Integrating CSR And Issues Management In Qantas Airways Essay.

The aim of this second report is to extend your knowledge of corporate communications and your ability to apply that knowledge to a real organization. You will particularly focus on CSR issues management, and making realistic recommendations. This means that your recommendations should be both desirable AND feasible.

Qantas Airways is the flag carrier of Australia. It is considered to be the largest airline by its size of the fleet, international flights, and destinations. It is found to be the third largest and oldest airline in the world. Qantas has a reputation for excellence in safety, operational reliability, engineering and maintenance and customer service. The company is providing the services at a very low-cost carrier as compared to others. The main business of Qantas is providing the transportation to the customer using the two complementary airlines brands- Qantas and Jetstar (Qantas, 2017a). This brand operates regionally, domestically and internationally. The strategic focus of the company is to build the company large as possible and have a competitive advantage in the market. The shareholders should earn the profits for the long term in the business and value of the shareholder should be maximized. The Qantas is performing the various CSR activities for the welfare of the society. For performing the CSR activity in the organization, communicating the message and information is needed. The stakeholders are also interested in knowing the CSR activities so to have a good corporate image in the market. The continuous assessment of the environment is done by the company to know the internal and external environmental conditions, as decisions are taken while considering all these factors.

Corporate Social Responsibility is the responsibility of the company to fulfil the social needs of the society. If the social needs of the society are not fulfilled then the corporation may have a negative image in the minds of the public. This term is referred to the efforts that go beyond what may be required by the regulators or environmental protection groups. CSR also was known as the corporate citizenship in which short-term cost are involved that do not provide an immediate financial or monetary benefit to the company but promote the positive social and environmental change (Bizfluent, 2017).

Qantas performing the CSR activities in the environment to have the positive image in the mind of the public and can gain from the market. Quanta’s Airways believes that if the company is acting responsibly in the environment he can gain a positive image in the market. The company believes to have high standards in everything they are doing and gives the opportunity to consumer and other people to evaluate the performance based on the robust, publicly available information. Qantas Airways believe on some principles to be followed by the company to have sustainability in its business. The concept of living our beliefs and values while operating with the integrity of the business so that the beliefs and value of the company should coordinate with the individual's values. Qantas group believes that everyone has the right to return home safely and every customer deserve the respect (Qantas, 2017b).

Another principle followed by the company deals in the approaches towards the management. Management of Qantas focuses on maintaining the strong corporate governance in the company so that it can run the business s without any restrictions of government and other authorities. The shareholders’ value can be enhanced when the company is having the strong corporate governance followed in the business and it should be done for the long term to know the opportunities and risks of the market. As shareholders are the real owners of the company, if the shareholders are earning, the company will earn high revenues (Qantas, 2017c).

Role of CSR within your organization

The third principle followed in the Qantas Airways focuses on disclosing the performance of the company. Each and every activity is done by the company is disclosed by the company to its stakeholders so to have transparency and visibility in the work performed. Qantas Airways believes in the satisfying the stakeholders the most as they are the persons who are responsible for flourishing the growth of the company. Qantas report transparently to describe how they are making the shareholder value, advancing and enhancing the strategy in the organization. Company focusing on the foundation of the long-term sustainability in the business and creating a positive impact in the society the company is serving (Wagner, 2018).

The company is facing the CSR management issues in implementing the group-wide programs to improve the environmental performance. Devising and implementation of strategies are done by the company to improve the fuel effectiveness and efficiency. They are trying to reduce the emissions on the footprints of aircraft operations. The company also makes and efforts to have effectiveness in the water and energy strategies (Vilela, 2014)

Role of CSR is not limited to performing the environmental activities but it is more than that. The CSR is the responsibility in which the company has the liability to do something good for the society. As the company is using the resources of the society so it is the responsibility of the business to do something for the society as well. The main features of the CSR focus on the clients, customers, clients and staff. The main aim of the CSR is to satisfy the needs of these people. If these people are satisfied then the Company can grow two folds more. Qantas is concerned about their clients and gives them special attention by providing their services (British Airways, 2018).

In Qantas, the strategy used in communication of CSR is done through select the social initiatives with high issue support. In this company monitor their key stakeholders and considered them to be as the priority of the business and do the business which benefits them the most while taking the innovative techniques. The company believes in encouraging the employees so that the communication of the CSR strategy can be done easily and employees can grab it fast and the implementation of the strategy can be done (Sustainable Brands, 2018). The company is striving for various forms of stakeholder’s engagement. Employees used their social tie-ups to have a wide reach among the other groups of interest in the company. As consumer word of mouth is working as a promotion tool for the company and a positive image adds on to the goodwill whereas a negative speak about the company by consumer decrease the image of the company (GreenBiz, 2014).

The shareholders are very much involves in the CSR activities and sustainability of the company. Involvement of the shareholders leads to the value creation in the strategy of the company. Ultimately the engagement of the stakeholders is about embracing the opportunities and managing the risk of the company. All these information should be timely communicated to the shareholders as the company is using the resources and funds of shareholders only so it is the responsibility of the company and its members to have transparency in the reporting. CSR also affects the brand and reputation of the company. If the Qantas is performing the socially responsible work then the company have good image in the minds of customer and Qantas the airways is a service sector. By providing the service, company has to give a special attention in attending their customer, it will add to the goodwill of the company (Seo, Moon & Lee, 2015).

