In
recent years organisations have put tremendous amounts of time, money
and effort into ensuring that their corporate image and reputations
are better than they have ever been!
However,
as onlookers it can be hard to distinguish between those who do this
simply to appear as socially responsible as possible to potential
investors, customers or the general public, and between those who
genuinely believe that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an
important, ethical and moral part of their organisational culture,
and something that they truly believe in.
"Corporate
social responsibility is about how the company acts towards the
community and environment in which it operates. CSR focuses
on ethical business management through ways that improve
and protect the environment and social relations and supply a
positive public image."
The
concept of CSR has been prominent now for the last two decades at
least, with large cases such as the American sportswear giants Nike
becoming headline news for years regarding their ethical and moral
standings. Since then however, it should be known that Nike became
one of the leaders in CSR, ensuring that all of it's wide range of
stakeholders are aware of their new, clean approaches to social
responsibility.
There
is a whole host of other examples that could be named alongside this,
as the age of social media in particular has risen, the everyday
people are becoming more and more aware of the practice of companies
of all shapes and sizes, and as soon as word spreads about an
organisation there is nowhere to hide!
A
more recent example of this can be found with the latest news
regarding the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen...
I
short, evidence arose that the company (or a certain department
within the company) had altered the newest cars using so called
"defeat devices" during the testing process, so that
readings of emission levels were in fact doctored in order to pass
emissions tests.
The
implications, as you may have seen yourself, have been significant,
with thousands, if not millions of cars being recalled, costing the
company billions of dollars.
This
unethical and environmentally unfriendly behaviour has reached
further than the cost implications however, with the entire
reputation of the VW brand being tarnished.
The
overriding lesson learnt therefore is that a little short-cut may not
always pay off, as if issues are identified at a later date there can
be massive repercussions. Having a mindset and business culture of
being honest, open and caring (beyond the natural confides of your
individual role) can pay huge dividends in terms of your corporate
reputation.
For more Ethics based reading, you can find our
case study Ethics Pack here:
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