There was a time when the business world did not know about the concept of corporate social responsibility. They all worked to achieve their goals, objectives, revenues, and profits, but no one thought about society. It was the era of the 1950s when this concept gained momentum when Mr. William J. Bowen came up with more insights on this concept in his book. He explained the businessmen regarding their corporate social responsibility, which they owe to society. It was first time focused by the business world that they should look at the values and needs of a society, rather than just looking to earn profits. It means that a business corporation has a lot of responsibility on its shoulders. They have to take care of the interests of their stakeholders, but at the same time, they also have to take care of society by paying back to society. This is how a business organization can achieve long term sustainability without facing any issues. Moreover, it is important for organizations to be more responsible and ethical as it is their obligation to society because they are able to earn revenues and profits due to people, so they should return something back to people (Carroll, 1999).

Task 1
Essay on Corporate Social Responsibility of Corporate Social Responsibilities & Sustainability and Issues in Supply Chain Management

Before moving into a more deep discussion of corporate social responsibility, it is vital to look at some of its definitions and concepts. Different sources have tried to define it differently than the others, but the overall meaning has remained the same for each definition. In simple terms, the concept of corporate social responsibility means companies adopting a variety of practices so that they can follow the essence of sustainable development. It means that such organizations are responsible when it comes to making various business decisions, and they are involved in those practices, which are important to make a positive and beneficial impact on people and society. European Union has tried to define CSR for the businesses to have a proper framework, and this definition is stated as “The voluntary integration of companies’ social and ecological concerns into their business activities and their relationships with their stakeholders. Being socially responsible means not only fully satisfying the applicable legal obligations but also going beyond and investing ‘more’ in human capital, the environment, and stakeholder relations.” An official CSR definition has been provided by ISO 2600, which states that “The responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment, resulting in ethical behavior and transparency which contributes to sustainable development, including the health and well-being of society; takes into account the expectations of stakeholders; complies with current laws and is consistent with international standards of behavior; and is integrated throughout the organization and implemented in its relations.” (Youmatter, 2020)

Professional institutions are instructed to show a dynamic behavior related to social environment, which involves both economic, as well as, cultural aspects. The parameters of connectivity processes, as well as, development of IT based applications have enabled a lot of contemporary institutions to dive into new connections with the involved shareholders of the environment. It is a fact that the involvement of both the initiation, as well as, strengthening for a beneficial connection among society and business have made it clear that challenges are not only with the company overall, but more specifically challenges are related to their code of conduct. That’s why; corporate social responsibility (CSR) is getting more attention and popularity both in the context of theoreticians, as well as, practitioners of operation. In addition, it is observed that the consumers’ behavior also shows a great variation with regards to CSR. At the current time, their requirements have been relying on the production of the organization in relation to the needs being reported but also turns out to be more extensive, playing an active role in calculating crucial environmental issues. It is vital to know that when CSR is implemented, it requires managing all things in a socially responsible way, keeping employees, the public sector and local communities in the context. Moreover, it is also vital to look for social dialogue so that all boundaries can be extracted. It can also help to develop common patterns of collaboration for all the participants (Bartel, C. A. , 2001).

It is vital to keep in mind that the concept of corporate social responsibility has been focused more in the early 90s. In the modern and global business environment, the CSR has been considered to be a new tool for organizations to include in their strategic management, which can help organizations to get sustainability while keeping the principles of ethics, ecology, and economics in the context. The above-mentioned description of CSR is clearly showing its interdisciplinary capability of interests, which involves philosophy, economics, ethics, and sociology. The beauty of CSR is that it can analyze the connection of business with all kinds of market entities, having a focus on their ethical perspective. The various social issues and constraints have been playing their part in increasing the interest of modern business organizations in the essence of CSR. A hike in social requirements which have resulted from the inability of the situation of organization to look after primary social needs, which includes both social and environmental aspects (Wilson A., 2000).

