Corporate Social Responsibility And Sustainability At Microsoft

Overview of Microsoft's commitment to CSR and sustainability

Disuses About The Contribute To Firm Financial Performance?

At Microsoft, every policy and ethics are reflections of the organisation’s commitment for making the world a digital and better place. The reflection enthusiast the employees of Microsoft to work hard and their hard work are reflected in the company’s all over expansion in the present world. Microsoft has taken the responsibility to provide the world the top services and their responsibility addresses the economic and social issues in the present world (Hoi, Wu & Zhang, 2013). The principle aim of Microsoft is to earn the trust of more customers with proper decision-making and empower organisations and individuals. The responsibility of Microsoft extends to safeguard the future of the planet (Microsoft.com. (2017). The company focuses on achieving the long lasting impact of their product on the planet. This company highlights the importance of technology for creating a world of digitalization. Dedication is the main key that the company utilizes to bring more uniqueness in the relationship with their customers.

The citizenship mission of Microsoft largely observes the whole activities of the corporate social responsibility of Microsoft, which is ‘to serve globally the needs of communities and fulfil the responsibility towards the public’. Microsoft owner Bill Gates has also founded many foundations that also serve the perception of common people quite largely. Among all the employees 90 % of them are eligible for getting incentives, more than 99% of them has under gone the training of standard of business conduct in the year of 2016, almost 11700 employees have already enrolled them in the process of employee feedback and have already provided feedback using the same (Epstein & Buhovac, 2014). Among the large number of employees working in Microsoft, 92% in a survey displayed their proud feeling for being an employee of Microsoft and 87% recommended Microsoft for having the most effective workplace. In the year of 2016, Microsoft formally committed to human rights as participant of United Nations global compact (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). The business strategy of the company can be named as product differentiation and this is because the company is used to developing of the products that are technologically advanced and then selling the same for specific costs. The present strategy of the company is to increase their expansion through mergers and acquisitions and even by increasing the business opportunities. However, the weaknesses of the company are weak internet browser, less innovation and dependency on hardware for manufacturing their products. In the past year, the company has generated 86USD billion for revenue and 53 billion for gross margin and the rest of 21 billion for income operation (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). Microsoft is marked for having the second largest certified privacy professionals compared to the other companies. Microsoft has specific employees who take care of the breaches of the company policy and other employees to look after maintaining the sustainability in the company. The company maintains their commitment of advancement by evaluating the supplier operation of 23 ethical risks as well as social and environmental. Microsoft pursues a belief that technology leads the world towards achieving a sustainable future by empowering more people and organisation. The company  uses technology in order to minimize the environmental impact. The company has taken responsibility to initiate ways that will help them establish a sustainable future for the world (Magdani, 2016). Sustainability is a major concern of the company and this is because the company wants to have a sustainable future. For these they have started funding for the sustainable development. The initiative of power of data and analytics that the company uses installs insight among the customers and empowers them for achieving sustainability is transportation, water system and others. The investment of Microsoft helps the customers for managing the resources with big data power (Berg & Sheehan, 2014). The company is engaged in a large competitive industry that has many fluctuations within the market technologies and even among the strategies used by the companies. The company generates constant revenue from the every existing products in the market and Microsoft has kept their commitment by ensuring that they spend a huge amount of capital on market research as well as initializing development of the market. Microsoft is among the leading organizations in terms of the CSR activities which has contributed much to the society and it has done great work in the anguish stricken regions all around the world largely (Tai & Chuang, 2014). However, to turn itself into a responsible corporate citizen and contribute largely to the society it is essential for the organization to maintain their sustainability in the market by enhancing and continuing their initiatives. Microsoft has marked them as an organization that has been able to generate many business opportunities for other companies in the market across the globe (Janssen, Sen & Bhattacharya, 2015).

Microsoft's approach to sustainability in product design and business operations

Microsoft is fully committed towards environmentally sustainable practices for their businesses. Microsoft is an organization who has considered the usage of the corporate social responsibility as an integral aspect of the business model of the organization. There are mainly four types of corporate social responsibility and they are economic CSR, legal CSR, ethical CSR and philanthropic CSR (Tai & Chuang, 2014). Most of the countries in the world are using a single bottom where the primary purpose of the organization is fulfilling the goals and objectives of the organization set by the stakeholders. However, recently large numbers of companies are using a double bottom line and triple bottom line to incorporate the corporate social responsibility in to the business model of the organization. Microsoft is one of the leading organizations in the CSR activities who has contributed a lot to the society and has done great works in the grief stricken regions all around the world. However, in order to become a responsible corporate citizen and contribute to the society it is essential for the organization to maintain their sustainability in the market. Thus, economic CSR is one of the major factors, which will help the organization in maintaining the sustainability of the organizations in the market (Suliman, Al-Khatib & Thomas, 2016).

