarding the
CSR activities. The activities performed by the company is environmental responsibility in which
they analyse the activity done by the company which harms the environment and as a part of CSR
activity they restricted the activities which harms the environment. In 1996, the company has also
started a campaign on awareness about energy consumption. The company reduced their energy
consumption by 35% per square foot. The company donated its 1% of Profit Before Tax in charity
of UK and Britain. The initiatives made by Tesco for UK as well as for other countries too, that is
they started to raise the fund, charity and to promotes the education. And to promote the company,
assures that the healthy and fresh food is available at reasonable charges across the world(Dunn and
Harness,2019).
The other example is about the marks and spencer company. In 2004, the company
started a CSR activity “ ready for work”. This campaign was started to offer the knowledge of
business management to the people who desire to start up a business. The main aim of this activity
is to improve the well being of the society and to protect or conserve the environment. Moreover,
they started to target the youth, unemployed and disabled persons and make them learn about the
entrepreneur skills. They also construct the medical centre and hospitals, schools and provide
scholarship to the merit holders. This activity has positive impact on domestics as well as
international market as they raise their brand image and enhance the individual socially,
economically and politically due to which the people have the capability to start and expand their
business across the world. The company can open their outlet in the international countries and can
send their well trained employees to the outlet to manage it(Esoimeme, 2020).
An another example is of the Ernst and Young, a UK based company. They
deal in the audit firm worldwide. They have a strategy about the CSR, the main emphasis is on the
development of society and for the better future of the youth and upcoming generation. Along with
this they inspire to build a better future and career. The company has launched a various
programmes with aim to inspire the youth and rising the community to live their dreams. The
programmes such as EEP ( education partnership programme) in this they approach to the students
of various schools to motivate them and to support or promote their enhancement. The other

programme is EY career's experience in which they improve the networking learning and grab a
opportunity of career to understand about the profession. They also started the school governor's
network, an objective of this is to provide the personal development skill and reducing the stage
fear through conducting various sessions I which they share their ideas and experiences. This
activity also has the international impact in which they help their employees, student and other
stakeholders to attain their goals(Bhatia and Makkar,2020)
Corporate social responsibility plays a major role in the endeavour of organisation in
a community. From the various business activity it maximize the benefit for the society. The major
this activities are mostly done by the developing or developed country's. The under developed
countries or poor town or city are not engaged in this activity. This programme allows the
government and private sector to upgrade the system of community and society in the developing
countries. By expanding the CSR activities into different countries or international areas, the
company can expand their business and generate more revenue also. The CSR activity in the
international countries provide benefit to the company. The company can grow and earn the
maximum profit(Buendía-Martínez and Carrasco Monteagudo,2020).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the essay that the corporate social responsibility is the essential part of
the company and it is mandatory to do this activity. The company is required to adopt this and it
plays an important role in the growth of the company. It involves various activities which affects the
society, employees, consumers and all stakeholders which are involved in the organisation. CSR is
based on the 3 key areas that is knowledge, well being and environment. Along with this they have
principles also. It helps the firm to improve the brand image, attracting customers and investors,
employees and many more. With their CSR ability the company is judged and analysed by the
stakeholders. In this essay the whole knowledge is given about corporate social responsibility with
the examples and how the companies implement this in their organisation.

REFERENCES
Barnett, M.L., Henriques, I. and Husted, B.W., 2020. Beyond good intentions: Designing CSR
initiatives for greater social impact. Journal of Management, 46(6), pp.937-964.
Rhou, Y. and Singal, M., 2020. A review of the business case for CSR in the hospitality
industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 84, p.102330.
Elmaghrabi, M.E., 2021. CSR committee attributes and CSR performance: UK evidence. Corporate
Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 21(5), pp.892-919.
Nyame-Asiamah, F. and Ghulam, S., 2019. The relationship between CSR activity and sales growth
in the UK retailing sector. Social Responsibility Journal.
Dunn, K. and Harness, D., 2019. Whose voice is heard? The influence of user-generated versus
company-generated content on consumer scepticism towards CSR. Journal of
marketing management, 35(9-10), pp.886-915.
Esoimeme, E.E., 2020. Using the risk-based approach to curb modern slavery in the supply chain:
The Anglo American and Marks and Spencer example. Journal of Financial Crime.
Bhatia, A. and Makkar, B., 2020. Stage of development of a country and CSR disclosure–the latent
driving forces. International Journal of Law and Management, 62(5), pp.467-493.
Buendía-Martínez, I. and Carrasco Monteagudo, I., 2020. The role of CSR on social
entrepreneurship: An international analysis. Sustainability, 12(17), p.6976.
Hamed, R.S., Al-Shattarat, B.K., Al-Shattarat, W.K. and Hussainey, K., 2022. The impact of
introducing new regulations on the quality of CSR reporting: Evidence from the
UK. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 46, p.100444.
Obara, L.J. and Peattie, K., 2018. Bridging the great divide? Making sense of the human rights-CSR
relationship in UK multinational companies. Journal of World Business, 53(6), pp.781-
793.