There are so many famous companies around the world, and they have a great responsibility to show the essence of CSR. It will be good to review how some of the concepts of CSR are being followed by real-world companies. Starbucks is going to be used as an example here to see how they are making a difference in society by following the concept of CSR. It has been observed that the company was having issues in the past, and their overall performance was very poor. But then they realized that they need a change in strategy, so a new strategy was launched by Starbucks with the name of “Transformation Agenda”. This agenda was not only focused on their people, but it was also focused to improve their work related to community and environment. The concept of CSR was adopted by the company on the basis of Ethical Sourcing, Environment, and Community. They focused on inclusion and diversity in their strategy and started hiring veterans of the society to make a positive impact. They started donating some amount to the non-profit partners. They also focused on ethical sourcing to ensure that their cocoa, tea, coffee, and many other goods are coming from suppliers, who are following the essence of ethical and responsible production. They also worked to manage their business in a way that their environmental impact is decreased. They worked to adopt sustainable energy resources so that they can play a big part in addressing the issue of climate change (Vandeveld, 2015).

It is important to understand that there are so many elements to look at in terms of ensuring the business transparency, where every process is crystal clear, not faking anything in the eyes of customers and law. The moral and legal framework should be followed to keep things on the right track. It is a fact that with the increase in globalization of businesses, the rivalry has got intense because competitors are competing on various terms, and one of the key elements in this regard is corporate social responsibility. The consumers are giving more respect to the organizations showing the essence of CSR, so it is proving that modern organizations with the integration of CSR policies are able to stay ahead in the competition. The reputation of such companies helps them to get a good name in the market, which benefits them in so many ways. That’s why companies are involved in CSR by showing an ethical conduct to enhance the image of their organization. It is worth discussing that a key feature of a modern organization is that they tend to remain responsible in their social conduct by giving back to the community. The organizations are making required changes in the policy to deal with any negative image created by unethical conduct, and driving their energy to become ethical and socially responsible organizations (Nelson, J., 1996).

It is vital to know that an increment of awareness with regards to environment and sensitivity of human society to the problem of a major issue which is environmental protection has a major role on business and the whole organization which shows positive perception of the companies adopting these rules is based on the variety of environmental initiatives being taken time to time, and surging their profile in a positive manner. The ethical diameter of CSR is something, which focused on the moral and ethical responsibility of the company factoring its business processes in respect to its code of conduct. The other primary ethical part of the organization is based on visualizing the changes its decisions, and it is mostly encouraged by the essence of common good at the price of leaving parts of its possible revenue and profits. The problem of CSR triggers a lot of communications, and the theorists, as well as, those who practice ideas relevant to their work results in different papers. The CSR concept is known by many intellectuals as a point for calculating competitive advantage in the outside market having the essence of consumers, investors & employees, giving an increasing value to noneconomic entity. The analysis of such parameters within companies is done on the basis of quality, trust, responsibility and honestly for the stakeholders and credibility. Connectivity relating to business relationship in the direction to primary and secondary entities. The technicality to react to market requirements manifested in the cover of demanding trends and social requirements (Brown, L. D., and Caylor, M. L., 2003).

Entities of corporate social responsibility along with their strategy can be seen one of the social advantage, which is used in local and global organization. The surge in the motivation, as well as, commitment of employees developing the organizational behavior, which lowers the expensive of management it also enables the increasing ratio of innovation. Then they are marketing the advantages and the outcome; which are achieved with the help of donations.

The peaceful behavior in society is vital, which gives a significant increase in the count of loyal and long term customers. Moreover, it helps to observe an upward trend in the competition, the investors’ interests, and environmental prestige happening because of charitable and sponsorship activities. There are so many major benefits for society such as cultural activities, charity, sports financing, local community activities, environmental protection, as well as, finding solutions for a variety of social problems. The experts and researchers have asked organizations to adopt the principles associated with corporate social responsibility, and various points can be considered in this regard such as knowing the fact that there is a correspondence between the companies’ CSR and the actual expectations. The CSR also allows companies to simulate processes on the basis of modern policy and technology, and it can also stimulate the process of getting good attention from the market. The ability of organizations to be socially responsible is an indication that they are concerned with their social impact so they tend to review their business processes in this regard. The organizations should realize the importance of CSR in developing a great public image, giving more reputation across the markets. The important thing to keep in mind is that when organizations use CSR, then they get so many business benefits, but they also help the cause of protecting the environment, which is an advantage for everyone.