Microsoft has made use of the innovation in the business model and products, which has helped them to generate more revenue in the fiscal year of 2016. The management of the organization has two-way communication with Bill Gates as the charismatic leader who has been able to transform the organization (Saeidi et al., 2015). The organization is following a transformative leadership pattern where the employees are encouraged to share their opinions and use innovation to make the technology even better. Microsoft is such an organization who has been able to generate business opportunities for other companies in the market. The organization provides their employees with a lot of benefits and flexibility, which helps to create a motivated diverse workforce (Boulouta & Pitelis, 2014). The organization considers the workforce as the one of the important aspect of the organization as the workforce of an organization can increase the productivity of the organization and at the same time will help in gaining competitive advantage in the market. Microsoft is the major contributors in all the natural disasters the world has faced and has aided the people with all their resources, which show that how strong the organizations sustainability is. The company has started the commercial cloud, which has generated a lot of revenue for the company, and Office 365 is one of the biggest success for the organization as it has hit 23.1 million subscribers in the market. The revenue of the Microsoft azure also grew by 113% and the use of the SQL database has simultaneously increased to a different level (Microsoft.com., 2017). The company was able to acquire the company named LinkedIn in June 2016 at a price of $26.2 billion (Microsoft.com., 2017). The company is involved in a highly competitive industry where there are lot of fluctuations in the market technologies and the strategies used by the companies. The company is generating constant revenue from the all the products in the market and Microsoft has made sure that they spent a lot of capital on research and development of the market. This helps them to come up with new technologies, which provides them with competitive advantage in the market. Thus, it can said that even though contributing back to the society is the responsibility of all organizations but one thing that has to be taken in to account maintain the economic condition of the company should be the primary goal of every organization in the market.

Microsoft's efforts towards economic and social responsibility

Hence, it can be concluded that, the economic CSR of Microsoft is still expanding and for maintaining sustainability, it is very important to enhance the corporate social responsibility activities of CSR and that will help in keeping the commitment of the company regarding a sustainable future. As sustainability is a major concern of Microsoft, the company has largely played a role in practising of ways that will lead to sustainable future for the world. Microsoftas an organization considers that workforce is one of the important aspect required for every organization as mainly the workforce of any organization is able to help in increasing the productivity of the organization and at the same time help in gaining and increasing the competitive advantage in the market. Microsoft is one of the major contributors for all the natural disasters the world faces and has been aiding the people with all their required resources, which is a strong example of how strong and powerful the sustainability of Microsoft is and how they manage it.

References:

Berg, K. T., & Sheehan, K. B. (2014). 7 Social Media as a CSR Communication Channel. Ethical practice of social media in public relations, 99.

Boulouta, I., & Pitelis, C. N. (2014). Who needs CSR? The impact of corporate social responsibility on national competitiveness. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(3), 349-364.

Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management . Nelson Education.

Epstein, M. J., & Buhovac, A. R. (2014). A new day for sustainability: is your company ready to take on increased responsibility for its activities throughout the globe?. Strategic Finance, 96(1), 25-34.

Hoi, C. K., Wu, Q., & Zhang, H. (2013). Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) associated with tax avoidance? Evidence from irresponsible CSR activities. The Accounting Review, 88(6), 2025-2059.

Janssen, C., Sen, S., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2015). Corporate crises in the age of corporate social responsibility. Business Horizons, 58(2), 183-192.

Magdani, N. (2016). Design for deconstruction: director of sustainability, BAM Construct UK, Hemel Hempstead. Nature, 531(7595), 436-437.

Microsoft.com. (2017). Microsoft 2016 Annual Report. Microsoft.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017, from https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar16/index.html

Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), 341-350.

 Suliman, A. M., Al-Khatib, H. T., & Thomas, S. E. (2016). Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Social Performance: Reflecting on the Past and Investing in the Future, 15.

Tai, F. M., & Chuang, S. H. (2014). Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), 117.