Sainsbury's CSR Strategies: Implementation, Benefits, and Challenges

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Foundations of Business
Communication
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Executive Summary
Corporate social responsibility is vital for the sustainable business of the organisation. In order
to develop these CSR approaches the organisation need to conduct various practices for
achieving the main objective of the firm. This assignment contains the various strategies, which
can help the CSR approach for the successful implementation in the organisation. This
assignment consists of two parts, wherein the first part the researcher will discuss the
development of the CSR approaches and in the second part the researcher will reflect the
learning from the classroom training program about the varied range of employability skills.
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Table of Contents
Part -1............................................................................................................................................4
Introduction....................................................................................................................................4
Reference List................................................................................................................................9
Part – 2........................................................................................................................................10
Reference List..............................................................................................................................16
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Part -1
Introduction
The report covers the various aspects associated with developing the concept of CSR and its
varied range of activities and services being implemented within the business operations going
on within the organisation of Sainsbury’s industry that is associated with the retail sector. The
benefits associated with CSR and sustainability practices are included in the report. The
examples of practices associated with CSR concept of Sainsbury’s are included and
implemented in a perfect way by devising the specific steps and measures. CSR is one of the
concepts that have been established as one of the standard practices of modern times.
Sainsbury’s is a retail sector organisation that tends to abide by the regulations and policies to
implement CSR activities within the organisational sector. This helps to develop the appropriate
social services that cater to the needs and requirements of society.
Discussion and Analysis
CSR and Sustainability
In order to keep pace with a socially conscious environment, the different activities and services
of the organisations are framed in such a manner so that the objectives and goals of the
Company are met perfectly by adhering to the specific steps and measures. According to
Hopkins (2016), Sainsbury’s organisation belonging to the retail sector develops the specific
strategies that help them to establish the different aspects of CSR and sustainability is beneficial
and advantageous for maintaining the proper brand image within the organisational sphere.
According to Levitt (2016), the benefits and challenges of implementing the concept of CSR also
exist within the organisational sphere and the different instances of practices related to CSR
within the Sainsbury’s organisation are covered. The features of sustainability are included
aligned with the practices of the concepts of CSR are discussed.
According to Gardetti and Girón (2017), the practices related to integrating the concept of CSR
within Sainsbury’s will be developed in accordance with the strategies laid down by the
management of Sainsbury’s Company within the organisational circuit. Sainsbury’s exist in a
competitive market and sector within the UK market where other market competitors such as
Tesco, Marks and Spencer exist to carry out their operations successfully. So, in order to
enhance the customer base, most of the Companies are on the lookout to become a bit different
to execute the activities in a successful manner within the circle of the organisations. According
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to Jansen (2017), CSR is a newer category of practising modern business activities and
services as the organisations develop steps and measures to provide the consummate and
substantial services within the organisational sphere to numerous stakeholders associated with
the organisation.
CSR tends to incorporate the aspects and goals of sustainable development that has an impact
on developing the business tasks and activities related to accomplishing the job at hand. The
targets and goals of the organisation are achieved in a systematic way to get through the phase.
Sustainable features and elements are included within the manufacture of the different products
and services to help in the provision of smooth operations and functioning of the activities.
In the implementation process of CSR, transformational leadership plays an important role in
this process. It is a supportive tool in the development of strategies and for enabling
accomplishments. It helps in enhancing the development of the CSR approaches as it is based
on the interest of the communities. According to (), leadership must be transformational in order
to transform its dimensions according to the situation in the organisation. At the time when
companies lack in the proper implementation of the corporate social responsibility strategies,
transformational leadership can be approached in the organisation.
Benefits and challenges of implementing CSR
There exist various benefits and challenges of implementing CSR concept and the different
activities and services that provide the impetus to the employees working within the organisation
to achieve its objectives and goals easily. The CSR concept enhanced and it took into account
the varied steps that would allow the organisation to bring about breakthroughs in developing
the specific steps and phases that are relevant to be followed within the organisational sphere.
The Americans believed that the CSR activities and services tend to develop a socially
conscious image for Sainsbury’s organisation to safely help them to fight against the social
stigma to enhance their brand image within the organisational circuit. A considerable sum of
money is utilized behind conducting the research study in a perfect and specific manner within
the organisational sphere to achieve the objectives and aims.
According to Cavise (2019), Sainsbury’s will not stick to the policies associated with the
participation of the companies in ensuring that the corporate social responsibilities of the
Sainsbury’s company are celebrated well. The advantages of getting into other markets tend to
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adhere to the specific rules and norms related to the market. The image of the brand and the
development of customer loyalty among the millions of customers present in the market provide
the organisation a quality footing to step up their activities. CSR activities tend to help in
developing greater activity and services. The challenge posed to the implementation of CSR
within the organisation tends to be CSR higher economic demand of higher cost being invested.
The financial difficulty is the most challenging thing for Sainsbury’s organisation to implement
the CSR activities within the organisation.
Examples of such practices of Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s get involved in a varied range of CSR activities and services that are provided to
society by adhering to the different strategies and policies being laid down by the management
of the company. The CSR practices of Sainsbury’s are as follows:
1) Sainsbury’s belongs to the retail sector and tends to develop a varied range of food and retail
products that cater to the numerous needs and requirements of the customers availing the
facilities of the organisation.
2) The values imbibed in accordance with the organisational culture provide the much-needed
impetus to the employees within the organisational sphere to develop the activities going on
within the organisation.
3) Sainsbury’s adopts certain specific practices aligned with the concept of CSR to help in
executing the operational activities and tasks within the organisational sphere. The farmers are
being empowered by the organisation with the help of adopting relevant and beneficial
practices.
4) Sainsbury’s devises the stages that help in tackling the problems of deforestation that occurs
within the organisational sphere to help in implementing the operational tasks and activities in a
proper and systematic manner by adhering to the laws and legislations of the Company. The
Company indulges in CSR activity of planting more and more trees in the surroundings to
establish the greenery within the surroundings by adopting the strategies and policies.
5) Sainsbury’s belonging to the retail sector tends to integrate the special strategies within the
market that would help in employing the disabled individuals within their organisational circuit to
ensure the smooth functioning of the different actions and services being completed within the
organisational sphere.
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6) The retail organisation would frame the necessary strategies and steps that would help in
providing support to the different communities that exist within the society to help in executing
the different tasks in an appropriate way. The CSR policies and activities are also followed
strictly by adhering to the numerous guidelines and norms that would ensure the smooth
functioning of the variety of actions and tasks going on within the organisational sphere.
7) Sainsbury’s involves in various practices that would ensure that the environmental
surroundings are protected with the help of specified strategies being implemented within the
organisation. The green marketing techniques will be followed and the carbon element will be
minimized to enhance efficiency. The Company also reduces the food wastes and tends to
reduce, recycle and reuse the elements and materials that are utilized within the organisational
sphere to develop the different activities within the organisational sphere.
Sainsbury thus established the practices that are relevant to be developed within the
organisational circuit by involving the variety of tasks and services that are utilized in a
systematic manner and with efficacy to help in the smooth functioning of the operations of the
organisation. The goals and aims of Sainsbury’s are fulfilled in accordance with the practices
and the concept of Corporate Social responsibility. The decision making made by the
management of the organisation tends to adhere to the specific policies and actions that have
their relevance within the organisational circuit to derive the varied range of benefits and
disadvantages within the organisational circle.
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Conclusions and Recommendations
As the report ended, it was found out that the CSR practices aligned with the concept tens to
devise the strategies and policies that are effectively followed within the organisation of
Sainsbury’s to reap the benefits. The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility and the
sustainability features have their importance and are essential to be followed by the
organisations in the market to enable them to maintain a good rapport with their stakeholders in
the social sphere by adopting the rules and norms. The various benefits and challenges of the
Corporate Social responsibility practices and activities of Sainsbury’s are developed and
integrated within the organisational circuit to help the Company to achieve the goals and targets
of the Company. CSR activities and tasks tend to help Sainsbury’s to frame the desired
strategies that are relevant to be implemented in the organisational circle.
Different practices of Sainsbury’s are involved that helps in developing the CSR actions of
relevance that have their impact upon devising the business actions within the organisations to
enable the accomplishment of the tasks perfectly. Corporate Social responsibility actions need
to be followed by the organisations to help in integrating the organisational culture and
operational management approaches.
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Reference List
Bràs, F.A., Sanz, G.C., Hernandez-Maskivker, G., Nadal, J.O., Pinheiro, M.L., Rodrigues, A.L.,
de Sousa, A.R.S. and Starr-Glass, D., 2018. Micro MBA: Theory and Practice. Walter de
Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Cavise, H.A., 2019. Strategies for Managing Employee Self-Expression in the Workplace.
Gardetti, M.Á. and Girón, M.E. eds., 2017. Sustainable Luxury and Social Entrepreneurship
Volume II: More Stories from the Pioneers. Routledge.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Hopkins, M., 2016. The planetary bargain: corporate social responsibility comes of age.
Springer.
Jansen, S.C., 2017. Stealth communications: The spectacular rise of public relations. John
Wiley & Sons.
Levitt, T., 2016. Partners for good: business, government and the third sector. Routledge.
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Part – 2
Reflective Report
Introduction
In this section of my assignment, I have summarised my reflection on the learning which I
received from the course which I am pursuing. This reflection contains my reflection on the
employability skills which I have endowed. I have pen downed all the learning which I have
learnt between week 7 to week 12. I have also tailored the skills with different theories which I
have learnt in the training period (Collet et al., 2015). These employability skills include
communication skills, numeracy skills, problem-solving skills, ICT skills, Teamwork skills, Time
management skills and research skills. There are different theories which I have mentioned that
helped me in bettering my skills.
Reflection
At the time of my training period, I encountered that there are different employability skills, which
I need to learn in order to achieve good growth in my career. These employability skills will help
me in enhancing my overall performance and aid in getting a good hike in the future.
Employability skills have an important role play in the organisation as it helps the employer to
judge the right candidate for their job (Suleman, 2016). In between these weeks I have learnt a
lot about the importance of the skills in the employment career.
Communication skills- At the time of my training period, I have endowed the communication
skills as I have excelled in both the verbal as well as the written skills. Communication skills
have a strong significance in the organisation as it helps the organisation in maintaining the
organisation culture and to operate effectively (Asonitou, 2015). It also helps in passing the
important and relevant information from the authorities to the employees. I have acquired better
communication skills through the learning of the week – 8, where the eminent professors taught
me about reading by evaluating multiple sources.
I have also learnt in the week – 11 about writing descriptions, and through the help of
presentations that I had made during the lectures, I was able to successfully grab the main
essence of communication skills. I also learnt about these skills a lot from the classroom
discussion. I have developed these skills with the learning of my training period and this will
eventually help me in building a strong career in any organisation. With the help of Kolb’s model
I learnt a lot in preparing this reflective journal. I concentrated on the skills which were being
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taught to me and it helped me in learning this skill more effectively. (JOURNAL – week -8 and
11)
Problem-solving skills – During my classroom training, I found that problem-solving skills are
also a valued skill in organisations by employers. Problem-solving skills help the employees in
solving the problems that happen in the organisation and enhances the decision-making
process. Employers always look for the employees with good problem-solving skills in order to
solve the conflicts in the organisation and help the other employees to work effectively in the
organisation (García Peñalvo, 2015.). My classroom training contributed a lot of knowledge in
order to help me in absorbing this skill. During the week – 7, the professors taught me about the
practices to manage the people and solve their problems by providing them with appropriate
answers.
In this week I have also learnt about the various thinking hats which can help in solving the
problems in the organisation. There are 6 hats of thinking such as the white hat, black hat, red
hat, green hat, blue hat and yellow hat (De Bono, 2017). All these hats help in the thinking
process differently. The white hat helps in gathering appropriate information to answer the
questions if the employees in the organisation, the black hat help in critically judging the people
on the basis of criticism and their assessment in taking risks. The red hat helps in understanding
the feelings and taking the decision, whereas the green hat helps in creating new ideas in order
to achieve the main objective of the organisation. The yellow hat helps in extracting the benefits
which the employees can get from the conduction of any work and lastly the blue hat resembles
the whole thought process. With the help of this learning, I can actually analyse where to put
these hats in order to solve the problems in the organisation. This skill is considered as one of
the most valued skills in the organisation as it is helpful for the organisation in many aspects.
(JOURNAL – week – 7)
Teamwork skills – I have also found that teamwork skills have an important place in
employability skills. In order to achieve this skill, I concentrated on the classroom training by
following Kolb’s model of learning. During my learning in the week –7, I have endowed team-
building approaches where I learnt about working in teams. I used the Belbin’s and Tuckman’s
theories to build this skill in order to achieve the main objectives of the organisation. Team
working skills are valued by the employers as this skill has its importance in the workplace
where all the employees need to work in teams. With the help of proper team working skills I will
be able to work better within the team and be more productive for the organisation (Brown and
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