The socially responsible behavior of organizations is critical for the country of its operations. It is their moral obligation to involve in business practices, which are less harmful and risky for the environment. When organizations tend to show an ethical behavior serving the essence of CSR, then it is a fact that such counties soften their rules regarding CSR. The important thing to keep in mind is that bureaucratization of the society along with the economy is not a good option to adopt for anyone, so this element is reduced by coming up with soft rules and regulations. A balance is promoted by the corporate social responsibility between authority and responsibility. The stakeholders should always be kept in mind, and the beauty of CSR is that it can develop a better relationship between an organization and its stakeholders including internal and external stakeholders. The organizations are never asked to practice CSR bearing any losses, rather it is a practice, which may lower the level of profits, but still, it is considered by the organizations, which is a good sign in so many ways. There are a variety of projects in the CSR category, which can be used. The other great benefit of CSR is that if there is any kind of conflict or issue in the internal or external environment, then CSR can help to deal with it in an effective manner. However, there are various arguments, which are given against CSR. It is said that the economic efficiency of the CSR can be reduced when forces are dispersed. It has also been observed that practices of CSR can be expensive than any other thing. Moreover, the profits can also go down, but keeping both elements in view; it is evident that the benefits of the CSR are far better as compared to other elements. The issues will always be there, but the overall process will remain above average (Chakraborty, I., Hu, P.J and Cui, D. , 2008).

Without the doubt, implementing the policy of CSR relies on a proper mechanism and nature of the company and its entities who want to adopt the base concept of the notion and process the flow changes in the image of pre-established principle and values. This is currently linked to the organization behavior trying to go through at a wider organizational difference. Every change is connected with push to its progress and impact. To counter attack this phenomenon, it is important to understand regarding the communication process which are most useful that will lessen non reliability among the members of the companies connected about 350 changes and their edible negative outcomes. Making difference without the involvement of employees is mostly pointed towards failure. However, despite many difficulties which cannot be ignored at any changing process, it is critical to see the positive outcome which CSR gives on ethical, social, organizational and business scale (Chakraborty, I., Hu, P.J and Cui, D. , 2008).

Task 2
Ethical and environmental issues in supply chain:

Environmental issues of Ethical and environmental issues in supply chain

The planning and management for the flow of goods from the source where it is produced to the ultimate consumer, along with the basic information needed. Basically, supply chain management emphasizes on low cost, best quality, great level of service and less lead time. The rules of the market behavior are changed when extended producer responsibility is introduced in industries and countries. The post consumption time of their products is now the main focus of the manufacturer, which is also known as end-of-life phase (EOL). In these years the concept of environment friendly supply chain management is rising. This can be proven by looking at number of initiatives taken by the companies in recent years. From base source to the end of recovery issue, brand owner is seen to be responsible for environmental issues in supply chain management. A sincere partner who can help in making managerial decisions regarding the environmental issues in supply chain management is necessary to make a friendly environment in the company. This create the sense of competitiveness and better customer service and ultimately increase the profitability (Amaeshi, K.M., Osuji, O.K. and Nnodim, P., 2008).

For example, green SCM can act on reducing the effects on industrial activity without sacrificing cost, efficiency, quality, performance, reliability and also meet the regulations of the environment not only to reduce the damage that occur ecologically but it also ensures the economic profit overall.

Now companies try to accept the ecologically responsive practices in order to meet the legislative needs but they can also get advantage from green behavior. Like making organizational capacity in order to collect and recycle and reuse waste to increase the availability of materials and it also clear up the supply channels.

As more negative impacts on environment are becoming evident, more and more people are trying to reduce their individual effects on the environment. This aspect is important as regarding the business world because the customers and consumers are taking in consideration the environmental impacts on the company when they make their deal in purchasing. If the company management start to deal with the environmental issues in the supply chain management, the company will ultimately get a huge profit by reducing effects of environment. But the question here is what the environmental impacts on supply chain management are? Things like parts supply, distribution, production EOL phases all these have their impacts on environment. Once upon a time, the manufacturing units were only responsible for one thing and that is production. But now company management has to face several questions from customers as well as employees and stakeholders. And companies are now focused to develop plans on how to reduce the impacts of environmental issues. This require to collaborate with partners and discuss on terms to minimize the environmental negative impacts on supply chain management and increase the SCM practices. The aforementioned problems and to make plans to solve them is the biggest step to do (Auroi, C. , 2003).

