Reflective Journal: Sustainability

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of an organisation incorporates social, environment and economic value to the core business strategy and operations management. Through the identification of risks attached to the business management, CSR of an organisation provides substantial social and ecological sustainability to the firm for long-run benefits. The essay has been presented to demonstrate how CSR of a corporate business structure has contributed to sustainability (Gonzalez-Perez & Leonard, 2013). Meanwhile, understanding the imperatives valuable for corporate social productivity, modern organisations have significantly added business ethics to the CSR to produce corporate sustainability.

Corporations around the globe have to struggle with the current business trends without losing the organisational productivity standards. On the other hand, the organisations need to take significant responsibility for the current business operations that may affect the civilisation and normal environment (Schaefer, 2014). Therefore, the management of the organisations requires identifying appropriate sustainability principles to conduct the operations in an efficient procedure. Meanwhile, sustainability primarily consigns the operational activities of a corporate firm to include social and ecological concerns to the business model. Modern business ethics no longer identify a successful business organisation merely by the economic prosperity of the firm. The actions of an organisation must promote long-run public interests to the societal prosperity (Conard, 2013). Keeping abreast of the international trends, modern business organisations need to be committed towards the society as well as the organisational financial obligations. As a result of that, business models, industrial framework, business regulations and standard of discussions of ethics must be included within the Corporate Social Responsibility to achieve corporate sustainability.

Nevertheless, modern organisations have significantly developed high standards of ecological, social and corporate levels to meet the societal and business imperatives. Along with that, CSR of contemporary business firms has promoted efficient quality of relationship among the people attached to the business so that corporate and ecological sustainability have been retained (Timpere, 2008). The integrated social responsibility shown by the business corporations has been significantly acknowledged by the social public so that the business environment of the firm can reach beyond the traditional boundaries. Meanwhile, the role of leadership in CSR has been considerably crucial to maintaining the standards of corporate sustainability in a given market (Paul, 2008). By following the recent business trends, effective leadership in CSR can promote human rights, equal opportunities for every subordinate, reasonable antagonism within the workforce to achieve the target of corporate sustainability.

Considering the history of Corporate Social Responsibilities, it can be seen that CSR began with donation of money for social welfare in the early days of industrial revolutions. With changes in laws and increased concern among the common people regarding ecological and social development, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility changed for the modern business organisations (Sarvaiya & Wu, 2014). Currently, Corporate Social Responsibility has become an essential element for the sustainable growth of a business. Every organisation working in the global competitive industry needs to implement CSR policies to seek sustainable competitive advantage (Kleine, 2010). Any business cannot seek success with an unsuccessful society. Hence, CSR has been recognised as a key to competitive advantage that helps an organisation seek good reputation in the market and increase its corporate value.

There are several factors that must be considered by any modern organisation in order to meet the growing needs of corporate social responsibility (PrzychodzeÅ„ & PrzychodzeÅ„, 2014). The first primary factor is the new expectations and concerns of the consumers, citizens and public authorities in regards to industrial change and globalisation. Second is the growing influence of social interference on investment decisions of individuals and organisations. Next factor is the growing concern of people regarding environmental degradation.  Hence, it has become important for any organisation to consider all above factors to survive in the market and seek sustainable competitive advantage (PrzychodzeÅ„ & PrzychodzeÅ„, 2014). The protection of environment has become a core responsibility of every business organisation. It has become mandatory for industrial operators to follow the rules and regulars regarding environmental conservation to survive in the market.

Now, considering the drawbacks of Corporate Social Responsibility, it can be seen that CSR practices leads to increase in expenditure of the organisations. Every global leader needs to invest a huge amount of money to seek technology advancement that would be helpful in conserving the environment. Along with that, CSR leads to increased pressure over the employees of the company due to extra activities. It can be seen that CSR exerts certain burden over the organisation, but is the only key to sustainable growth of business in the current market scenario. Hence, CSR is recognised as primary strategy to corporate and ecological sustainability that helps an organisation to seek better positioning in the market.

Conard, B. (2013). Some Challenges to Sustainability. Sustainability, 5(8), 3368-3381. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su5083368

Gonzalez-Perez, M. & Leonard, L. (2013). International business, sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Bingley [England]: Emerald.

Kleine, A. (2010). Sustainability-driven implementation of corporate social responsibility: application of the integrative sustainability triangle. Strategic Direction, 26(5). https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/sd.2010.05626ead.001

Paul, K. (2008). Corporate Sustainability, Citizenship and Social Responsibility Reporting. Journal Of Corporate Citizenship, 2008(32), 63-78. https://dx.doi.org/10.9774/gleaf.4700.2008.wi.00007

PrzychodzeÅ„, W. & PrzychodzeÅ„, J. (2014). Corporate Social Responsibility for Sustainability.Management And Business Administration. Central Europe, 22(2), 80-97. https://dx.doi.org/10.7206/mba.ce.2084-3356.100

Sarvaiya, H. & Wu, M. (2014). An integrated Approach for Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability. Asian Social Science, 10(17). https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v10n17p57

Schaefer, A. (2014). Corporate sustainability - integrating environmental and social concerns?. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Mgmt, 11(4), 179-187. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/csr.70

Timpere, A. (2008). Corporate social responsibility. New York: Nova Science Publishers.