An Analysis of Business Ethics and CSR at Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL), examining its business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. It defines business ethics and outlines the ethical principles followed by HUL, including standards of conduct, employee treatment, co...Read More

Running head: HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.
Executive summary
Ethics has been an integral part of success for any organization be it small or a multi-national.
In the same way, when an organization involves in CSR activities, it results in adapting more
flexibility of performance and also helps the organization to pay back something. This report
insights about the multi-national organization that is Hindustan Unilever Ltd. and also
discusses about the ethics and the CSR activities the organization is involved in and how
these have contributed to the success of the organization.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
BUSINESS ETHICS OF HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:....................................................3
DEFINITION:........................................................................................................................3
ETHICS FOLLOWED BY HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:............................................4
CSR ACTIVITIES BY HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:......................................................4
DEFINITION:........................................................................................................................4
CSR ACTIVITIES BY HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:..................................................5
EVALUATION OF ETHICS:....................................................................................................6
EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES:...................................................................................7
ETHICAL ISSUES IN HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:.......................................................8
DECISION MAKING MODEL:...........................................................................................9
STAKE HOLDERS THEORY:.............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES:........................................................................................................................10

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INTRODUCTION
HUL popularly known as Hindustan Unilever Ltd.is a marketing leader in India.
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. is a British-Dutch organization that is head quartered in
Mumbai, India. In market, there are more than 100 brands that the organization has produced
serving both domestic and international markets. HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. was
founded in the year 1933 by Lever Brothers and was earlier known as Lever Brothers India
Ltd. The organization has a very good hold on the FMCG that is Fast Moving Consumer
Goods in the market and has a very deep assortments of products. There are four major
segments that the organization deals with which includes products such as home care,
personal care, foods and refreshments. HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. believes at
conducting their operations with honesty, openness and integrity (Hindustan Unilever
Limited, 2020). The networking of the organization is very strong and it has also announced
its partnership with internet.org in order to understand the situation of how internet can be
used even in remote areas which would help the company to acquire more customers.
This report discusses about the business ethics and the several CSR activities that the
company have been doing for the welfare of the society and then analyzing the ethics and
issues related to ethics based on the ethical principles.
BUSINESS ETHICS OF HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:
DEFINITION:
The appropriate implementation of the rules and regulations as well as the policies is
referred as business ethics. It can also be defined as a system that has a set of moral principles
and rules that is conducted and applied to a business (Crane et al. 2019). Business ethics also
helps in building a base or a foundation for ethical behavior in organization. This also helps
in improving the confidence of the customers who are dependent on the price and quality of

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the product. Besides, ethics plays an important role in protecting the interest of the employees
and also the stakeholders.
ETHICS FOLLOWED BY HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:
There are certain principles that the company follows and these includes:
1. STANDARD OF CONDUCT: The organization believes in conducting the operations
with outmost honesty, openness and integrity and also believes in respecting the
human rights of the employees working there.
2. EMPLOYEES: The Company is dedicated in providing a better work environment to
its employees which believes in promoting diversity across ad opportunities that are
equal to every being.
3. CONSUMERS: The organization provides products that are value for money in terms
of both price and quality and that is safe when an intended use is made.
4. INNOVATION: The innovative step taken by this company is to work on the basis of
sound science that will help in applying the standards of the product and services
safely.
5. COMPETITION: The organization is involved and believes in a competition that is
fair which also helps in developing the competition laws that are fair.
6. BUSINESS INTEGRITY: The company do not offers or receive bribes for the sake of
financial as well as business growth. There must be a proper description of the
documents that are supporting and accounting the nature of the transactions
underlying.

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CSR ACTIVITIES BY HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:
DEFINITION:
CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility is a model that is self-regulatory in
nature which helps the organization to be accountable socially to the company itself, the
stakeholders of the organization and the public associated with the organization. CSR
activities help the employees to empower and leverage the resources present at the corporates
and do something for the nature as well (Ramesh et al. 2019).
CSR ACTIVITIES BY HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:
There are many CSR activities initiated by the company and the main foundation of
this CSR activity is the Hindustan Unilever Vitality Foundation. The areas where these CSR
activities revolves includes Community Welfare, Disaster Relief, Education, Healthcare,
Environment, Rural Development and many more (Hindustan Unilever Limited, 2020).
Some of the CSR activities by HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. are listed below:
1. WATER CONSERVATION AND HARVESTING: The main objective of this
CSR activity is to reduce the consumption of water while making operations in the
organization in order to generate the water table of the sub-soil through 5R principle
and consequently help the villages that are adjacently present and helping them to
implement the models for development of watershed.
2. SHAKTI- CHANGING THE LIVES IN RURAL INDIA: This CSR activity is a
rural-initiative that s taken by the organization whose main aim is to target small
villages of India which has a population of less than 20000. The objective of this
program is to empower the underprivileged education related to health and hygiene by
sharing vital and valuable information using the portal of Shakti Community.