Understand that enhance SCM measures save you the money:

Some of the management look toward making SCM more environmentally friendly and to solve negative effects of the company bottom line but this led to wrong line of thinking. To save a large amount of money in long run it is important to, reuse, more energy efficient and more sustainable production methods and way of storage and transport.

Upgrade the equipment of Ethical and environmental issues in supply chain:

This method is the simplest and the easiest most method to use in order to remove environmental issues in supply chain management. This method requires no coordination with the partner in your business. Just have to invest in more energy efficient, sustainable tools. Like establishing solar power equipment can help in reducing cost of energy.

Adjustment in approaches of Ethical and environmental issues in supply chain:

We maybe still can create major waste even if we have all of environmentally friendly equipment if we are not looking to have sustainable practices. The environment will be protected with the help of sustainability, which is a profitable thing. If businesses want to thrive in the future aspect, then it will be crucial for them to store the information and data (Auroi, C. , 2003).

Ethical issues of Ethical and environmental issues in supply chain

When in a supply chain process more parties and individuals are involved there is always a question that who is doing honest and fair stuff. When there is a little concept and understanding of fair play, problems and issues arise in supply chain. Following are some ethical issue that supply chain management face;

Producers: working conditions, child labor, environment unfriendly practices, labor rates are some issues in which the organization can mishandle and can deviate from fair play. If such kind of actions is taken by the organizations, then the employees are not satisfied. If the idea of some technology is duplicated or copied from some other producer who has spent millions to create such a value for end users, such producers who copy are deemed to unethical (Auroi, C. , 2003).

Suppliers: in the process of production in organization, suppliers are the integral part. They perform the job of precuring some raw materials of best quality and they maintain high standard of inventory. But there are some suppliers who give lower quality and cheaper one to save cost and to increase profits margins. The need of the hour now is mainly to sign a mandatory code of conduct. Some suppliers make cartel which can manipulate the market. Suppliers go for higher margin in profit by increasing the prices according to their desire.

Retailors: when it come to the point of labeling and packaging the product, retailor is the most important one to be honest. If the retailor partially fill the package which comes to the cheating because the customer who is going to buy the product is on the belief that content in the package is equal to what they are told. Like if a potato wafers packet has 25-30 grams but the disclose weight was 35 grams (Auroi, C. , 2003).

Consumers: When customer tend to buy stuff focusing on cost and not on the quality, the manufacturer are then forced to make less quality products and to compromise with this aspect because of lack of sale as it disturbs the profit margin. Consumers prefer alternatives of the product because of slightly increase in prices. But there are few other factors, which are related to the expectations of consumers with regards to corporate social responsibility. It is a fact that expectations from the consumers’ sides are increasing with regards to corporations to conduct their business in a more responsible and ethical manner. One of the research studies has proved with evidence that consumers expect business organizations to be more responsible about their labor rights, as well as, ethical responsibility. The other expectation of the consumers was regarding environmental responsibility and human rights responsibility. They also expected organizations to be socially responsible, which means that consumers’’ are increasing their expectations in this regard. So, businesses should remain fair and loyal to their stakeholders, but they should also focus on the essence of CSR (Berndtros & Mårtensson, 2014).

