Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media - Essay Example

Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media Social media and CSR Preparation According to Tapang and Bessong, social media can be regarded as an effective mode of marketing in the current era. They have pointed out that flow of information through social media has encountered huge popularity in the recent years due to its rise in demand. It has opened new avenues for organisations in terms of marketing as well as entailed certain challenges. Steinfield (2003) has defined social media as a group of internet-based applications that is related to technological and ideological foundations. Businesses use social media in order to enhance their visibility by featuring on networks of individuals (Halal, 2000). We have observed that there are various tools for social networking like, blogging, microblogging and websites (Weckerle, 2013). It is necessary to mention that content of social media is generated by common people who employ easily accessible and scalable technologies like, message boards, blogs, podcasts, micro-blogs and social network (Godfrey, 2005). Seminar Discussion Knowing the constituents There were times when companies used to issue press releases and controlled their own brand image through the messages. However, presently, no such process is followed. Now, company reputation is generally built upon conversations and opinions that consumers hold for an organisation. So, businesses have the responsibility to know their constituents (consumers or investors) (Borges, 2009; Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000). Social media has been the right place for authentic and transparent conversation between organisations and the stakeholders. It has helped organisations to be aware of the investors’ expectations. We completely agree with the statement that social media has enabled organisations to know their customers and investors. Inspiring the customers Presently, in the age of digitalization, social media has allowed organisations to realize taste and preferences of their customers and also influence them through a number of products and services (Aras, Aybars and Kutlu, 2010; Godfrey, Merrill, B. and Hansen, 2009). Social media has helped customers to identify themselves as individuals desire to maintain cordial relationship with the organisation or brand. The conversations exchanged between organisations and customers prove highly beneficial for both the parties. This in turn helps in building a strong sense of community (Zarella, 2009). Getting work done There are a number of organisations that have leveraged social media for triggering a viral chain of interest concerning corporate social responsibility activities, which are executed by organisations. The organisations generally communicate with their stakeholders and customers in order to gather knowledge about their interests and impart knowledge about their products and social responsibilities. This allows companies to communicate their CSR activities and progress in a manner that is fast, easily accessible and ensures vital feedback from their public. Some companies use social media to supply their stakeholders with information and content, while others build and grow online communities around different initiatives and programs. Social media also enables companies to find out the interests and preferences of stakeholders and these collected messages in turn guide and shape future social media strategies. By strategically using social media, companies have embedded CSR communication into their overall communication strategies. In addition to the power of CSR as a vehicle for communicating CSR policies and initiatives, it is also being used increasingly to measure effectiveness of CSR (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001; WBSCD, 2013; Pérez-Gladish, Faff and Benson, 2012; Slaper and Hall, 2011). Short Reflection Social media is considered as the most effective instrument for promoting values of organisations, which will attract stakeholders to invest in them. It has played a vital role in shaping corporate social responsibility policies (CSR) for organisations and in turn helping the latter to represent them before the world as a responsible citizen. So, we have realized that social media has provided an excellent platform to organisations for communicating with consumers or investors in the following ways (Mitchell, 2012; Weckerle, 2013). Sustainability strategies Preparation Over the years, there has been an increasing need for organisations to embrace sustainability programs. Steinfield (2003) has carried out extensive researches in order to know whether the planned programs are really needed for development of the society. His researches have provided limited guidance for actual implementation of program. Organisations undertake those programs, which generate economic and cultural benefits. These benefits are both monetary and non-monetary. These are achieved by employing few strategies that help in developing societal as well as environmental conditions wherein specific organisations operate. For past few years, environmental concerns have become the most debated strategic issue in both academic and business communities. By implementing sustainability strategies, organisations can earn long-term profitability by putting in efforts to defend the ecosystem from any external harm. It assists organisations to seek new opportunities for achieving cost leadership, competitive advantages and market differentiation through fulfilling environmental responsibility. We have learnt that sustainability strategies are constantly employed by numerous organisations so as to gain competitive advantage within the industry (Zarella, 2009). Seminar Discussion The sustainability issue have affected almost all organisations. In order to contribute towards betterment of the environment, organisations have undertaken a number of sustainability strategies (Becker-Olsen, Cudmore and Hill, 2005). The new programs basically focus on solutions that are able to solve complex problems. Hence, we can say