Social Responsibility of Business: Report on CSR and Ethics

This report analyzes the social responsibility of businesses, focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) like Brightstar Financial Limited. It explores the role of social media in CSR, the importance of global sustainable development, and the ethical considerations of whistle-blowing and workplace ethics. The report examines the links between CSR and sustainable development, highlighting the financial and non-financial benefits for SMEs. It also addresses the challenges of implementing global sustainability and discusses effective world methods for CSR, including philanthropic, community, and shared value approaches. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of ethical conduct, transparency, and the overall positive impact of CSR on businesses and society. The report is available on Desklib, a platform providing study resources.

Social Responsibility of Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Social media and CSR.................................................................................................................3
CSR and Global Sustainable Development.................................................................................4
Whistle-blowing and workplace ethics........................................................................................5
Can we have effective world methods to CSR ?..........................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Social responsibility refers to the framework that whether an entity or an individual is
having duty to act for the advantage of community at large. It is the responsibility of every
individual to conduct in which they are required to maintain an equilibrium between ecosystem
and economy (Unit, Star and SmartWay, 2015). The Report is based on Brightstar Financial
Limited. It is a small business located in UK. It was founded in year 2010. Firm is specialists in
non-traditional and traditional lending solutions, offering residential mortgages etc. The Report
will outline CSR and social media, whistle blowing and workplace ethics etc.
MAIN BODY
Social media and CSR
Explain CSR and social media ?
Social media-
It is defined as the ways of interaction among individuals in which they share, develop
and exchange ideas and information in networks and virtual communities. Example – Facebooks,
Instagram, Twitter, YouTube etc. It helps firms like Brightstar Financial Limited to reach large
mass of people regionally, internationally and nationally.
Corporate Social Responsibility-
The term corporate social responsibility means how firms manage business processes to
develop complete positive impact on the community. It includes social ethics and impact,
sustainability and done correctly should be regarding core business. It is very important for
Brightstar Financial Limited because it helps firm to improve its reputation and corporate image
(Lins, Servaes and Tamayo, 2017).
Value and impact of social media in SME.
Social media is very important for the businesses that are operating at small and medium
scale. Social networks has become one of the most powerful tool for small businesses. It helps
Brightstar Financial Limited to improve reputation and brand experience on consistent basis.
Social media is an important tool for growth of SME. It offers an opportunity to attain visibility
through important message to position the firm in the minds of clients and attaining
differentiation from different range of competitors. Further, it promotes improvement in brand
that creates positive impact on sales of business. Moreover, Brightstar Financial Limited also
face major problem in deciding what it wants to achieve by the way of marketing through social

media like Facebook, Instagram etc. Owner of small firm should have clarity regarding how to
handle negative reviews of people regarding business (Tuten and Solomon, 2017).
Difficulties of social media in SME.
There are various difficulties that small and medium size business faces in relation with
social media. One of the major challenge for Brightstar Financial Limited is to decide which
social media platform it should use to promote the products or services. The owner faces
problem in deciding that on which social network target customers spend majority of time. It is
important for firm to familiarize itself with demographics of every social network. Further, time
is a challenge for small business owner (Biermann, Kanie and Kim, 2017). Marketing ends up at
bottom of the list of major activities. Owner of the business have to perform other tasks also like
making payment to employee's etc. One of the solution for this problem is that employer should
set aside time on consistent basis for marketing activities.
CSR and Global Sustainable Development
Explain Global Sustainable Development.
The term global sustainable development is described as the principle of organizing to
meet out goals related with human development while at the same time maintaining the ability of
natural system to offer ecosystem services and natural resources on the basis of which the
community and economy is dependent.
The aim of sustainable development is to satisfy the requirements of today's needs
without compromising to the future needs. It means that individuals and business cannot
continue using existing level of natural resources as this will not leave enough resources for
upcoming future generation. SME like Brightstar Financial Limited may attain sustainable
development by promoting gender equality, ensuring environmental sustainability etc (Henik,
2015).
Link between Global Sustainable Development and CSR.
Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development are directly linked with each
other. Both the concepts have majorly affects corporate governance in 21st century. To attain
complete congruence in the areas of responsibility, business should operate its functions with
complete honesty and fairness with suppliers and customers. Firm may also motivate workers to
recycle and reuse materials and resources whenever possible to reduce the waste and cost.

The concept of sustainable development should be incorporated into the investment and
business operations of Brightstar Financial Limited by taking into consideration its impact on
clients as well as on suppliers.
Value of Global Sustainable Development for SME.
Sustainable development is very important for small and medium-sized businesses. It
offers various advantages in terms of financial and non financial benefits. Financial advantage is
generally most important factor that drives sustainable development by SME's. Brightstar
Financial Limited develop various sustainable programmes that helps business to save funds
through reduction in waste consumption, reduction in energy that helps to save cost for the firm
(Ferrell, 2016.). Further, initiatives for sustainable development also helps small business to
minimize the cost of recruiting candidates because individuals prefer to work for the firms that
do the right things. It helps to retain and attract skilled workers that helps to improve
productivity.
Challenges of Global Sustainable Development to SME.
Even with a heightened commitment to growth and development at global level, small
and medium-sized companies are facing multiple barriers that involves limited access to funds,
lack of knowledge and capacity mainly regarding development of business and insufficient
strategic management skills.
Further, small and medium scale businesses like Brightstar Financial Limited requires
financial help to attain the standards of global sustainability, and they face major challenge in
joining global value chains. SME's have very few chances of getting financial help from large
corporations to which they offer goods or services or to other partners that are involved in supply
chain management for investing funds in better environmental and social standards (Henik,
2015).
Whistle-blowing and workplace ethics
What is whistle-blowing ?
The term whistle-blowing is described as the way of attracting the attention of public or
an authority to perceived unethical activity within public, misconduct within private, public or
third sector firms. Whistle-blowers generally faces reprisals from the organization who may
suffer the damage to the reputation as a result of whistle being blown or from other people
working in the business may have been involved into illicit activities. In certain situations,