Task 3

Discuss various enabling conditions for sustainable business under CSR with example

Our common future is the most common and most used definition for sustainability which is also known as Brundtland, and the publish date of the report was 1987. The focus of this report is the relationship between human developments and steps toward environmental responsibility for the help of next generation. Before this time if we will go thirty years back, empirical research data was focused in sustainability development agenda. Now academia is forcing for concrete and policy of actions. Business organizations and companies are becoming proactive than reactive in social and environmental problems and they are changing their standard in sustainability. The national government are not able to give performance standard to big businesses. They recommended that government should not interfere with these matters of achieving them. As a matter of fact, many of the companies and corporate industries are reestablishing their code of conducts, cooperate programs, green politicians, triple bottom line reports, certified standards and documents about sustainability. It cannot be neglected that many of the global challenges are still present like water shortage, biodiversity, bribery, corruption and income inequality among others. The system of sustainability can be varied or can act as complex one. Some reporters are linking the sustainability with corporate responsible behaviors. Consider a nested system of economical, societal and ecological. Corporate sustainability is related to them. These pillars are related to each other like a network (Brundtland GH, 1987). Corporate sustainability relies on these terms; socio efficient, eco efficient, eco effectiveness, socio effectiveness, ecological equity and sufficiency. This concept can help to increase the effects of social and environmental research inside the strategical management field. The goals of corporate sustainability are institutional effectiveness, economic development, stakeholder’s orientation and sustainability ecosystem (Camilleri MA, 2014).

CSR is getting linked with corporate philanthropy, contributed toward environmental and social issues. The approaches which are value based are discussed here can be considered as guideline of the principles which can leas the future business towards the long-term sustainability in economic or social perspective. We can link profit motive to corporate responsible agenda that include concepts of corporate sustainability and business case. In order to deflect the environmental and social issues around the globe it will be helpful for multinational corporate. Corporate responsibility emphasizes on exploiting opportunities that reconcile with stakeholders demands because many corporations are giving huge intention to this area of aspect. Most of the multinational companies are getting a big pressure from stakeholders especially consumers and customer association to evaluate certain process (Camilleri MA, 2014).

Conclusion of Ethical and environmental issues in supply chain

After analyzing different elements of corporate social responsibility along with its management in the essence of supply chain management, it can be said that CSR is an important concept, which is gaining attention from all the stakeholders. There was a time when CSR was not focused, as it has been focused in the modern era. Organizations with better CSR strategies have been doing well than the others in so many ways. The example of Starbucks has been shared that when the company was performing poorly, they changed their strategy, and came up with a strategy that has its basis on CSR. This new strategy gave them a great boost to increase the growth of their business. The sustainable enterprises following the footsteps of corporate social responsibility in their strategy have shown to follow the path of ethical and responsible guidelines.

References of Ethical and environmental issues in supply chain

Amaeshi, K.M., Osuji, O.K. and Nnodim, P. (2008). Corporate social responsibility in supply chains of global brands: a boundaryless responsibility? Clarifications, exceptions and implications’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 81, No. 1, pp.223–234.

Auroi, C. . (2003). ‘Improving sustainable chain management through fair trade’, Greener Management International, Autumn, No. 43, pp.25–35.

Bartel, C. A. . (2001). Social comparisons in boundary-spanning work: Effects of community outreach on members' organizational identity and identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46, 379-413.

Berndtros, I., & Mårtensson, F. (2014). Consumer Expectations on Corporate Social Responsibility in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: A marketing perspective on consumers in Sweden. Master Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies.

Brown, L. D., and Caylor, M. L. (2003). A temporal analysis of earnings management thresholds. Working paper GA: J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta.

Brundtland GH. (1987). Our common future: Report of the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations, Oslo.

Camilleri MA. (2014). Advancing the sustainable tourism agenda through strategic CSR perspectives. Tourism Planning & Development 11(1): 42-56.

Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct. Business & Society, 38(3), 268-295.

Chakraborty, I., Hu, P.J and Cui, D. . (2008). Examining the effects of cognitive style I individuals' technology use decision making. Decision Support Systems, 45(2), 228-241.

Nelson, J. (1996). Business as partners in development, creating wealth for countries, companies and communities, The Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, The World Bank and The United Nations Development Programme, London. .

Vandeveld, K. (2015). SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: HOW STARBUCKS IS MAKING AN IMPACT. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://www.whywhisper.co/the-blog/2015/9/24/corporate-social-responsibility-how-starbucks-is-making-an-impact

Wilson A. (2000). Making community investment work, International Institute for Labor Studies, Geneva.

Youmatter. (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – Definition, History and Evolution. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://youmatter.world/en/definition/csr-definition/