Study Skills for Higher Education: CSR and Literature Review Report

This report delves into the significance of literature reviews and corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the context of higher education. It begins by defining literature reviews, outlining their purpose, and emphasizing their importance in academic research, covering various review types such as argumentative, integrative, historical, methodological, and systematic reviews. The report then explores CSR, defining it as a company's commitment to sustainable growth for all stakeholders, and discusses its benefits, including enhanced brand awareness and employee loyalty. A key focus is on gender equality in the workplace, analyzing how CSR initiatives, such as fair pay, flexible working hours, and training programs, can empower women and contribute to sustainable business performance. The report draws on examples from various companies, highlighting the positive impacts of CSR on both the company and society. The conclusion emphasizes the value of literature reviews in research and the role of CSR in enhancing a company's brand image and motivating employees.

Study Skill For Higher
Education-2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Meaning of literature review with its purpose and importance of LR in academic work? 1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
2. Literature review “Corporate Social Responsibility”.........................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Corporate social responsibility plays an essential role in the success of an organisation as
it increased brand awareness in the market resulting in better profitability in future (Hart, 2018).
CSR refers to an approach used by companies to make their contribution in enhancing
sustainable economic, social and environmental growth for every stakeholder. Apart from this,
literature review is a technique used by researcher to find out existing information on a specific
topic by reading it. In this report, importance of LR and various purpose of doing it will be
explained. Along with this relationships between CSR and equality at workplace will also
discussed with functional examples of company.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
1. Meaning of literature review with its purpose and importance of LR in academic work?
Literature reviews refers to review of paper, articles, magazines, book etc that used by the
researcher to find out specific information on particular topic. It happens to be the secondary
source of collection method while researching and studying about specific problem. Secondary
source refers to those information and data which are collected by some other researcher and
stored on internet, scholarly paper, books and journals etc. Main role of LR in the research paper
is to find out important and then analyse and reshuffle it according to the research problem
researcher is having. It helps in providing various solutions to the problem which is explained
below,
 It provides new interpretation to the old information which could be helping in
modifying present interpretation for the topic.
 All the debates which already has in the past will also notifying with the aim of avoiding
obstacles which researcher is faced due to specific perceptions. It gives wide variety of
view on the similar topic which shows new path to the result.
 It assist in finding research gaps which was not identified by the past researcher so that
more knowledge would be add in the specific topic.
There are different ways of reading the literature reviews as there are many types of it which is
given below,
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 Argumentative Review: This is a form of approach in which researcher provides
information which are against the past research or giving deep assumption related to
philosophy so that it would be contradicted. Its main aim is to find out various problems
which have never been opened up by any other researcher in this field (Machi and
McEvoy, 2016)
 Integrative Review: It is a type of approach in which all the past literature on the
specific topic is reviews and critique with the hope of finding any new perspectives and
framework on the topic. Hypothesis is used in this approach to review the information.
 Historical Review: This approach states that any topic arise in the present comes from
the past through various evolution of it. All the information will be researched from the
time is first come in the market then various new concepts and framework comes from
the efforts of many researchers. Aim of this type of research is to find out historical
connection of the topic and what will be the future of it accordingly.
 Methodological Review: This LR approach states that it is not important to find out what
someone says for the topic but the essential part is to find out how the researcher has
present the paper in the market. This will assist researcher to identify the information on
various level through like which theory is used, what type of research collection methods
has been used by the researcher, which tool is used for analysing the data etc. It assists in
finding the flaws of the past research and many ethical issues they have faced and ways
through which every flaw would be avoided in the present.
 Systematic Review: It is a type of literature reviews that uses methods to collect the data
and analyse it through finding qualitative and quantitative data on it. Research questions
which made on the topic could be broad or narrow in nature. After it past information
will be search according to the questions so that it can support the authenticity and
credibility of it. It is one of the cheapest and fastest ways of doing the research.
Purpose of Literature Review
 Place all the work according to their contribution with the aim of finding the problem
which would be faced by the researcher in future.
 Link all the past information with the current scenario so that more knowledge would be
gained by the reader.
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To find out gap between the past researcher and which needs to be filled so that topic would be
understand deeply (Booth, Sutton and Papaioannou, 2016)
 Place the current research with the existing literature so that all the information collected
would be useful by doing recommendations.
TASK 2
2. Literature review “Corporate Social Responsibility”
According to James Chen, CSR refers to an approach used by company to become
socially accountable for all their stakeholders so that they can grow in a sustainably way. Main
aim of this CSR is to create a positive impact on the society so that betterment of society would
be attained by them. There are many ways through which CSR could be done by the companies
like organising CSR programs for their stakeholders, doing donation and charities to the needy
people so that their standard of living would be enhanced to a certain level, by providing gender
equality at the workplace so that motivation of all the employees would increased (Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR), 2018). There are many benefits of CSR activities like it increases
brand awareness in the market which could help them to enhance their sales and profitability in
the future. It also enhances employee’s loyalty as employees are motivated and interested in
work with those companies which are doing their part in the society to make it sustainable and
free from any kind of obstacles. Along with this, it also avoid any legal issues which company
could be imposed from. For instance, it is mandatory for companies to not discriminate
employees on the basis of gender, religion, creed, caste etc.
