Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility

Brief report

Many a times, businesses are tasked with the burden of reaching out to consumers of their products even in rugged terrains of regions around the world, all in the name of profit making and doing what is good for business. Companies in this fast changing world are, in the long run, forced to appeal to the masses through engaging in extra-curricular activities aside from their normal practices. Social responsibility among major companies is fast gaining track and is presently a major trend. The extent of engaging in such activities is not limited, hence, making us deliberate on whether the ability of a business to act successfully in a socially responsible manner is mainly determined by the products it produces.

Corporate social responsibility

This refers to a self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of law, ethical standards and international norms by encouraging social good beyond the interest of the firm (Singh, 2005). Such social good can be geared towards social needs such as education or even promoting the use of safe, high quality products. A case in point may be picked from two leading multinational technology companies; Hewlett Packard Development (commonly referred to as hp) and Lenovo. These companies are specialized in the manufacture of hardware, software and computing services. Lenovo's approach to corporate social responsibility is in its commitment to environmental sustainability in all aspects of its business, from product design and supplier selection to manufacturing, facilities management, transportation and logistics and product lifecycle management, including recycling and reuse.

Hewlett Packard is committed to improving social needs such as education and production of high quality products.

With these commitments, both companies are able to balance both financial and social performance, ensuring that stakeholders name are held high in society with business concurrently progressing upwards in terms of their returns. This can make it safe for one to derive that the behavior of these firms in relation to their social interactions is based on the products they produce.

Corporate objectives refer to company goals which are meant to be attained and are believed to be attainable. They set certain standards of performance that are expected in an organization (South China Morning Post, 2013). Corporate social responsibility is part of business strategy, whereby anything is done so as to please the consumer. This aids the organizations' missions at the same time being a guide to what the organizations stand for uphold for consumers. One of Lenovo's corporate objectives is ensuring environmental sustainability. Lenovo's environmental policy is supported by the company's ISO 14001 certified global environmental management (EMS), which is key to their efforts to achieve results consistent with environmental leadership and ensures that company is vigilant in protecting the environment across all of their operations worldwide. Hewlett Packard, on the other hand, has an objective based on production of quality products for consumers. Society is very diverse, thus, whereas some people would go for quality others would opt for energy efficient products. As Lenovo would be busy encouraging people to plant trees, Hewlett would be busy seeking young minds to develop new systems. This, too, can enable us conclude that social responsibility is dependent on a company's products.

Responsibilities accepted by a business are influenced by commitment to quality and safety, the global supply chain, environmental impact, focus on employee welfare and ethical standards. These influences integrate with other aspects of business including policy and procedures in order to undertake social responsibility. If members of staff at Hewlett Packard are committed to quality, then in order to undertake social responsibility there is the need to have employees who are willing to reach up to the smallest in society bearing in mind that the potential of an educated mind could lead to positive growth of the company through ideas they (young minds) generate. If Lenovo is moved by environmental sustainability, then they will seek to advance this, probably through re-afforestation programs organized by them. Whenever companies undertake such projects, it is always to show their commitment to the people at large while at the same time appealing to the beauty of their products.

The extent to which a business is socially responsible, therefore, would be influenced by other factors such as market value and consumer target population. Hewlett Packard has a higher market value than Lenovo presently. It is safe to say that Hewlett is capable of getting involved in more social responsibilities than Lenovo as it (Hewlett) has higher returns which can enable it to undertake more social responsibility. Should Lenovo want to reach out to a suburb in Africa, for example, it would have to take up more social responsibility in order to establish its trade name in such an area. This means that more funds would have to be injected in both cases for them to promote the quality of the products they produce.

Social reporting is defined as the use of social media as a means to facilitate and document events. It allows people to share in real time, be it photos, videos, live events or even advertisements. Stakeholders in social responsibility gain a lot from social reporting as it enhances communication between producers and consumers. They can, for example, set up a blog for an event, feed in their photo streams as well as their bookmarks product marketing. This gives out a unique opportunity to reach out to a wider community. Social reporting enhances the presentation of data which enables the evaluation of a product.