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3. EDUCATION OF HEALTH AND HYGIENE: This initiative started in the year
2002 and was about washing hands before doing anything to maintain he hygiene and
health of an individual.
4. EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN: The initiative is taken by one of the
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. product named Fair & Lovely which aims at
providing economic empowerment of women across India. The major area which is
covered under this initiative is the area of education, development of career and
enterprises.
5. SPECIAL EDUCATION: The initiative of Happy Homes which is for the special
children was taken by HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. and it aims at solving the
problems of education and rehabilitation of these special children.
EVALUATION OF ETHICS:
The company focuses on the social issues prevailing and have had a strong corporate
governance which has formed a strong foundation for the organization and have also helped
in maintaining the high standards of the behavior of the corporate with whom the
organization has worked with. The organization feels that there is a legacy to maintain and
the organization has always lived up to the expectation that the customers has on the
organization.
When the principles of business comes in to an account, it can be observed that there
are a total of thirteen principles about the organization and they include three major things
namely the integrity of the business, roles and responsibilities of the employees, the
consumers of the organization and most importantly the environment and the surrounding.
The organization’s success is in compliance with the principles that are essential for the
business, the employees and the consumers as well. HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. has a

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policy that is named as whistleblower policy and the objective of this is to allow the
employees to draw attention of the employees and the partners if any unethical behavior is
seen or observed very promptly and directly as well. Others issues are also concerned which
includes irregularity in the business practices of the company or any kind of fraud that is
suspected.
The organization has a very transparent management system which helps the
company to communicate with their employees directly that would help in an effective
implementation of the policies that is dealing with the complaints of the consumer.
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. has always helped and encouraged its employees in doing
what is right without any fear and threat from the outsiders or higher authorities of being
victimize by them. They may have any concern and can confront anyone according to the
issues faced by the employees.
EVALUATION OF CSR ACTIVITIES:
CSR activities have always had a positive and great impact on the organizations. It
has helped the organization to incorporate profits for the organization and also do something
for the society and the environment. These activities have helped the organization to follow
and carry out their value system of the organization. In FMCG companies the major focus or
stress is given on the development of socio-economic developments and challenges faced by
the company (Shah, R., 2016). The practices that are internal they are socially responsible for
dealing with the employees of the organization in terms of managing resources and the usage
of those resources in production. In the same way, when the company goes beyond and
involves a large number of stakeholders that represents local communities as well is termed
as external corporate social responsibility.

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When CSR is implemented it is observed that there are many impacts on the
productivity of the organization as well (Szczanowicz, and Saniuk 2014). It has a major role
to play in the economic growth of any country as it is associated and engaged with activities
that generate a positive impact and benefit for the organization and the society as well. It is
important that there is a development of an environment that is sustainable and this could
only be done when big firms like HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. will take initiatives and
show their pro-activeness with effective customer ad consumer attitude, decision and
purchases as these will help the organization to build a demand in the market for the goods
and services sold by the company.
The CSR activity of the company has helped in increasing the brand value of the
company and an awareness with values that are strong (Huang, Cheng and Chen 2017). This
has also helped in increasing the brand equity of HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. It has also
been observe that when an organization involves in some CSR activities that is done for the
benefit of the society, it has helped the employees to engage more with the job they are
doing. This has also fostered values like empathy and loyalty of the employees.
ETHICAL ISSUES IN HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.:
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. has also been in controversies for many times.
There were issues related to collective bargaining and refusal in engaging with the unions
from the worker’s side.
There were also allegations made on wrong termination of some of the employees,
distribution of wages that were not adequate and also regarding the alleged cold shoulder
towards the union was found.

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However, it is always seen that HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. has respected all its
members and the rights of the employees whether to join or not a trade union that is legal and
which represent collective interests of the employees.
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. has always worked within the framework of the
local law and it also measures to address the representative unions for the discussion purpose.
They have made settlements that are mutually accepted by both the employees and the
organization as well as the unions.
DECISION MAKING MODEL:
To make the decisions fast and effective HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. has
incorporated a program called ‘connected for growth’, this has made the organization take
decision that is faster and also to make a swift innovation and high speed in the market that is
responsible for driving the performance of the organization (Huang, Fildes and Soopramanien
2014).
STAKE HOLDERS THEORY:
The company has designed its page in such a way that all the stakeholders of the
company can be at ne place and then make a strategic planning by communicating with the
help of multiple channel. This has also led in the partnership that are more strong and
powerful and that also helps in improving the service of the organization (Miles 2017).
Thus, when the two things are taken in account it is observed and is also clear that for
the business to be successful it is very important that the organization follows the ethics that
are ethical and accordingly induce more ethical power of the product during its lifecycle.

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CONCLUSION
Thus, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the ethics are very important
in a society and all the organizations must understand ad follow these ethics in order to have
an ethical behavior in the organization. When an organization has strong base for the ethics of
the organization, it is seen that there are certain things that are responsible for enhancement
of ethical behavior in the organization.
Similarly, CSR is the strategy of giving or paying something back to the environment
and the society. This has helped the organization to build a strong bond between the
employees and the organization by making them feel more comfortable and connected with
the society and the environment where they are in.
REFERENCES:
Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S. and Spence, L., 2019. Business ethics: Managing corporate
citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press, USA.
Hindustan Unilever Limited website. 2020. HUL. [online] Available at:
<https://www.hul.co.in/> [Accessed 20 March 2020].
Huang, T., Fildes, R. and Soopramanien, D., 2014. The value of competitive information in
forecasting FMCG retail product sales and the variable selection problem. European Journal
of Operational Research, 237(2), pp.738-748.
Miles, S., 2017. Stakeholder theory classification: A theoretical and empirical evaluation of
definitions. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(3), pp.437-459.
Ramesh, K., Saha, R., Goswami, S. and Dahiya, R., 2019. Consumer's response to CSR
activities: Mediating role of brand image and brand attitude. Corporate Social Responsibility
and Environmental Management, 26(2), pp.377-387.

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Shah, R., 2016. An Evaluation of Socio-Economic Development through Partnership of
Micro-Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility. Available at SSRN 2735439.
Szczanowicz, J. and Saniuk, S., 2014. Implementation of CSR concept in manufacturing
SMEs. Management, 18(1), pp.71-82.