that this follows a unique approach based on grabbing new opportunities for development of strategies, which helps organisation in the long run as well as entails social, economic and environmental benefits (Brady, 2003). The sustainability strategies are designed in forms of a program. The strategies represent tools and principles, which enable participants to evaluate organisations on the basis of a number of dimensions related to sustainability. Along with benefits, these strategies also bring along negative effects. The participants employ these tools during evaluation process of the sustainability strategies of organisations. The feedback that is received helps in formulating better, improved and sound strategies so as to earn high return in the future. Here we have studied the meaning of return. The return refers to monetary return that organisations earn from the invested amount of investors. Thus, we can conclude that sustainability reports of companies reflect their respective sustainable position and also determine their stability as that would attract more number of investors (Brady, 2003). Almost all organisations employ sustainability programs. They have cut down carbon emissions, reduced wastage of water and have also concentrated on enhancing operational efficiencies. A strategy must incorporate the interest of stakeholders comprising employees, customers, investors, NGOs, governments and the society as whole. So, we can infer that for successfully implementing the strategies, organisations should focus on increasing value of the shareholders. They should also focus on recuperating their performance in context to social, governance and environmental dimensions (Brady, 2003; Barnett, 2007; Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004). Organisations understand the need of these programs and often undertake them. They do so with the hope of earning good returns from the market where they are operating in. When the issues are not relevant to the strategies, organisations face criticism. The programs are quite expensive, which is why these are undertaken only after extensive research on the return that these may yield. The programs help in improving the social environment as well as allow organisations to build a strong brand image (Hoeffler and Keller, 2002). Short Reflective Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as crucial factors that secure success of an organisation. The initiatives pertaining to CSR activities improve reputation and image of an organisation to a great extent. It increases value of the brand that is provided by the organisation and also aims at elevating customer awareness towards a particular brand as well as employee satisfaction. By designing social responsibility programs and communicating various activities pertaining to social responsibility, an organisation is able to improve its image in front of international market. We have noticed that consumers’ purchase behaviour is heavily influenced by the extent to which a particular organisation is engaged in social responsibility activities (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). Whistleblowing and workplace ethics Preparation According to Barker, et al. (2012) whistleblowing is a recent incident that has been connected with huge financial scandals like, WorldCom and Enron in USA. An individual who tries to prevent a mistake inside or outside an organisation is regarded as a whistleblower (Barker, et al., 2012; Galbreath, 2010). We have identified that decisions related to incorrect behaviour are criticized since these reflect psychological and ethical features as well as association with top managers and colleagues, public opinion and social environment as a whole. Few examples are portrayed in order to foreground corporate whistleblowers, which have prevented wrongdoings within organisations by way of realizing and recognizing the misrepresentation of financial statements (Rimoldi, 2006; Rowley, 2009; Storch, Rodney and Starzomski, 2004). Seminar Discussion The expression was developed in recent times and currently, it had been perceived in both positive and negative manners. When someone raises his/her voice against the wrongdoer as a complaint and he is ignored deliberately, the situation can eventually lead to severe consequences. Thus, those situations are to be averted and such complaints should be taken as a whistle blow as well as corrected immediately so as to prevent a catastrophic situation (Ray, 2006). The best example of such a situation can be cited as follows: the outburst of shuttle, Challenger, 13 seconds after taking off in 1986. The consequences of this accident were severe. Seven crew members had died (Ray, 2006; Moir, 2001). The tragedy was seen by millions of people worldwide since they were watching the launch of television when the mishap had happened. The tragedy could have been prevented if the whistle blowing were considered seriously. The scientist and engineer, Roger Boisjoly, who was the manufacturer of solid rocket boosters of Shuttle and was working for Morton Thiokol, had warned space program agency. The warning was regarding the error in project designs that he had identified the night before launch of the shuttle. His message was a whistle blow to the space program agency, which was disastrously ignored (Ray, 2006). Therefore, we can infer that whistleblowing can often save lives of many as well as prevent catastrophic events from taking place (Brammer and Millington, 2008). An example of whistleblowing can be cited from the hospital industry. In 2010, hospitals like other health care organisations were bureaucratic. The main goals were to achieve fixed tasks, maintain a hierarchical pattern of governance and abide by detailed rules and regulations that are set by health ministry of the particular country. The activities were divided among a number of people so that no single person is responsible for vast activities. The main culture at hospitals was regarded as inaction, status quo and paternalistic control (Newell, 2005). The members of several hospitals during that time were joining other unions, which