Outline and discuss the evolution of CSR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Outline and discuss the evolution of CSR - Essay Example This paper explores the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, tracing its evolution and how businesses implement it as well as how it affects them. II. Definitions of CSR Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may be perceived in a variety of ways depending on one’s perspective. One commonly accepted definition is as follows: â€Å"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 local community and society at large.† - World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2005 Another definition created by the European Commission (2003) is: â€Å"Responsible business practices that support the three principles of sustainable development: economic growth and prosperity, social cohesion and equity and environmental integrity and protection.† (p.5) III. Principles of CSR The United Nations is the main promoter of CSR. On December 31, 1999, then Secretary General Kofi Annan declared its principles at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Madrakhimova, 2013): 1. Human Rights – Commercial organizations should maintain support and respect for internationally recognized human rights in the creation of their standards of work. The rights to bargain collectively of workers must be upheld. Forced labour and child labour should be eliminated along with any form of discrimination in the workplace. 2. Ecology – Corporations should be conscious of the prevention of environmental problems and diligent in carrying out a more responsible attitude towards the care of the environment. They need to promote technologies and know-how in the reduction of negative impacts of some systems on the environment. 3. Anti-corruption – Corruption in all forms which include extortion, bribery and red tape must be prevented. 4. Legal responsibility – Legal frameworks bound in the territories where the businesses st and must be enforced. 5. Global responsibility – Compliance with international standards of social responsibility 6. Environmental Responsibility – collaboration of businesses and society in the rational use of natural resources, effective management of the environment and public health from the production of environmentally-friendly products. 7. Cultural and ethical responsibility – Compliance with relevant territorial cultural and ethical customs and traditions as well as moral norms followed by employees and other stakeholders. 8. Philantropic responsibility – support and development of the society and of individual marginal groups through voluntary participation in social programs and social and financial investment. IV. Benefits of CSR In a study of Lithuanian development of CSR practices, Spukiene & Urbonien (2011) report the following internal benefits in adopting CSR practices have been recognized: business sustainability; competitive advantage; e asier compliance with legislation; employee loyalty; attraction and retention of qualified employees; increase in productivity, quality and sales; financial improvement and access to capital; and reduction of costs. External benefits from adopting CSR practices were acknowledged as well: improved image and reputation; preservation of the environment; intangible benefits; contribution to Lithuania?s sustainable development; increased visibility; promotion of solidarity in the community; clients? loyalty; and

Costs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Costs - Essay Example As mentioned in the definition, the organization can increase its factors of production to achieve higher production levels and the state of technology is the only constraint. So it means that all inputs are variable. Hence, in the long run when the inputs are increased, the output may: To inputs the average total cost of producing that output will fall. The firm's costs will rise less than the output of goods. This is called as the economies of scale as represented in the following diagram: The long run curve represented above includes short run periods as the firm expands. The LRATC curve is a track of all the SRATC curves as the firm grows. Initially, the short run average costs are at the lowest in SRAC1. As the firm expands, its average costs fall to the bottom of the U shaped curve and then begins to climb because of the diminishing returns. The firm then moves its production to the next level and the cost move to the next short run situation shown as SRAC2. In the long run the average cost is represented by the black line tangenting all the short run average cost curves. The whole LRATC is composed of infinite number of single points from SRAC curves. The LRATC curve is the boundary between unit cost levels that are attainable by the firm and unit cost levels that are unattainable. ... When the long run until costs are falling as the outputs increases, the firm is experiencing increasing returns to scale and thus less long run average costs. If the firm is experiencing average returns to scale then the average long run costs are same and if the firm is experiencing diminishing returns to scale then the long run average costs are increasing. Long run marginal cost Marginal cost is defined as the cost associated with producing one extra unit assuming that the extra unit produced will cause increase in production capacity. The long run marginal cost curve resembles the short run marginal cost curve as it is also U shaped. The U shape of the LRMC can be attributed to increasing and decreasing marginal returns. The calculation of cost and revenue of one extra unit is very crucial in the long run as it is essential to make the capacity increase decision. If the last unit produced gives more revenue than the cost to produce that unit, the firm should expand it s capacity. Marginal cost will increase as the firm expands due to the Law of diminishing returns. The firm should keep expanding as long as the MR > MC. "The term LRMC is used to signify the cost effect of a change which involves some alteration in the amount or timing of future investment. SRMC, on the other hand takes capacity as given, so relates only to changes in operating costs." (Turve y,11). The SRMC rises due to the capacity constraints and then fall after there is a significant increase ion the capacity expansion. Hence, in the long run the marginal cost curve is U shaped. The following diagram shows the increase and decreases of the marginal costs before and after expansion. Kinked demand curve In a non collusive

Managing Through People Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing Through People - Assignment Example ions, including, eg, career development, training, organization development, etc.†1 Human resource Management (HRM) is the management activity of the employees of an organization where as the Human Resource Development (HRD) is a more general term in which apart from the management function the developments of the organization and the employees (internal and external) through different types of training activities are also the functions of an HRD department. The globalized current business environment has made the task complicated for the HR department. Most of the companies are now establishing their manufacturing units in overseas countries in order to exploit the overseas markets. Some employees need to be sent to the overseas countries in order to set up the business there. The HR managers need to train such employees in accordance with the needs of the target country. The difference in culture, language, environment all must be addressed by the HR managers while formulating the training procedures. Microsoft is believed to be one of the biggest software companies in the world. In fact it controls the majority of the world’s software market with their monopoly. Even other companies like Intel were forced to make microprocessor chips suitable for the Microsoft’s Windows operating system because of their monopoly. Microsoft did this by creating a series of operating systems (DOS, then Windows), and by defining the kind of machine that could run their OSs.† (Why is Microsoft a Monopoly?) Microsoft is lead by its founder Bill Gates. It is actually the great leader ship Bill Gates, shaped Microsoft into such a big monopolistic firm in the world. â€Å"Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow, ie: a leader is the spearhead for that new direction. Management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established.†2 The leader always concentrated on setting the

Social Marketing-Does the kindly reminder on the package of cigarette Research Proposal

Social Marketing-Does the kindly reminder on the package of cigarette can affect the customer buying cigarette - Research Proposal Example 7). There are eight principles of social marketing namely â€Å"customer orientation, insight, segmentation, behavioural goals, exchange, competition, methods mix, and [social marketing] is theory based† (Janssen et al., 2013). Stead et al (2007) found that social marketing can be used to develop an effective framework directed at interventions in behavioral change and can serve as a toolkit that can help organizations change health behaviors. One of the basic principles of social marketing is focus on the audience. Marketing mix cannot be useful until each of its four P’s are designed with the preferences, attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics of the target audience in mind. An example of the significance of perspective of the audience during the intersection of environmental and cultural contexts is provided by Romer et al (2009) who have examined the mass media’s contribution in a campaign for prevention of HIV in sexually active high-risk African American adolescents while addressing misconceptions regarding the use of contraception. The strategy of segmentation, like many marketing interventions, particularly addresses the social desires and norms of cultural subgroup. Behavioral change interventions can be classified according to a plethora of frameworks, though none can be considered as conceptually coherent and comprehensive (Michie, Stralen, and West, 2011). For example, the UK’s Institute of Government’s MINDSPACE is a very influential report meant to serve as a checklist to guide policymakers with the most important behavioral influences (Institute for Government, 2010). MINDSPACE is the acronym that represents the initial letters of these influences i.e. â€Å"messenger, incentives, norms, defaults, salience, priming, affect, commitment, and ego† (Michie, Stralen, and West, 2011). However, all important types of intervention are not