Role of CSR Issues Management for your organisation

 Role of CSR Issues Management for your organisation 

The company is said to be socially responsible when they give the commitments to improve the economic conditions and growth of the country in which its business exists while improving the quality of the life of the employees and workers, their families and the local communities at general. Issue management is the role of identifying and resolving the issues of the business with internal and external environment. Problems related to the staff clients and suppliers are discussed. All the technical failures in the company, material shortage in the warehouses give the negative image on the company which will hamper the growth of the company. Various other issues are also taken but these are finding to be the one which directly affect the company growth (Karago, 2017).

Both CSR and issue management are directly related to each other. If CSR and issue management work in the same direction then the company can achieve the sustainability in the market. If not the company has to bear a huge amount for the same. CSR is done to have a positive image in the minds of the public but every company like Qantas are facing the same problems of material shortage, misconception and other mishandling problems. To overcome this problem, the company tries to give something extra to the society to improve its image in the market (Milne, Gray & Buhr, 2014)

Coordinating with both these issues is done by the managers of the company so to have efficiency and effectiveness in the business and organization can survive in the long term in the market. In this management, media are playing their role. Media helps the company to promote the services. The media can be used to seek volunteers from the society or the specific places where the company is launching their CSR initiatives (Zhang & Lin, 2015).

There should always be consistency in the communicating the message from top-level management to lower level management. Communication is found to be the essence of management. Without communication, information cannot be transmitted to one person to another. For sharing the information and knowledge in the Qantas, communication is necessary for completing the hierarchy in the company. The delivery of message should be consistent in nature so that the time to time updating should be received at all the levels of management (DiStaso & Bortree , 2014).  

Providing the consistent message in the internal and external environment of the company establishes the reputation of the company. The trust among the customer, clients and other stakeholders are increased with the company in a positive way. As the company is showing the transparency in the information and reporting in the business. Investors are free to invest more in the company in which proper information is provided time to time. Communication not only increases the relation with the outside world but also enhance the relationship in the organization between the superior and their subordinates (Wang, Wu & Sun, 2015).

The use of green marketing is also done by the Qantas in its daily operations. Green washing or green can be defined as the marketing in which promotion and incorporation of the biodegradable products or services are there. The Qantas is dealing with the service industry which has a very low scope of doing the green marketing. Yet there are certain service sectors that have recognizable environment impacts. The airline industry has received considerable attention regarding their emissions. The company is using this technique in the fuel and emission of the aircraft and saving the resources.  The Qantas is trying to reduce the emission of the carbon dioxide gas after the load of the passenger in the flight. By the increase in the number of seats, carbon dioxide emission per passenger seat-kilometer decreases.  Qantas is helping in reducing the impact of harmful gases in the environment as well as offering the seats to the customer at lower cost by achieving the economies of scale in its business (Chang, Chen, Hsu & Hu, 2015).

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the communication in the organization is just as the funds required by the company. The communication channel in the Qantas is very well managed by the top level management and lower level management. The link between these two levels of management that is the middle-level management is playing their role efficiently and supplies the accurate information timely. If any decision has to be communicated by the top level to lower level, it is done on time and vice versa. All the problems and grievances of the lower level staff are well coordinated with the higher level authorities of the company (Coles, Fenclova, & Dinan, 2014).

The Qantas is using the various strategies for effective communication in the company. The company seeks the CSR activities that fit into the business strategy.  The proper emphasis on the CSR commitment should be given for the long term and there should be a proper concrete impact of its CSR activities. A CSR communication strives for the various forms of stakeholder involvement. The company have social tie-ups with their clients and have a wide reach among the different groups of interest in the company (Singh, & Agarwal, 2014).

Qantas should give more focus on the environmental factors. As the company is contributing towards the green marketing but company should try to give more efforts to improve the environmental conditions of the country. Reports are highlighted the stronger focus on the environmental issues than on the social or economic dimension of CSR. Of the seven major environmental themes are examined, emission reduction programs are predominated all the reasons. Other environmental issues received much less attention as compared to the CSR, with no single other initiative implemented by the Qantas (Amin, Janson, & Bystrom, 2016).

This recommendation is feasible and desirable as well. As all the clients, customers and suppliers want to have the good corporate image of the company. The company should comply with all the environmental legal requirements and other obligations of the industry and market so to remain competitive in the market. Preventing from the pollution where this is not possible then also reducing the impact as low as reasonably practically possible. The company can also minimize the wastage and reduce the disposal to landfill and increase the re-use and recycling of the resources.

Another recommendation Qantas should take into consideration is increasing the scale of business. The seating area in the flights should be increased by the company so that the flight capacity can be increased and more passengers can be travelled at a time and another benefit company can able to earn is the reduction in the emission of fuel. It will not only enhance the profits and revenues to the company but also helps the consumer in the saving of their cost. From the analysis, it can be recommended that the initiatives taken in the CSR  are consistent in nature while measuring the performance , making an evaluation and making a comparison of their performance and effectiveness difficult (Wells, 2015).

Ensuring the safety and security of the clients is also a necessity for the company. It is the responsibility of the company to serve its customer at its best. But Qantas can improve this by providing the special treatment to its premium customers and provide the comfortable ambiance and environment to its customer on a flight.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the CSR is very important for every company to survive in the competitive market.  Companies use the CSR to have the competitive advantage in the market and a positive image in the minds of the public. Qantas airways are performing their responsibilities very well by doing the various innovative techniques to satisfy the majority of its stakeholders.  The company is using the innovative strategies to implement the CSR in the environment. The company is trying to analysing the need for the internal as well as the external environment to know the demands and needs of the majority of the stakeholders. For the same, company is trying to communicate with the stakeholders by giving the consistent messages to them and taking the feedback also. While doing all these companies is maintain its image and brand reputation in the market. Qantas Airways trying to build its goodwill in the market by doing the socially responsible work for the welfare of the society.

References

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