reprisals become so terrible that they get converted into persecution. In some circumstances,
reprisals originates from legal sources mainly if the whistle has been blown for illegal causes.
What is workplace ethics ?
The term workplace ethics is described as the moral rules and principles that acts as a
guide for the actions of the individual working in the business. Standards for ethics may differ
from one industry to another industry as well as from one position to another within the sector.
Ethics at the workplace are very important because it assists business to ensure positive working
environment in the organization (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). Further, it also leads to satisfied
and happy employee's who enjoy working in the firm rather than treating as only a source of
burden. It also helps management to develop a feeling of attachment and loyalty among workers
towards the company.
The way in which whistle-blowing affects workplace ethics ?
Whistle-blowers come forward in public when something unethical is happening in the
business after they do not receive the reply which is acceptable internally when they
communicate the concern. Whistle-blowers may lead to break down of trust. If, trust breakdown
in between management and employee's of firm like Brightstar Financial Limited in that case, it
creates negative impact on working relationship among employee's (Ayoun, Rowe and Yassine,
2015).
Firms also have the responsibility towards the public to take action on whistle-blowing
intelligence, and they are also accountable towards various government bodies and agencies.
Conflicts of whistle-blowing in workplace.
As per various studies, employee's working at lower level tend to be more empathetic as
compared with top management. Manager of businesses like Brightstar Financial Limited may
feel that the act of whistle-blowing interrupts the hierarchy of power in the firm and lower level
workers should not reveal the decisions of upper management. The workers may abstain from
whistle-blowing in the way to avoid conflicts with top management. Another cause behind
refrain of employee's from whistle-blowing is due to potential disapproval of co-workers.
Can we have effective world methods to CSR ?
The approaches to corporate social responsibility.
There are three major approaches to corporate social responsibility. These are as follows -
Philanthropic approach :

It is the method of contribution of firm towards a reason that offers direct advantage for
the cause and also assist the core objectives of the firm. An effective designed program of
strategic philanthropy links the requirements of both the firm and the charitable cause.
Community approach :
It is one of the most popular perception of corporate social responsibility that involves
programs, supporting firm and events in local communities that can have long term positive
impact.
Developing shared value approach :
It means the strategy of creating future market while improving marketplace and
communities.
Importance of CSR world methods and impact on SME.
Philanthropic method is one of the important approach that will help Brightstar Financial
Limited to create a win-win situation for everyone. This is the fastest way to develop an alliance
and improve engagement among various stakeholders. Further, the method of creating shared
value approach motivates organization to strategically invest in social welfare, environment
conservation, healthcare and education that creates opportunities for long term growth of
company (Menzel, 2019). Moreover, community approach helps Brightstar Financial Limited to
resolve environmental and social problems. This approach is adopted by the business by
considering the interest of the society by taking responsibility of the impact of activities on
society including employee's, customers etc.
Difficulties in worlds approaches to CSR.
One of the limitation is that philanthropy is developed through pure donations of funds
that can make difficult for the business to actually modify what it wants to change. Decisions in
respect of cost and time not only impact the length of project but also impact any marketing that
goes along with it. Other difficulties in world approaches to CSR is the neglecting of major
stakeholders of business, lack of transparency etc (Henik, 2015).
CONCLUSION
The above Report has outlined the meaning of CSR as a means of the way firm manage
business processes to promote complete positive impact on the community. Social media plays
an important role for SME's as it helps to bring an improvement in brand image that helps to
increase sales of business. The Report has explained that to achieve overall congruence in the

areas of responsibility, firm should operate its functions with complete honesty and fairness with
suppliers and customers. Major barriers faced by firm in relation with global sustainabile
development are limited access to funds, lack of knowledge and capacity etc.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals -
Assembly, G., 2015. sustainable Development goals. SDGs), Transforming our world: the, 2030.
Ayoun, B., Rowe, L. and Yassine, F., 2015. Is workplace spirituality associated with business
ethics?. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(5). pp.938-957.
Biermann, F., Kanie, N. and Kim, R.E., 2017. Global governance by goal-setting: the novel
approach of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Current Opinion in Environmental
Sustainability. 26. pp.26-31.
Ferrell, O.C., 2016. A framework for understanding organizational ethics. In Business ethics:
New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders (pp. 15-29). Routledge.
Henik, E., 2015. Understanding whistle-blowing: a set-theoretic approach. Journal of Business
Research. 68(2). pp.442-450.
Lins, K.V., Servaes, H. and Tamayo, A., 2017. Social capital, trust, and firm performance: The
value of corporate social responsibility during the financial crisis. The Journal of Finance.
72(4). pp.1785-1824.
Menzel, D.C., 2019. Ethics Management in Public Organizations: What, Why, and How?. In
Handbook of administrative ethics (pp. 381-392). Routledge.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.
Unit, B., Star, E. and SmartWay, E.P.A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility.