INTRODUCTION
MAIN BODY
Concept of CSRThis is a management practices which aims at integrating the environmental and social issues of the society with the practices and operations of business. The CSR is a business practices which help Tesco in producing the products and services in such a way that it creates a positive impact over the overall society. This CSR not only covers the protection of environment but also includes ethics, moral values which business must consider at time of working, sustainability issues and many other factors which leads to better performance of companies (Ali, Frynas and Mahmood, 2017). This also includes providing of qualitative products and services to the consumers at affordable and reasonable prices. In addition to this CSR also includes taking care of all the stakeholder of the business. This is a responsibility of the company because all the stakeholders are interested in better and qualitative performance of the company and this is only possible if the company uses ethical and morally correct business practices. The CSR is treated as the integral part of the business and its success because without considering this the company cannot operate in the highly competitive market.
Role of CSR in businessThe major role of CSR within the business is to focus that the company is using all the practices which are correct at ethical and moral level and does not harm any of the values of ethical working. This is the most important role as this ensures that all the practices which are being adopted by the company are trustworthy and effective (What is your role in corporate social responsibility? 2016). Also, the other role of CSR within the success of the business is that this focuses on the fact that whether the company is taking care of the rights of the employees or not and whether they are being provided with the fair and equal opportunities for growth or not. Even the CSR makes sure that whether the companies are using the equitable practices or not and whether there is existence of any sort or type of discrimination taking place at the workplace (Barnett, 2019). Whether the discrimination is in form of age, gender, income status, religion, culture and many other discriminatory bases. In addition to this another role of CSR in developing business is to ensure that all the waste coming from the company is managed and is reused and recycled by the company so that it does not harm the environment in which the business exist.
Benefits of maintaining CSRIf the company abides by all the requirement of CSR, then it is very beneficial for the company. This is majorly because of the reason that when the companies operate by keeping in mind the CSR maintenance then the major benefit enjoyed by companies is the increase in the goodwill and brand recognition. This is majorly due to the reason that this will attract more of the consumers that the company is working towards the upliftment and betterment of the society. Thus, this will increase the brand value and the goodwill of the company. For instance, for taking care of environment Tesco in its plan has committed to eliminate deforestation with help product of Tesco till 2020 and company is also planning to make the packaging of product completely reusable and recycle till 2025 (Three ways we’re fighting for your world with Tesco, 2020).
Another major benefit shared by the companies by implementing the CSR principle is cost saving and reducing the operational cost. The underlying reason behind this is that proper and optimal use of limited resources leads to reduction in the cost of operation. Hence, this results in the overall cost savings and die to this the profitability and productivity of the company’s increases. For example, Morrisons use CSR practise to take care of the environment by charging a little high price from consumers and then adding it to that amount and contributing it in CSR practices in order to prevent unethical working.
With implementation of CSR practices the other benefit enjoyed by the company is the retaining the employees and attracting new and fresh talent. However, this is a benefit because of the fact that if company will work in betterment of society then this will attract more of the employees and will motivate the existing employees to work in more effective and efficient manner. For example, IKEA provides additional benefits to the people who have just graduated and applied for job. This is because they have more latest knowledge relating to the changes and are very adaptable to the changes taking place. Thus, this increases more talent and employees within the company.
Challenges in maintaining CSROne of the most important and common challenge which the company faces at time of implementation of CSR practices is the pressure from the investors (Asmussen and Fosfuri, 2019). This is a challenge because the investors focus mainly ion the protection of environment and use of CSR practices. This distracts the business form focusing and taking care of other important business activities. On of the major challenge in implementing the CSR practices is the cost of implementation. This is a challenge because the use of such practices involves a lot of money and time. Thus, this is a time-consuming process as the company has to first research that in which direction they have to use CSR practices and then implement it (Aguinis and Glavas, 2019). One more major challenge faced at time of implementation of CSR practices which is providing training to the employees so that they work in ethical and correct manner.