An Analysis of Microsoft's Management Theory and CSR Practices

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Microsoft's management theory and practices, with a specific focus on its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. It explores how Microsoft integrates ethical, legal, ethical, and philanthropic CSR into its business model. The report highlights Microsoft's commitment to sustainability, employee engagement, and its contributions to society. It examines the company's strategies, including product differentiation and mergers and acquisitions, and discusses its financial performance, including revenue and gross margin figures. The report also explores Microsoft's approach to transformative leadership and its role in fostering innovation and business opportunities. Furthermore, the report references various sources to support its findings, providing a comprehensive overview of Microsoft's CSR and management strategies.

Running head: MANAGEMENT THEORY AND PRACTICE
Management theory and practice
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1MANAGEMENT THEORY AND PRACTISE
At Microsoft, every policy and ethics are reflections of the organisation’s commitment
for making the world a digital and better place. The reflection enthusiast the employees of
Microsoft to work hard and their hard work are reflected in the company’s all over expansion in
the present world. Microsoft has taken the responsibility to provide the world the top services
and their responsibility addresses the economic and social issues in the present world (Hoi, Wu
& Zhang, 2013). The principle aim of Microsoft is to earn the trust of more customers with
proper decision-making and empower organisations and individuals. The responsibility of
Microsoft extends to safeguard the future of the planet (Microsoft.com. (2017). The company
focuses on achieving the long lasting impact of their product on the planet. This company
highlights the importance of technology for creating a world of digitalization. Dedication is the
main key that the company utilizes to bring more uniqueness in the relationship with their
customers.
The citizenship mission of Microsoft largely observes the whole activities of the
corporate social responsibility of Microsoft, which is ‘to serve globally the needs of
communities and fulfil the responsibility towards the public’. Microsoft owner Bill Gates has
also founded many foundations that also serve the perception of common people quite largely.
Among all the employees 90 % of them are eligible for getting incentives, more than 99% of
them has under gone the training of standard of business conduct in the year of 2016, almost
11700 employees have already enrolled them in the process of employee feedback and have
already provided feedback using the same (Epstein & Buhovac, 2014). Among the large number
of employees working in Microsoft, 92% in a survey displayed their proud feeling for being an
employee of Microsoft and 87% recommended Microsoft for having the most effective
workplace. In the year of 2016, Microsoft formally committed to human rights as participant of

2MANAGEMENT THEORY AND PRACTISE
United Nations global compact (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). The business strategy of the
company can be named as product differentiation and this is because the company is used to
developing of the products that are technologically advanced and then selling the same for
specific costs. The present strategy of the company is to increase their expansion through
mergers and acquisitions and even by increasing the business opportunities. However, the
weaknesses of the company are weak internet browser, less innovation and dependency on
hardware for manufacturing their products. In the past year, the company has generated 86USD
billion for revenue and 53 billion for gross margin and the rest of 21 billion for income operation
(Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). Microsoft is marked for having the second largest certified privacy
professionals compared to the other companies. Microsoft has specific employees who take care
of the breaches of the company policy and other employees to look after maintaining the
sustainability in the company. The company maintains their commitment of advancement by
evaluating the supplier operation of 23 ethical risks as well as social and environmental.
Microsoft pursues a belief that technology leads the world towards achieving a sustainable future
by empowering more people and organisation. The company uses technology in order to
minimize the environmental impact. The company has taken responsibility to initiate ways that
will help them establish a sustainable future for the world (Magdani, 2016). Sustainability is a
major concern of the company and this is because the company wants to have a sustainable
future. For these they have started funding for the sustainable development. The initiative of
power of data and analytics that the company uses installs insight among the customers and
empowers them for achieving sustainability is transportation, water system and others. The
investment of Microsoft helps the customers for managing the resources with big data power
(Berg & Sheehan, 2014). The company is engaged in a large competitive industry that has many

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fluctuations within the market technologies and even among the strategies used by the
companies. The company generates constant revenue from the every existing products in the
market and Microsoft has kept their commitment by ensuring that they spend a huge amount of
capital on market research as well as initializing development of the market. Microsoft is among
the leading organizations in terms of the CSR activities which has contributed much to the
society and it has done great work in the anguish stricken regions all around the world largely
(Tai & Chuang, 2014). However, to turn itself into a responsible corporate citizen and contribute
largely to the society it is essential for the organization to maintain their sustainability in the
market by enhancing and continuing their initiatives. Microsoft has marked them as an
organization that has been able to generate many business opportunities for other companies in
the market across the globe (Janssen, Sen & Bhattacharya, 2015).
Microsoft is fully committed towards environmentally sustainable practices for their
businesses. Microsoft is an organization who has considered the usage of the corporate social
responsibility as an integral aspect of the business model of the organization. There are mainly
four types of corporate social responsibility and they are economic CSR, legal CSR, ethical CSR
and philanthropic CSR (Tai & Chuang, 2014). Most of the countries in the world are using a
single bottom where the primary purpose of the organization is fulfilling the goals and objectives
of the organization set by the stakeholders. However, recently large numbers of companies are
using a double bottom line and triple bottom line to incorporate the corporate social
responsibility in to the business model of the organization. Microsoft is one of the leading
organizations in the CSR activities who has contributed a lot to the society and has done great
works in the grief stricken regions all around the world. However, in order to become a
responsible corporate citizen and contribute to the society it is essential for the organization to

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maintain their sustainability in the market. Thus, economic CSR is one of the major factors,
which will help the organization in maintaining the sustainability of the organizations in the
market (Suliman, Al-Khatib & Thomas, 2016).
Microsoft has made use of the innovation in the business model and products, which has
helped them to generate more revenue in the fiscal year of 2016. The management of the
organization has two-way communication with Bill Gates as the charismatic leader who has been
able to transform the organization (Saeidi et al., 2015). The organization is following a
transformative leadership pattern where the employees are encouraged to share their opinions
and use innovation to make the technology even better. Microsoft is such an organization who
has been able to generate business opportunities for other companies in the market. The
organization provides their employees with a lot of benefits and flexibility, which helps to create
a motivated diverse workforce (Boulouta & Pitelis, 2014). The organization considers the
workforce as the one of the important aspect of the organization as the workforce of an
organization can increase the productivity of the organization and at the same time will help in
gaining competitive advantage in the market. Microsoft is the major contributors in all the
natural disasters the world has faced and has aided the people with all their resources, which
show that how strong the organizations sustainability is. The company has started the
commercial cloud, which has generated a lot of revenue for the company, and Office 365 is one
of the biggest success for the organization as it has hit 23.1 million subscribers in the market.
The revenue of the Microsoft azure also grew by 113% and the use of the SQL database has
simultaneously increased to a different level (Microsoft.com., 2017). The company was able to
acquire the company named LinkedIn in June 2016 at a price of $26.2 billion (Microsoft.com.,
2017). The company is involved in a highly competitive industry where there are lot of

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fluctuations in the market technologies and the strategies used by the companies. The company is
generating constant revenue from the all the products in the market and Microsoft has made sure
that they spent a lot of capital on research and development of the market. This helps them to
come up with new technologies, which provides them with competitive advantage in the market.
Thus, it can said that even though contributing back to the society is the responsibility of all
organizations but one thing that has to be taken in to account maintain the economic condition of
the company should be the primary goal of every organization in the market.
Hence, it can be concluded that, the economic CSR of Microsoft is still expanding and
for maintaining sustainability, it is very important to enhance the corporate social responsibility
activities of CSR and that will help in keeping the commitment of the company regarding a
sustainable future. As sustainability is a major concern of Microsoft, the company has largely
played a role in practising of ways that will lead to sustainable future for the world. Microsoftas
an organization considers that workforce is one of the important aspect required for every
organization as mainly the workforce of any organization is able to help in increasing the
productivity of the organization and at the same time help in gaining and increasing the
competitive advantage in the market. Microsoft is one of the major contributors for all the natural
disasters the world faces and has been aiding the people with all their required resources, which
is a strong example of how strong and powerful the sustainability of Microsoft is and how they
manage it.

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References:
Berg, K. T., & Sheehan, K. B. (2014). 7 Social Media as a CSR Communication
Channel. Ethical practice of social media in public relations, 99.
Boulouta, I., & Pitelis, C. N. (2014). Who needs CSR? The impact of corporate social
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Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder
management. Nelson Education.
Epstein, M. J., & Buhovac, A. R. (2014). A new day for sustainability: is your company ready to
take on increased responsibility for its activities throughout the globe?. Strategic
Finance, 96(1), 25-34.
Hoi, C. K., Wu, Q., & Zhang, H. (2013). Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) associated with
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Janssen, C., Sen, S., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2015). Corporate crises in the age of corporate social
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Magdani, N. (2016). Design for deconstruction: director of sustainability, BAM Construct UK,
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Microsoft.com. (2017). Microsoft 2016 Annual Report. Microsoft.com. Retrieved 17 September
2017, from https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar16/index.html

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Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate
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