Introduction Integration Between Corporate and Social Responsibilities

Corporates internationalize for a variety of reasons. In general, the main reason for internationalizing is because for a corporate or company to expand its market and to have an opportunity to be diverse by growing its operations globally. Moreover, companies internationalize for growing its revenue, opportunities for investment, recruiting new talent, and for reducing the costs of its sales. Considering the current situation of today’s global economy, every company, even it's small or large, is trying to establish its operations on the global level by internationalizing, which gives the company great potential advantages.

In this context, when corporates internationalize, the social responsibilities of an organization, which has become increasing important in this day and age, should also be observed. Having an effective corporate social responsibility strategy is a crucial part for the company and it benefits the company itself, by developing successful relationships with the customers and employees, which results in the financial success of the company’s business. Corporate social responsibility can be the best way to create beneficial relationships with the customers. It can affect the buying decision of the customer and make them loyal to the corporate brand which will result in having a long-term relationship with the customer, and hence, provide financial success.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a standard practice in the modern business world. Companies now give CSR strategies more value because they know the importance of it in increasing the overall company’s reputation (Financier Worldwide, 2015). The consumers of the current generation are more aware of the economic, environmental and political issues. So, to keep them involve and engaged with the corporate brand, there is not a better effective way than becoming socially responsible with them (Nafi, 2018).

 In such corporates, the concept of corporate accountability which is the act of being accountable of the stakeholders plays a fundamental role. However, the integration between corporate social responsibility and corporate accountability is often referred to as a difficult process. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the various practices that are involved in the process of this integration and whether this integration is as difficult as some refer to.

Critical discussion of the statement

    When corporates or organization internationalize, the stakeholders become doubtful and suspicious of the services, products, and business practices. Understanding the practices associated with the process of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate accountability will ensure that the organization is effectively being responsible in the environment and social benefit. The following few of the best practices will provide help to the organizations in terms of sustainability for the relationships with different stakeholders:

§  Examine the environment and seize opportunities: When a company internationalizes, it, beforehand, has to assess the environment of the landscape and then make a CSR strategy according to the environment of the dynamic terrain. Then the company further find opportunities from the strategic aspects of the environment and try to seize them by having dialogues with the stakeholders of the company.            

§  Equipping technology tools:  Stakeholders of the organization have to gain knowledge about the use of technology tools and try to leverage them in their work life. With the substantial use of social media in this current time, stakeholders have to use this platform for communication purposes and should purposefully indulge in having dialogues on such platforms.

§  CSR communication strategy: This communication strategy allows organizations to effectively and articulately spread their messages to the audience. This is a basic type if the strategy that includes statistics, news, facts, and articles.

§  Listening to and communicating with CSR stakeholders: Communication with the stakeholders will prove to be an effective for the organization to evaluate information that will help in learning about certain opportunities and misconceptions that exist in the environment. But before communicating with stakeholders, it is more suitable that the organization first listens and observe the various trends that are happening. This will help in forming specific questions for the stakeholders.

§  Planning a schedule: Creating a calendar for communicating with the different groups of stakeholders would prove to be an effective way of communicating the various types of problems with the stakeholders. This would create awareness and engagement between the stakeholders. The routine may include daily, weekly, or monthly activities for communication.

§  Rewarding the CSR community: When the CSR community starts to emerge as a source, organizations may give rewards to the members of the community such as giving them incentives or featuring them on their blogs or social media channels, so that they may feel encouraged and may also compete in voluntarily work as well.

§  Maintaining CSR practices: During the assessment, organizations should evaluate the best practices that are found to be the most effective and try to stick with them throughout the CSR strategy program. Organizations can use social media monitoring in this context, and asses the success of the CSR community which will determine the best practices.

Following and implementing these practices will ensure the organization success in reaching its strategic goals when internationalizing its business. However, there are examples of large corporate companies who don’t strictly follow such of these practices which result in the failure of the company. When internationalizing, the major focus of such organizations is to earn a profit for the organisation itself while not considering and observing the use of CSR practices and violating the corporate social responsibilities.

In this context, the example of a corporate factory in Dhaka in Bangladesh, Rana Plaza, which collapsed due to structural failure of the building, and which resulted in killing at least 800 workers of the factory (Husock, 2013). The factory also had poor working conditions for the labor working in it. The company even refused to compensate for the casualties that were caused. If the corporate social responsibilities were justified, the story of this dismal incident would never have happened.

Coca Cola, which is a multi-national company, also faced corporate social responsibilities issues. When setting up its bottling plant in Kerala, India, Coca Cola didn’t assess the environment of the place well enough which resulted in the decrease of the water level in that place and people of that area had traveled far distances in order to get clean water. Coca Cola refused to acknowledge this fact and continued using the plant. It was later found that the company has shut down its bottling plant in the region (indiaresource, 2014). This means that for such cases, companies should itself responsible and use strict CSR policies to avert these types of tragedies.

Another example is of Nike which is also another large corporate company, was accused of using child labor and sweatshop in the later years of the 19^th century. Nike had to suffer a short-term financial blow and had to take many steps to gain its reputation such as releasing the name and locations of its factories and changing the elements of the shoe manufactures. Nike then transformed itself and adopted a stricter CSR policy and the company remains optimistic and focused on achieving its goals for sustainability (Newell, 2015).

Conclusion on Integration Between Corporate and Social Responsibilities

The essay showed the reason why corporates or organizations internationalize to expand its global market and operations. The essay also tried to show the importance of using CSR policies in an organization, especially in the current age and time. Furthermore, one of the main purposes of this study was to critically discuss the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate accountability.

The essay tried the discuss the few of the various practices that are involved in the process of integration between corporate social responsibility and corporate accountability. The practices showed that organizations or corporates should develop a CSR strategy program that includes the assessment of the environment and that gives importance and value to the stakeholders. As stakeholders are an essential part of the organization for achieving its goals and eventually a success, organizations should try to build a beneficial relationship with them.

In the essay, it is evident that corporate social responsibility (CSR) must become a part of the company to do business. Those corporates or organizations that do not follow and implement strict CSR policies face eventual failure in their business which was proven using examples from multiple multi-national corporates. So, it is clear that following CSR practice would give a corporate a successful outcome and would also be beneficial to the stakeholders.

References of Integration Between Corporate and Social Responsibilities

Financier Worldwide. (2015). The importance of corporate social responsibility. Retrieved 2018, from https://www.financierworldwide.com/the-importance-of-corporate-social-responsibility#.XJo775gzbIU

Husock, H. (2013). The Bangladesh Disaster And Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardhusock/2013/05/02/the-bangladesh-fire-and-corporate-social-responsibility/#4bee74c869ec

indiaresource. (2014). Study Debunks Coca-Cola’s CSR Claims in India . Retrieved 2019, from http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2014/1012.html

Nafi, J. (2018). Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Present. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.transparenthands.org/importance-of-corporate-social-responsibility-csr-in-the-present/

Newell, A. (2015). How Nike Embraced CSR and Went From Villain to Hero. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2015/how-nike-embraced-csr-and-went-villain-hero/57726