Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Corporate Social Responsibility. Answer: Introduction From time to time organizations are bound to respond to opportunities and threats that arise in the dynamic environment in which they operate. The modern workplace environment has emerged as quite challenging for organizations. There are several pressures to which Modern organizations continue to be exposed to, and on which they must compete. Businesses continue to come up with organizational responses to counter these opportunities and threats. Business pressures are the factors that affect business operations. This essay will focus on some pressures faced by organizations and remedies that businesses have to counter them. Corporate social responsibility. This is organizations responsibility for the impacts of its decisions and actions on the society and the environment. From their operations business are bound to impact on the environment and communities in a number of ways (Crane,2008). Corporate social responsibility has emerged as a factor for organization success or failure. From the increasing levels of community awareness, there has been a growing emphasis on businesses to act responsibly in their dealings, with organizations that are socially responsible becoming a favorite for many consumers. This and various others government legislations have put immense pressures on organizations to act responsibly for them to compete on the same level with their competitors. The stakeholder theory of corporate social responsibility described by Edward freeman is focused on business stakeholders or the individuals who are likely to affect or be affected by business operations. This theory lays emphasis on t he obligations that can be imposed on organizations by these stakeholders, their rights with regard to the actions of an organization as well as their genuine claims on the business. In short, this theory focuses on how these stakeholders can control the operations of an organization (Chandler Werther, 2013). Organizations are therefore being pressured each day to minimize their negative impact and maximize their positive impact on the environment and the community. Strategies. Organizations or managers have at their disposal several strategies that they can put in place to meet the demands of their various stakeholders. Philanthropic responsibility requires organizations to come up with projects that support the welfare of the communities in which they operate (Lee Kotler,2013). Organizations can initiate education support programs such as offering scholarships to the needy members of the society in order to facilitate their education and their ability to transform their communities. Apart from education organizations can also support healthcare programs such as building community-based health centers as well as contributing funds towards other community initiatives. Organizations can also act responsibly by ensuring that their actions have minimal impact on the environment. They can do this by adopting recycling programs to minimize the wastes generated from business operations, the can also ensure that they minimize consumption of resources as much as possible to avoid affect the quality of life lived by the future generations as a result of depletion of natural resources. Organizations can also adapt usage of alternative sources of energy that do avoid depletion of natural resources and the subsequent negative impacts that come with it (Visser Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs,2010). Changing nature of the workforce. The needs of organizations workforce are increasingly becoming diversified. Among the demand that has been brought about by this diversification is the need for employees to be more empowered (Huq, 2010).While traditionally employees were seen as people who were to follow orders from their managers, modern workplace brought immense pressure on organizations to involve employees in decision making and view them as partners instead of subordinates. Employees want to be more involved in decision-making and other operations of the organization and because of this, there has been increasing pressure on organizations to empower their employees.(Wodden, 2009) views the implementation of empowerment strategies by organizations as an attempt to maintain a shared vision, institutional recognition, organizational support, knowledge, and learning. Employee empowerment involves giving employees power, information, reward, and knowledge and asserts that without th ese four there can be a hindrance of employee empowerment. According to Kanters theory of structural empowerment, leaders powers grow based on the leader's ability to share the power through empowerment. He further states that empowerment enables employees to make informed decisions and become more productive hence benefiting not only themselves but also their organization (Pettinger, 2012). Strategies. There are several strategies that organizations can employ to respond to the increasing empowerment demands at the modern workplace Employee training and development is one of the strategies that organizations have to meet these demands. Frequent training opportunities capacitate employees to go about their assigned duties and responsibilities with much ease and without having to consult their managers frequently. Employees require training to be equipped with the required skills for the assigned tasks. Apart from training, authority is also a strategy that can be applied to empower employees. There has been increasing demand for responsibilities followed by Authority from employees as a result of the diversifications at the modern workplace. Organizations/Mangers can ensure that that they give sufficient authority to employees to enable them to make decisions on how well they can complete their assigned tasks instead of concentrating all the authority at the top. Manager s can also make sure that they maintain a personal touch with their employees, encourage and constantly give positive feedback about their performance. This can be an effective strategy to empower them and develop them professionally. As noted by expectancy theory, managers can also build confidence in their employees to make them more productive and improve their job satisfaction (Rainer Cegielski,2011). Conclusion In conclusion, there has been increasing pressure on organizations regarding their interaction with both their internal and external environments. These pressures can contribute to the failure or success of organizations depending on how they are able to handle them. Organizations that are socially responsible have continued to enjoy more fruitful interactions with their stakeholders while the pressure to be socially responsible has continued to increase for those that are not. Changing nature of workforce has also made it necessary for organizations to devise appropriate strategies such as empowerment in order to reduce employee turnover and improve productivity. Reference List Chandler, D. B., Werther, W. B. J. (2013). Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders, Globalization, and Sustainable Value Creation. Crane, A. (2008). The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Huq, R. (2010). Employee empowerment: The rhetoric and the reality. Axminster, Devon: Triarchy Press. Johnson, P., Wood, G., Brewster, C., Brookes, M. (2009). 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