According to the author Suzanne Lucas, gender equality refers to when all the employees
at the workplace comprising of males and females, would easily take the benefits of resources
available and provided by the company regardless differentiate on the basis of sex. This is a
simpler way of motivating the women as they are facing backlash in many industries on the basis
of gender due to which their potential by working is affecting in a negative way. For instance, if
women and men pay scale is similar at the workplace then it won’t affect the efficiency of males
but on the other side, it will motivate the females to work even harder due to higher salary
offered by the company. It will end up at enhancing productivity and efficiency while working
(How to ensure gender equality at the workplace, 2019). To continue this there are various ways
through which equality at the workplace would be attained like salary should be provided
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according to the work done by the employee rather than on the basis of gender. For instance, if
any female worker is doing their part professionally and hardly as compare to their male
counterpart then female should get higher salary as compare to them. Other way is flexibility of
working hours, female has lots of work to do as they have to handle the office then the home etc.
So company should provide perks like work from home so that working timing won’t affect their
potential in a negative way. Training is an important way of teaching employees as it is a way of
inculcating skills and capabilities within the worker so that they can perform their assigned work
in a more productive way (Crowther and Seifi, 2018)
.
According to Laura and et.al., most of the companies are trying to make opportunities for
women around the world so that they can also show their capabilities to the world. For instance,
in the financial services, companies are donation high amount of money with the dedication of
providing knowledge to the women and girls through training, scholarships etc. Apart from this,
companies are also assisting them to open their business by giving funding option to them so that
they can carry their business smoothly and more productively. Their aim is to make the female
independent so that they can also consider as a male in the workplace. For instance, companies
like GAP INC, PACE is providing training to the female who are working in the garments
industry through 9 set of modules. With this, women employees knowledge, skills, capabilities,
competencies would increase in the future which is positive sign for overall development of
company (How CSR Can Advance Gender Equity, 2019)
According to Parminder Kaur, there is only positivity of empower women through hiring
more female workers according to their skills and capabilities as it assist company to attain
sustainable business performance. There are many reasons due to which company are now doing
there CSR activities through recruiting women like,
 It provides new perception and energy at the workplace due to which motivation level at
the workplaces enhances.
 It helps in creating sustainable societies in which equal opportunities is given to both the
gender.
 By recruiting female workers in the workplace, companies are doing their work towards
society by adopting changes. As consumers and other stakeholders watches every step
taken by the company towards enhancement of society.
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 It enhances standard of living of women and girls as they are now dependent on the males
to earn for them.
For instance, Johnson and Johnson company provides opportunities to every department in their
offices like they constantly focus on the gender diversity as company thinks that it assist them to
maintain their sustainable business performance in the market (Corporate Social Responsibility
and Gender in Workplace, 2018).
According to the viewpoint of author Marissa Wesely, in the past many companies thinks
that donating some amount of profits towards the betterment of society and environment is
comes under the CSR activities. But as the time is changing, so does the companies. Now their
focus is shifting towards the betterment of female as society is made up with the combination of
male and female and both plays a same role in the society. Companies are doing many ways
through which women empowerment would be achieved like giving training to them related to
their specific work so that they can also perform with the same potential as male. According to
the report published by McKinsey & Co, increase in number of women in the senior
management position is directly proportionate to improve in the financial conditions of the
company (Tai and Chuang, 2014). They have conduct a research in which company found out
that there are 15% higher chances of getting the better result in the financial context as compare
to the media of the industry (Gender Equity and Corporate Sustainability, 2019)
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CONCLUSION
As from the above mentioned information, it can be concluded that literature review is an
important part while doing research as it makes the researcher more credible and informational in
nature. Techniques which would opt by the researcher should be according to their budget and
time as there are many techniques which take lots of time as compare to other tools. Apart from
this, CSR activities help company to increase their brand image in the mind of customers through
increasing awareness of it. Along with this, it also motivates the employees to work harder
towards their company with the aim of attaining pre set mission and vision of an organisation
within set deadlines.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Machi, L. A. and McEvoy, B. T., 2016. The literature review: Six steps to success. Corwin Press.
Booth, A., Sutton, A. and Papaioannou, D., 2016. Systematic approaches to a successful
literature review. Sage.
Crowther, D. and Seifi, S. eds., 2018. Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald
Group Publishing.
Tai, F.M. and Chuang, S. H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness. 6(03). p.117.
Online
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp
How to ensure gender equality at the workplace. 2019. [Online]. Available Through: <
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/create-workplace-gender-equality-4134484>
How CSR Can Advance Gender Equity. 2019. [Online]. Available Through: <
https://www.fsg.org/blog/how-csr-can-advance-gender-equity>
Corporate Social Responsibility and Gender in Workplace. 2018. [Online]. Available Through: <
http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v2%2811%29/Version-3/H021103036040.pdf>
Gender Equity and Corporate Sustainability. 2019. [Online]. Available Through: <
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/gender_equity_and_corporate_sustainability#>
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