had led union stewards to repeatedly warn those members to not report to other union comrades. There was huge pressure among members for remaining silent. If they spoke out, then it was regarded as breach of loyalty towards the union comrade; and thus, they remained quiet and never responded to challenges that they encountered (Manpower, 2009). An external whistleblowing was observed, which was reported to the union and human rights associations. This was on grounds of harassment. The union reported that nurse practices were abusive. Nonetheless, there was lack of internal responses to whistleblowing and consequently, the union members who had raised the complaint were ethically tainted. The unethical behaviours in the health care industry were traceable, which gave rise to extensive bureaucratic structures overlooking moral deficiencies of the individual. The administration had the power to automate every characteristics of human life by the way of eroding human spirit and their capability for spontaneous actions (Nicolau, 2008). Short reflection Whistleblowing cannot be outlined in a definite manner. In each country, economists and jurists present different visions for the problem and its solution (Hohnen and Potts, 2007; Bhattacharya, Sen and Korschun, 2008). The word whistleblower originates from practices of English police officers who used to blow whistle on noticing somebody committing crime and then enforce law in public. Hence, the word refers to activities that are positively intended in form of loyalty and trust towards the organisation (Mergel and Greeves, 2012; Chen, 2011). Conclusion (Overall lesson about CSR) The main reason associated with success of social media is quick feedback can be obtained through it. This is why people have preferred social media over newspapers and magazines since they cannot give any instant feedback. This has made social media a unique medium for consumers or customers to directly interact with organisations. This has helped companies to better understand the taste and preferences of target customers. We strongly agree to the fact that social media has brought along numerous opportunities for organisations worldwide by providing an effective platform for displaying its products and values (Baron, 2001). After going through several studies relevant to the topic, we have learnt that younger generations are more dependent on social media than the older one. The stakeholders have considered social media as the most reliable source of information, which will guide them to invest in the shares of organisations (Roberts and Zahay, 2012). Now briefing through what we have learned from the seminar regarding CSR is very important since it is the main concept which is highlighted throughout the seminar. We have seen that CSR is strong concept which has been adopted by various companies and institutions for more than 50 years. Peter Utting (2005 cited in Lee and Newell, 2012) had stated that there has been tremendous growth of transnational corporations and domestic companies that have received support from industry associations. These companies have adopted a number of voluntary CSR initiatives which incorporated many measures. For example: codes of conduct are injected in the companies so as to make the employees disciplined. Different measures are undertaken for improving the health and safety of the employees as well as the environmental management systems. The company also highlighted on improving the financial, social and environmental aspects. Through CSR activities the company also participated in educating the stakeholders regarding saving the environment from any danger (Borges, 2009). We can conclude that corporate social responsibility has received an unprecedented level of attention, over last few decades. The underlying reason behind multinational organisations for giving such importance to corporate social responsibility is that failing to do so might blemish global reputation of the brand as well as image of the organisation. We can say that corporate social responsibility refers to status and activities of an organisation that are associated with stakeholders and societal obligations. Therefore, corporate social performance describes overall performance of an organisation in terms of corporate social responsibility programs. This pertains to organisations that hold the topmost position in the same. The activities related to corporate social responsibility represent the programs that are designed by organisations with focus on sustainable investments. The discussion in the seminar however did not outline the disadvantages of CSR, However, it can be said that the limitations can be overlooked as CSR has successfully converted any company into a responsible citizen. We have understood that whistleblowing has been strictly connected to white collar crimes since employees in these organisations act as the primary source, who can point out the misconduct among executives. The whistleblowers are basically individuals who raise their voice against any misconduct or incompetence within organisations where they work. The disclosure of any information, termed as whistleblowing, can be compared with the harsh sound of a whistle stabbing background noise (Storch, Rodney and Starzomski, 2004). It disrupts imposed silence of status quo and creates a false harmony. Nevertheless, we have noticed that both internal and external whistleblowing entail similar challenges, problems and risks. It not only affects internal work environment, but also have huge impact on reputation or image of organisations as media often brings such mishaps into limelight. Therefore, we can conclude that whistleblowing signals that worse can happen over the time if precautions are not taken (Ray, 2006; Tapang and Bessong, 2012). The choice of blowing whistle on an associate or a colleague or an employer is quite difficult to make, unless there is already a legal allegation against him/her. New allegations are formulated in such a case in order to blow the whistle. In an authentic case related to external whistleblowing, a whistleblower undertakes every successful attempt to communicate the wrong doing in the organisation to the management so that it can be looked upon. So, we can say that whistle blowers undertake every possible ways to eliminate wrong doings with an intention to serve the organisation loyally, thereby protecting reputation of the employer (Ray, 2006; Storch, Rodney and Starzomski, 2004; Lee and Newell, 2012; Bowen, 2007). Reference List Aaker, D. A. and Joachimsthaler, E., 2000. Brand Leadership. New York: The Free Press. Aras, G., Aybars, A. and Kutlu, O., 2010. Managing corporate performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 59(3), pp. 229-254. Barker, M., Barker, D. I., Bormann, N. and Neher, K., 2012. Social Media Marketing: A strategic approach. