5 keys to implementing Corporate Social Responsibility in an organization
In the era of digital transformation, Corporate Social Responsibility is a global business trend that continues to rise. Not only are companies becoming increasingly aware of their responsibility to the community, but consumers, employees, investors and other stakeholders seem to be demanding it more than ever.
Nearly two in five millennials say they have rejected a job based on their personal ethics, while 70% of Gen Z states they only choose to buy from companies they consider ethical. People are paying close attention to social and environmental impacts, and it’s imperative that businesses do, too.
What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as the actions and polices undertaken by companies with the intention to have a positive impact on the world. It refers to the moral and ethical obligations that go beyond state laws and standards, that is, imply a voluntary commitment and effort to further social good.
CSR involves business practices designed to enhance rather than degrade society, taking into account the effect these can have on employees, the environment, the economy, and other areas of life.
Why should a company implement CSR?
Striving for positive impact brings major benefits to society but also to companies themselves. A properly implemented CSR strategy can provide an important competitive advantage, helping a business attract and retain top talent, build better customer loyalty, boost brand image and media reputation, and gain trust among potential investors and partners.
Examples of CSR in practice
Today’s scenario is filled with both large and smaller scale companies integrating CSR into their business models. While small businesses can become involved with more modest actions, such as donating to charity, sponsoring events or helping the local community, large corporations have the resources to go further and aim for a global reach. Here are some relevant examples of CSR in practice:
LEGO
The toy company has committed to investing $150 million dollars in the next 15 years in efforts to fight climate change and reduce waste. Some of its actions include the use of sustainable materials, reduced packaging, and investments in alternative energy.
Starbucks
The world-renowned coffee chain has adopted a socially responsible hiring process in order to diversify its workforce and provide better opportunities for certain groups, including veterans, refugees, and young people looking for their first job.
Climate change is one of Google’s top priorities, investing more than $2000 million dollars in renewable energy sources and sustainable offices, and claiming to be carbon-neutral since 2007.
How to implement CSR effectively
The first thing before starting your Corporate Social Responsibility strategy is fully understanding the concept and how your organization can fit into it. Once that is clear, these are 5 steps you can follow to integrate it into your business model.
Identify and examine industry problems
Start by asking yourself: what are the problems in my industry? Social impact programs need to be aligned with the company’s core competencies in order to provide value to society, employees, customers and stakeholders. Build the strategy around your strengths, knowledge and culture, focusing on specific issues that fall within your scope of expertise.
Define the solution
What can your organization do to solve this specific matter? Answering this question will determine the value proposition of your CSR efforts. Take this step as a chance to be innovative and show who you truly are as a company.
Make a plan
Now is the time to ask yourself how you are going to do it. Work to develop a vision that will keep you motivated along the way, and involve others in your decision-making. Ask for feedback from employees and customers, conduct an audit of your resources, and take all that information to trace a plan of action made of concise, measurable goals.
Communicate and promote
A Corporate Social Responsibility strategy needs to be accompanied by a thought-out communication plan in order to reap benefits. By communicating with transparency, you can generate more trust in your company and create a better working environment.
Execute and monitor
Your CSR plan is now in action, but is it helping to make the world a better place? Be sure to monitor your goals and track your achievements, noting what works and adjusting what doesn’t.
Today’s increasing demand for accountability makes Corporate Social Responsibility a necessity for organizations. The actions of companies can have great impact on the world’s current conditions, from human rights, job opportunities and the economy, to the environment, health and education.
By following these steps, a team made up of motivated re-solutionaries can implement innovative strategies that will benefit all players of society and create a better future.
And if you are a re-solutionary, take a look at our Master’s degree in International Management, in Finance and in Talent Management, we’re looking for you.
Because we’re re-solved to advance. We have the re-solution to advance.
Why you should know about Organizational Behavior
How do people behave within a firm? What impact do their individual and team attitudes have on results? How do some organizations succeed in managing their human resources? Organizational Behavior helps to understand and manage the internal mechanisms of corporations.
The importance of Organizational Behavior for business
Organizational Behavior (OB) is a specialty that investigates the impact that the actions of individuals and groups have within organizations, with the aim of applying this knowledge to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
Although human conduct has many nuances, certain common denominators can be grouped together and studied to optimize performance. Thus, through different theories, it is possible to focus on correctable aspects once they are detected. This is the richness of a field of study in which disciplines such as psychology, economics and sociology converge.
For example: it is possible to detect that there is room for improvement in the system understood as an ‘organized whole’, to establish the priority in the search for employee satisfaction or to pursue the perfection of work techniques.
The organization as an environment of people
One way of defining a company is as a social system made up of people, and whether you want to work in it or manage it, you need to understand its inner workings. Analyzing these mechanisms makes it possible to describe and explain the actions of employees and to resolve their conflicts.
OB describes the behavioral dynamics that occur between groups and individuals in an environment. Understanding these interrelationships helps managers to achieve their goals, improve productivity and understand what motivates their employees.
It is in the interest of any company to stimulate knowledge sharing in order to perform daily tasks, but also with information related to the work situation. When workers share what they know, it enhances creativity, stimulates innovation and improves results for individuals, teams and organizations. Cultivating knowledge sharing can generate competitive advantages.
Prediction is the key to planning
We have already mentioned that one of the fundamental objectives of OB is to explain how employees act in order to understand their motivations. But perhaps the basic objective of OB is to predict their behavior before it happens, in order to plan the company’s next steps.
Stephen P. Robbins wrote in his book Organizational Behavior that the best reason to apply it is that it is predictive. By observing attitudes and habits, a manager can collect data on productivity, talent spotting, turnover or absenteeism and predict future behavior in the face of change.
With this information, a manager will decide how to present these changes so that they are better received or consider not doing it at all. Models based on Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning can be key tools in prediction and, therefore, in decision-making.
Building a culture
Building an organization’s culture requires knowing the people who shape and share it. A deep understanding of Organizational Behavior will improve a leader’s ability to build teams and manage conflict. In this way, human resources staff can shape organizational culture. So, they will be able to focus on their employees and work results.
Are you a re-solutionary? Take a look at our Master’s degree in International Management, in Finance and in Talent Management, we’re looking for you.
Because we’re re-solved to advance. We have the re-solution to advance.
Omission bias
What is the omission bias?
The omission bias causes us to view actions as worse than omissions in situations where they both have adverse consequences and similar intentions.
It probably occurs because an activity that leads to dire consequences seems more immoral than omission leading to the same outcome.
That is, causing harm is worse and more evident than allowing it to happen. The omission bias is also related to losses being weighted more heavily than gains.
If we fail to act and this results in a bad outcome, we think of it as a missed opportunity for gaining something. However, if we do act and the results are negative, we consider this a loss.
How does the omission bias influence my life?
In certain situations, we assess someone else’s behavior by underplaying the insidiousness of inaction.
Most of our decisions do not question the status quo due to the omission bias, and we rely on the current approaches to avoid any risk.
Consequently, we become trapped in the existing practices regardless of their performance.
The default option is usually our preference, so we often let others command our decisions.
Many policymakers and companies take advantage of the omission bias by designing a process where the default options fit their preferences.
What can I do about it?
We can think about the consequences of our passivity, rather than assuming that our inaction is inconsequential.
We must always consider the impact of our inactivity while making any major decisions.
Our accountability must be extended to omissions, instead of only being restricted to actions. This will allow us to maximize our proactivity level.
If you want to apply this knowledge in a career focused on the common good, check our Master’s degrees: International Management, Finance or Talent Management, and start to change the world with us.
Because we’re re-solved to advance. We have the re-solution to advance.
Sources
“Immunization and infectious diseases”, by healthy people
- Despite progress, approximately 42,000 adults and 300 children in the United States die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases.
“NBA referees are biased”, by Kurt Heling
- There is evidence that referees in professional basketball call fewer fouls at the end of tight games to avoid mistakes that could affect the final result.
“Looking behind bad decisions”, by Manda Salls
- Organ donation is higher in countries where it is the default option (86%-100%). In the United States, donations are an explicit act, and the lack of donations costs 6,000 lives each year.
“Enlarging the societal pie through wise legislation: a psychological perspective”, by Jonathan Baron, Max H. Bazerman and Katherine Shonk
- Most governments have an inefficient decision-making system because it neglects the omission bias as a critical component of human behavior.
“Intuitions about penalties and compensation in the context of tort law”, by Jonathan Baron and Ilana Ritov
- Compensations and penalties when a person is injured are higher if it has been produced by action rather than omission.
“Action bias among elite soccer goalkeepers: the case of penalty kicks”, by Michael Bar-Eli, Ofer H. Azar, Ilana Ritov, Yael Keidar-Levin and Galit Schein
- During a penalty, the optimal strategy for goalkeepers is to stay in the goal’s center. However, goalkeepers almost always jump right or left because of a reverse effect of the omission bias.
“Intention and the omission bias: omissions perceived as nondecisions”, by Johanna H. Kordes-De Vaal
- People perceive that the outcome of an omission is less intended than the outcome of a commission, regardless of the severity of their consequences.
6 qualities of Challenge Managers
The importance that companies give to soft skills when hiring managers reveals that technical and specific knowledge is no longer enough when it comes to leading a group. Only people with a clear and global vision of what teamwork means will be what we call “challenge managers”.
What makes a good leader?
Advantere is a management school that aims to transform traditional business education by putting social justice and sustainability at the center of the strategy. For a long time, however, a list of hard skills such as a degree, knowledge of a foreign language and software were the basis of a professional profile.
Teachable abilities are essential to apply for a job, of course. But do they reflect who that person is, or just the candidate? Let’s put a situation: when two resumes (or two hundred) have similar technical skills, which one should be moved forward with the job application? Soft skills set the tone for engagement in the new society.
Qualities of challenge managers
Organizational leaders have to offer solutions that are effective and produce results for the common good. It is this social core that distinguishes the good players from the top players. To make a difference, it is necessary to combine this qualities:
Communication skills
The best managers are those who build the workplace around actively listening to their employees while matching them with the needs of the company. They appreciate feedback as a way to grow and learn in order to improve.
Ability to accept uncertainty
Adapting to change is one of the keys to success that also increases the team’s confidence in your decisions. Uncertainty is a magnificent opportunity to test a leader’s flexibility.
Critical vision
What is established is only a part of reality that must always be questioned in order to explore its possibilities. Tactical and strategic improvements emerge when the right questions are asked.
Motivation for challenges
The way difficulties are dealt with shows the character of a manager. A good leader is able to offer innovative solutions to complex problems.
Work ethic
It does not mean being the first to arrive and the last to leave. As Foucault said, “ethics is the reflexive form that freedom takes”, understood here as the ability to delegate and unite employees around a common purpose.
Inspirational
A good leader is always an example. Someone who takes his or her team beyond their individual possibilities. Positive influence carries incalculable weight for a company because it builds the values on which trust is based.
Still wondering how to lead a team?
Leadership is far more than just authority, being in charge and mastering hard skills. It requires putting your employees first, being empathetic and offering them the best possible conditions for their development and thus for the company’s goals. This is how you build brand culture.
At Advantere we reinforce these qualities with our re-solutionary learning method, which means collaborative learning: going beyond yourself, expanding your boundaries and being for others. We are committed to giving new significance to management education and to develop challenge managers.
And if you are a re-solutionary, take a look at our Master’s degree in International Management, in Finance and in Talent Management, we’re looking for you.
Because we’re re-solved to advance. We have the re-solution to advance.
