Corporate Social Responsibility Stakeholders

Corporate Social Responsibility Stakeholders This particular paper is based on the stakeholders perspective towards a CSR. The arguments in this paper include the stakeholder theory, stakeholders and CSR relations and finally the stakeholders perspective on CSR. Corporate social responsibility has evolved as a global phenomenon that encompasses businesses, consumers, governments, and civil society, and many organizations. There are various definitions proposed by various researchers for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), but still it remains an uncertain and is poorly defined with few explanations. First, the issues that a CSR must address should be easily interpreted so that it includes virtually everyone and everything. Second, with its unique, often particular characteristics, different stakeholder groups tend to focus only on specific issues that they believe are the most appropriate and relevant in organizations corporate social responsibility programs. Thus, the beliefs about what constitutes a socially responsible and sustainable organization depend on the perspective of the stakeholder.  This will be further elaborated in the later parts of the paper. Defining Corporate Social Responsibility and Stakeholders Although the most basic of definition CSR describes it as a social obligation for an organization (Bowen, 1953), which is conceptually and operationally diverse. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication Making Good Business Sense  by Lord Holme and Richard Watts, used the following definition (Mallens CSR blog). Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large. Stakeholders are described broadly by Freeman and Reed (1983) as any identifiable group or individual who can affect the achievement of an organizations objectives or who is affected by the achievement of an organizations objectives. In other words, a  person,  group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can affect or be affected by the  organizations  actions,  objectives, and  policies. Key stakeholders in a business organisation include creditors, customers, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources. Although stake-holding is usually self-legitimizing (those who  judge  themselves to be stakeholders are stakeholder), all stakeholders are not equal and different stakeholders are entitled to different considerations. For example, a companys customers are entitled to fair trading  practices  but they are not entitled to the same consideration as the companys employees. Stakeholder Theory As noted previously, the term stakeholder stands for concerned constituencies who are affected by or able to affect a corporation (Freeman Reed, 1983). Stakeholder as an umbrella term for groups with a vested interest in an organization includes customers, employees, business partners, communities, investors and the environment. The theoretical framework of this paper reflecting stakeholders perspective is thus based primarily on stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory of the firm proposes that the nature of an organizations stakeholders, their values, their relative influence on decisions and the nature of the situation are all relevant information for predicting organizational behaviour and outcomes (Brenner and Cochran, 1991). The objectives of a corporation can only be achieved by protecting and balancing the interests of these different groups of stakeholders. The pluralistic nature of stakeholder theory is based on the notion that there are many groups in society besides owners and employees to whom the corporation is responsible (Freeman, 1999). As a descriptive theory, stakeholder theory has been used to describe the nature of the firm (Brenner and Cochran, 1991), management of corporations, and how board directors think about the interests of corporate constituencies. From an instrumental perspective , the theory is used to identify the connection between stakeholder management and the achievement of corporate social responsibility (Kotter and Heskett, 1992). In this respect, the theory can be regarded as a perspective of the firm that focuses on the question of which stakeholders deserve or require management attention. Concern for Stakeholders The concern for stakeholders by corporate leaders is expected to have a significant influence on the formulation and implementation of a firms strategy (Frooman, 1991). Such a concern will also have significant impact on how the strategies an organization uses to deal with multiple stakeholders will change as the organization evolves through the stages of formation, growth, maturity, and decline or revival. This will provide a relevant framework for assessing the roles, rights, responsibilities, and legitimacies of different actors in the interaction between organizations and their environment (Freeman, 1999). The concern for stakeholders by corporate directors has some important implications for corporate governance. Corporations can be more responsive to the interests of society as a whole by incorporating the participation of stakeholders in their boards of directors. The stakeholder approach to the role of the governing board expects the organization leaders, such as corporate di rectors, to negotiate and compromise with stakeholders in the interest of the corporation. Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility The prevalence of stakeholder theory is grounded in the belief that CSR-stakeholder relationships are the essential assets that corporates must manage. While CSR aims to define what responsibilities business ought to fulfil, the stakeholder concept addresses the issue of whom business is or should be accountable to. Both concepts are closely inter-related. However, while the CSR concept still suffers from a level of abstraction, the stakeholder approach offers a practical alternative for assessing the performance of firms as well as the key stakeholder groups. Stakeholder theory has accordingly witnessed a new revival and dominance in the context of CSR. Brenner and Chochran suggested as early as 1991 that stakeholder theory holds the promise of becoming the theoretical centre-piece in a field that is searching for workable paradigms. Doh and Guay (2006) similarly find the adoption of a stakeholder model as a potentially appropriate and insightful theoretical lens, given its ability to systematically identify social stakeholder issues, and establish specific measures of performance. An organizations stakeholder management data can thus be gathered and compared to other firms within and across industries, making social auditing for internal and external use both practical and possible. Along these lines, this paper has tried to make the case for a stakeholder approach to CSR, by arguing that: (1) Stakeholder theory in all its three veins or branches can bring to the fore a set of new insights for CSR academics and practitioners; (2) The language of stakeholder theory is easy to grasp by corporates as most firms understand and define obligations and responsibilities as well as their traditional stakeholders; and (3) Stakeholder theory seems easier to plan in collecting and analysing CSR data as evidenced by the proliferation of empirical studies that have essentially integrated a stakeholder approach to CSR. It thus increasingly represents a concrete alternative to traditional models. It is also noticed that the stakeholder management is affected by the relational attributes of stakeholders and the pressures they can exert on corporations, while also noting the increased proficiency of corporates in balancing a broader range of stakeholder interests. CSR in the Stakeholders Perspective Corporate now has spent decades to promote not only a firms economic but also a social responsibility. This challenged a discussion in corporations what corporate responsibility should be. In the past, the CSR approach was useful to foster these important discussions and thus it is important to analyse it from different perspectives, for what CSRs should be responsible. It seems that the CSR responsibilities are not very promising to understand real-world situations for three main reasons. First, the concept of CSR itself is not distinguishable as most decisions of businesses are not purely economic, legal, ethical, or philanthropic. Consequently and by agreeing with Freeman (1994), the separation of economic and social responsibilities to which the CSR approach contributes is rejected. Second, another argument raised by Freeman (2004) against the CSR concept comes in the form of a risk that business could treat their CSR activities as moral substitutes to compensate for other irresp onsible activities. And third, we argue that the general responsibilities implied by the CSR approach cant neither account for the specificity of an individual firm nor for the specific stakeholder network where it is embedded in. Summing up, it can be claimed, similar to Freeman (2004) that corporate responsibility should refer to a firms strategically relevant stakeholders. Thus, mainly the instrumental framework of the stakeholders view, that sees strategic stakeholders as the core of corporate wealth creation. Within the stakeholder view, stakeholders can be defined as all individuals and constituencies that contribute, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to its wealth-creating capacity and activities, and are therefore its potential beneficiaries and/or risk bearers. Based on this definition the stakeholders can be distinguished in four categories: benefit-providers/receivers and/or risk-providers/bearers. This comprehensive stakeholder perspective not only considers resource-based (e.g. employees, investors) and market-based stakeholders (e.g. customers, business partners, competitors) but also social and political stakeholders (e.g. government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) media). The stakeholder view framework is used here because its normative core i.e., a comprehensive understanding of property rights is one of the most important principles of our society (Friedman, 1970). The stakeholder view enhances the idea of property right to not only those parties who provide financial resources but also to all those that contribute other firm-specific investments such as knowledge, networks etc. We argue that such a consideration of stakeholders as those individuals and groups that contribute to the firms wealth creation process can serve as a useful foundation for thinking about corporate responsibilities. It is thereby important that this wealth creation process is not viewed in a one-sided fashion from the corporations perspective, but also from the stakeholders perspective. The corporation is only legitimized in its existence if it creates wealth for and with its strategic stakeholders. Therefore in the stakeholder view, the origin for the responsibility concerning firms stakeholders is based on their existence and position within the corporate wealth creation process. In the stakeholder view, the stakeholders ought to participate because corporate wealth distribution is organized according to the stakeholders contributions and their risk adoption in the wealth creation process. Similar to the shareholders who are compensated for the use of their capital and the risk involved, all other relevant stakeholders ought to be included in the wealth distribution. After the expenditures have been compensated according to the complete contracts, a residual profit emerges from which not only the shareholders, but also all other strategically relevant stakeholders should benefit. In reality, the assessment of all these values is not necessarily predetermined. Rather, scopes of discretion exist, as can be experienced in determining the compensation of shareholders. Thus, the dissemination of residual profits to the stakeholders is subject to scope of discretion. Summing up, the stakeholder view claims for a corporate responsibility that takes into account stakeholders contributions to the corporate wealth creation process. Therefore, the firm is responsible to reduce risk and increase benefits for stakeholders at one side but also for a fair distribution of benefits at the other side.

Project C

Your manager has speculated the following: a. the average (mean) annual income was less than $50,000, b. the true population proportion of customers who live in an urban area exceeds 40%, c. the average (mean) number of years lived in the current home is less than 13 years, d. the average (mean) credit balance for suburban customers is more than $4300. 1. Using the sample data, perform the hypothesis test for each of the above situations in order to see if there is evidence to support your manager’s belief in each case a. -d. In each case use the Seven Elements of a Test of Hypothesis, in Section 6. of your text book with ? = . 05, and explain your conclusion in simple terms. Also be sure to compute the p-value and interpret. 2. Follow this up with computing 95% confidence intervals for each of the variables described in a. -d. , and again interpreting these intervals. 3. Write a report to your manager about the results, distilling down the results in a way that would be under standable to someone who does not know statistics. Clear explanations and interpretations are critical. 4. All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy. 5. Project Part B report is due by the end of Week 6. . Project Part B is worth 100 total points. See grading rubric below Submission: The report from part 3 + all of the relevant work done in the hypothesis testing (including Minitab) in 1. , and the confidence intervals (Minitab) in 2 as an appendix. Format for report: A. Summary Report (about 1 paragraph on each of the speculations a. -d. ) B. Appendix with all of the steps in hypothesis testing (the format of the Seven Elements of a Test of Hypothesis, in Section 6. 2 of your text book) for each speculation a. -d. as well as the confidence intervals, and including all Minitab output

How does William Shakespeare create tension Essay

From the minute the play starts the audience are aware that the â€Å"star crossed lovers† Romeo and Juliet are going to die, this makes it clear that the play is a tragedy. A Tragedy is a traditional form of theatre where the main characters in the play die as a result of their tragic flaw, for example in the tragedy play Macbeth, Macbeth’s vaulting ambition leads him to his death. Romeo and Juliet’s flaw is the powerful love between them and it means their relationship has to be secret and this leads to Mercutio being killed by Tybalt and Romeo then killing Tybalt. The consequences of Romeo revenging Mercutios death by killing Tybalt means he is banished upon death. When the play was written ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was already a well known story but the version that William Shakespeare borrowed did not include the love theme William Shakespeare added the love theme into the story. The play Romeo and Juliet was written in 1594, and in this time women particularly were under their parents influence and there was no free choice on who you could marry. Teenage Rebellion was unthinkable because your parents would kick you out and in this time a woman was unable to get a job and with no money it would be hard to find a husband; this is why Romeo and Juliet’s marriage was secret. How a play is structured is an important way of creating tension for the audience like in Act 1 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ it introduces the theme of love and hate between the two families Montague and Capulet. There is also a fight between the two family’s servants because they hate each other but Tybalt (Capulet) turns up and the fight becomes even bigger than before. The reason Shakespeare kills off Mercutio and Tybalt in Act 3 is that now all the action can focus on Romeo and Juliet. In the scene were Mercutio is slain, this point is often looked at as the points were the play becomes a tragedy. If Romeo hadn’t avenged Mercutios death the outcome would have been very different and Romeo and Juliet’s actions from this point are due to this scene. Having themes run throughout a play is another way of creating tension for the audience. This scene (Act3 scene 1) contains the theme of passion, when Benvolio is advising Mercutio to leave the area where the Capulet’s are  going to arrive but Mercutio is ready for a fight and is going to stay no matter what. Benvolio says ‘for now these hot-days is the mad blood stirring.’ This means that the hot weather has shortened people’s tempers including Mercutios. When Tybalt arrives and Tybalt and Mercutio start to fighting. Romeo accidentally gets in the way and Mercutio is struck by Tybalt’s sword, it is a mortal wound which kills him. As Mercutio is dying he says ‘A plague on both your houses.’ After Mercutio dies and Romeo kills Tybalt, Romeo starts crying and this is a passionate cry emphasises the way he is losing the control of his destiny and is subject to fate. This creates tension because the audience know the final outcome from the start. Shakespeare was a master of characterisation, the characters in this scene have been skilfully created previously and act exactly how the audience expect them to, based on their previous behaviour, such as at the party Mercutio is showing off, he is loud full of himself and hot tempered this shows that it is Mercutios nature to fight and not back down. Also Mercutio cannot stand Romeo’s capitulation towards the Capulet’s and this angers him even more Mercutio also says ‘O calm, dis honourable, vile, submission’ and this creates tension because Mercutio forces the fight on Tybalt. In a play which would be performed to an audience who could barely read and write, it was important for Shakespeare to include rich metaphors and poetry which would entertain and stimulate them; his language is littered with deeper meanings and puns. For example when Benvolio says for now these hot days the mad blood stirring this means that the hot weather has shortened peoples tempers and they are more likely to snap and start a fight, this line adds tension as well because there is going to be a big fight but Mercutios short snappy sentences show that he is ready to fight and it creates tension and anticipation to see Tybalt and Mercutio fight. The stage craft is a vital part of the tension in this scene where Shakespeare keeps the weather hot so it gets people irritable. Mercutio is in the mood for a fight because of the weather and he wants to cause to  cause trouble. Shakespeare makes Tybalt arrive before Romeo so he has a chance to tangle and mix with Mercutio. Shakespeare only makes the reasons why Romeo won’t fight Tybalt to make Mercutio angry about Romeo’s capitulation towards the Capulet Family. To conclude, I feel that Shakespeare created tension in this scene through Mercutios anger towards Romeo’s capitulation and his hatred for the Capulet Family. Although if Mercutio had known about Romeo and Juliet his anger would not be so great. I found the play sad because two innocent characters had to die because of their flaw which was the powerful love between them which could not be broken and I also feel that another reason Romeo and Juliet died was the feud between the two families which was ended only when there children had died.

Question 3. (A) Managers In Organizations Are Expected

Question 3 (a) Managers in organizations are expected to have a reasonable degree of leadership ability. Explain what leadership is? Comment and elaborate on the bases of leadership power. [10 marks] Leadership is ability to influence others to perform tasks (Benowitz, A.E. 2001). It is the function or activity that an individual performs. This definition implies that leadership is an influential process. In other words leadership is the notion that leaders are individuals who facilitate the movement of a group of people toward a common or shared goal. Therefore, leadership is an important part of management and it produces change in the operation of an organisation. Effective leaders develop and use power or the ability to influence†¦show more content†¦For instance, the supervisor may provide employees with time off when they meet an objective she sets for a project. Coercive power is conveyed through fear of losing one’s job, being demoted, receiving a poor performance review, having prime projects taken away, etc. Managers have coercive power when they have the right to fire or demote employees, criticize them, withhold pay increases, give reprimands, make negative entries in employee files, and many other actions. This power is gotten through threatening others or from the authority to punish or to recommend punishment. For example this power is used in the situations such as where the Executive Director threatens his managers to be demoted for failure to meet their set targets. Expert power comes from one’s experiences, skills or knowledge. As we gain experience in particular areas, and become thought leaders in those areas, we begin to gather expert power that can be utilized to get others to help us meet our goals. For example, the Project Manager who is an expert at solving particularly challenging problems to ensure a project stays on track. Referent power comes from being trusted and respected. We can gain referent power when others trust what we do and respect us for how we handle situations. For example, the Human Resource Associate who is known for ensuring employees are treated fairly and coming to the rescue of those who are not.Show MoreRelatedIntroduction to Business Policy1145 Words   |  5 Pagesby providing the reader with limits and a choice of alternatives that can be used to guide their decision making process as they attempt to overcome problems. Characteristics of a Policy 1. Are general in nature 2. Identify company rules 3. Explain why they exist 4. Tells when the rule applies 5. Describes who it covers 6. Shows how the rule is enforcement 7. Describes the consequences 8. 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