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Barnett, M. L., 2007. Stakeholder influence capacity and the variability of financial returns to corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 32, pp. 794-816. Baron, D. P., 2001. Private politics, corporate social responsibility, and integrated strategy. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 10, pp. 7-45. Becker-Olsen, K. L., Cudmore, A. and Hill, R. P., 2005. The impact of perceived corporate responsibility on consumer behaviour. Journal of Business Research, 59, pp. 46-53. Bhattacharya, C. B. and Sen, S., 2004. Doing better at doing good: When, why, and how consumers respond to corporate social initiatives. California Management Review, 47, pp. 9-24. Bhattacharya, C. B., Sen, S. and Korschun, D., 2008. Using corporate social responsibility to win the war for talent. Sloan Management Review, 49(2), pp. 37-44. Borges, B., 2009. Marketing 2.0: Bridging the gap between seller and buyer through social media marketing. Tucson: Wheatmark Inc. Boston College and Reputation Institute, 2010. The 2010 Corporate Social Responsibility Index. [pdf] Boston College and Reputation Institute Available at: [Accessed 17 April 2014]. Bowen, F., 2007. Corporate social strategy: competing views from two theories of the firm. Journal of Business Ethics, 75, pp. 91-113. Brady, A. K., 2003. How to generate sustainable brand value from responsibility. Journal of Brand Management, 10(4/5), pp. 279-289. Brammer, S. and Millington, A., 2008. Does it pay to be different? An analysis of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Strategic Management Journal, 29, pp. 1325–1343. Chen, C.H., 2011. The major components of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Global Responsibility, 2(1), pp. 85-89. Galbreath, J., 2010. How does corporate social responsibility benefit firms? Evidence from Australia. European Business Review, 22(4), pp. 411-431. Godfrey, P. C., 2005. The relationship between philanthropy and shareholder wealth: a risk management perspective. Academy of Management Review, 30(4), pp. 777-798. Godfrey, P. C., Merrill, C. B. and Hansen, J. M., 2009. The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: an empirical test of the risk management hypotheses. Strategic Management Journal, 30, pp. 425-445. Halal, W.E., 2000. Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility. Strategy and Leadership, 28(2), pp. 10-16. Hoeffler, S. and Keller, K. L., 2002. Building brand equity through corporate societal marketing. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 21(1), pp. 78-89 Hohnen, P. and Potts, J., 2007. Corporate social responsibility. International Institute for Sustainable Development, pp. 01-115. Lee, C.L. and Newell, G., 2012. Influence of the corporate social responsibility factors and financial factors on REIT performance in Australia. Journal of Property Investment & Finance, 30(4), pp. 389-403. Manpower, 2009. Corporate Social Responsibility [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 17 April 2014]. Mergel, I. and Greeves, B., 2012. Social media in the public sector field guide: designing and implementing strategies and policies. San Fransisco: John Wiley & Sons. Mitchell, M., Turner, J., Corbett, R. C. and Tasner, M., 2012. Measure the Impact of Online Marketing. New York: FT Press. Moir, L., 2001. What do we mean by corporate social responsibility? Corporate Governance, 1(2), pp. 16-22. Newell, P., 2005. Citizenship, accountability and community: The limits of the CSR agenda [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 17 April 2014]. Nicolau, J.L., 2008. Corporate social responsibility. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(4), pp. 990-1006. Pérez-Gladish, B., Faff, R. and Benson, K., 2012. Profiling socially responsible investors: Australian evidence. Australian Journal of Management, 37(2), pp. 189-209. Ray, S., 2006. Whistle blowing and organisational ethics. Nursing Ethics, 13 (4), pp. 435-445. Rimoldi, C., 2006. Whistleblowing at work: Ethical and juridical issues, Accademico, pp. 1-120. Roberts, M. and Zahay, D., 2012. Internet Marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Rowley, M., 2009. Why Social Media Is Vital to Corporate Social Responsibility. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 April 2014]. Sen, S. and Bhattacharya, C.B., 2001. Does doing good always lead to doing better? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), pp. 225-243. Slaper, T.S. and Hall, T.J., 2011. The Triple Bottom Line: What is it and how does it work? [Online] Available at: [Accessed 17 April 2014]. Steinfield, C. 2003. New directions in research on e-commerce. Houndmills: Purdue University Press. Storch, J.L., Rodney, P. and Starzomski, R., 2004. Toward a moral horizon: nursing ethics for leadership and practice. New Delhi: Prentice Hall. Tapang, A.T. and Bessong, P.K., 2012. Social responsibility cost and its influence on the profitability of Nigerian Banks. International Journal of Financial Research, 3(4), pp. 1923-4011. WBSCD, 2013. Corporate Social Responsibility [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 April 2014]. Weckerle, A., 2013. Civility in the digital age: How companies and people can triumph over haters, trolls, bullies and other jerks. Washington, D.C.: Que Publishing. Zarella, D., 2009. The social media marketing book. Canada: O'Reilly Media Inc. Read More