Transdisciplinary approach of understanding and analyzing CSR and its implication on social domain(CSR)

The transdisciplinary approach is the study of the CSR and sustainability which integrates multiple instruments and measures from different domain of societies and communities. Indeed, the fragmentation of CSR and sustainability has necessitated the corporation to undertake transdisciplinary approach (Thiel, 2016). It is a holistic study of the different dimension of CSR and sustainability. The use of transdisciplinary model helps the corporation to understand and analyze beyond just one-to-one relation between the corporation and community but will also help in understanding various hidden issues related to formal and informal society and their impact in the trust and CSR outcome.

The transdisciplinary approaches are heterogeneous which is helpful when the knowledge about the societal relevant filed is uncertain and nature of the problem is disputed. The CSR impact, outcome, and reciprocation among the corporation, community, government, and individuals are impacted by various explicit and implicit factors, here the analysis of financial and non-financial data helps to provide a clear view of the relationship between multiple factors which may have directly or indirectly influenced the CSR and sustainability of the corporations.

Let us see it with an example, the Trump administration recently revoked the “Paris Climate Accord” which was imperative to tackle global warming. It looks weird but was good for those who have billion dollars invested in the coal, gas and mining industries. But this one-to-one relation is also impacted and influenced by multi-factors; international communities and watchdog expressed their discontent over US decision, similarly the environmentalist showed their strong reservation, environment scientist also disparaged Trump administration for their inability to limit the carbon emission to combat greenhouse gas and these all leads to the mockery of Trump speech at United Nation General Assembly (UNGA 73) that happened in New York(18^th September 2018). The whole audience laughed when Mr. President detailed US achievement in past two years of his presidency. A serious and critical situation where international community has lost faith on US reducing environmental footprints. Had transdisciplinary approach studied this would not had happened.

Bibliography

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.

Five recommendations for the corporations while implementing CSR(CSR, Dr. Thiel)

The recommendations provided after the research are listed below:

Recommendation one: compare the outcome of multiple organizations

The objective, scope, and motives of all the companies into the CSR might not be the same, it must be studied well for potential risk outcomes and other sensitive indicators. Some companies focus on creating positivity within the company’s controlled domain (internally focused), like controlling suppliers and operations so that they can exercise CSR in their supply chain. Nike, revoked its supplier from Pakistan after finding the supplier was using children to manufacture its product (Baker, 2016).

Whereas some focuses on dissolving the existing social fragmentation, they try to engage with the local communities to understand the expectation of the community and individual from the organization which ultimately let the company design the CSR activities as per the need and expectation of the society. Philanthropy may not be the only sustainable approach of CSR, if the company is working in an elite society, well facilitated by the state and city government, the society expects reputation as a brand and personality enhancement from the company but another way around, philanthropy could be a blessing for the marginalized community. Companies like Campbell Soup and BP focused on corporate philanthropy, Procter & Gamble focuses on improving the life of consumer through quality products (Thiel, 2016).

Recommendation two: re-examine the impact of formal partnership for informal networks.

(Thiel, 2016) concludes in her thesis, the CSR and sustainability are critically impacted by how the informal society reacts to the CSR approaches undertaken by the corporation. The informal society could disharmonize the trust prevailing among the corporation, local community, and individual.  So, the government and companies should be proactive to access social issues. The corporation should analyze the formal and informal movement of customer inside its boundaries and try to understand their hidden agenda and try to maintain social cohesion. Focus on creating social cohesion by sharing, since the individual interacting at the micro level will influence the macro level.

Back in my country, the government is expanding the road which will is ultimately for the betterment of the community so that they can commute well but this has become a social issue as some of the structure has to be demolished for road expansion. Though the government is giving compensation as per the market price, the informal group are agitating and negatively impacting the trust between the government, local community, and individuals.

Recommendation three: formal and informal society for positive and negative impact to current CSR with financial and non-financial data.

Corporation should see and analyze the impact of individuals and local communities in constraining and shaping CSR activities and it should be done viewing financial and non-financial data. Without the interaction and reciprocation from the individuals, the corporation cannot achieve competitiveness. And equally the company should take care of the culture as it changes per location. The writer stresses, the corporation should analyze transdisciplinary research methods to improve social performance. The CSR outcome is impacted and influenced by numerous variables from informal and formal society, the model incorporating the financial and non-financial data helps in performing scenario analysis, integrated risk management which helps the corporation to understand and perceive hidden agendas. The use of data makes the research more representative and precise.

Recommendation four: analyzing the social relation through transdisciplinary methods

As mentioned above, CSR and sustainability are not so straightforward as we have thought of. The social domain of CSR is impacted by various internal as well as external variables creating risk and reward position. The interaction of various formal and informal societies and fluctuations of trust level among the micro, meso and macro variables makes it a compulsion to go beyond the formal and linear model of CSR. Transdisciplinary research can reveal hidden problems, these leads to innovation and brings competitive advantage. A problem could have happened due to various issues and due to the interaction of various actors.

Recommendation Five: individual driver investigation for reputation and social risks.

Individuals are the micro level participants who can have meso and macro level implications in CSR and sustainability outcome hence the corporation should evaluate how different local communities’ mindset and perception may constrain the formal border of social responsibility. The examination of the CSR is most from the individual level also since individual mindsets greatly impact the communities view. Corporations should evaluate the individual drivers in local communities coming out from the collective behavior to determine fragmentated reputation and social risk.

Bibliography

Baker, M. (2016, February 29). Nike and child labour – how it went from laggard to leader. Retrieved from www.mallenbaker.net: http://mallenbaker.net/article/clear-reflection/nike-and-child-labour-how-it-went-from-laggard-to-leader

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.

Is citizen's responsibility same as of government and corporations in CSR? (CSR)

Definitely its yes from my side, the citizen also has the same responsibility as government and corporation for social responsibility which fosters national competitiveness. Though often it is presumed, the burden of social responsiveness to be on the shoulder of corporation and government (Thiel, 2016), the situation should be beyond that and citizen should also reciprocate back. The passivity to act from the community dimensions will decrease the essence of feedback read system of social responsibility and competitiveness.

The research finding by (Thiel, 2016) concluded when local communities are held accountable for the social responsibility by corporations, there is the chance in the increase of local, regional and national competitiveness and in the similar way when the government hold the local communities accountable for social responsibility and competitiveness then local, national and regional competitive advantage is likely to increase.

The level of trust the individual has towards community, corporation, and government defines the pro-activeness of the citizen to be responsive. If the individual trusts the government and corporation they will participate otherwise they may maintain their passivity. So its most important for the corporation and government to maintain trust among the CSR participants.

Citizens are the smallest unit of the community which should be reciprocal in their CSR activities. They are shaped by the culture and environment they breed in. They are the vocal point to speak against the deeds of corporation and government and performs a corrective measure. Venezuela, the country is crippling in stiff financial crises, thousands of people have already left the country in search of food and shelter. The president Nicolas Maduro was on the trip back from China and had a steak at the luxurious hotel owned by famous chef Nusret Gokce at his Nusr-Et(Istanbul), the topic got the social outrage. The citizen throughout the globe criticized Maduro lavishness forgetting the pain of his citizen and appealed to boycott Mr. Gokce restaurants around the globe. The social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter were atrocious against Mr. Gokce hospitality for Maduro and the protest was also seen in his Miami restaurant. This scenario shows the way citizen protested Mr. Maduro (BBC, 2018). Similarly, United Airlines was also engulfed by social media aggression when it used inhuman approach to sack an existing passenger, the outrage makes company to its keens and has to apologize publicly.

In 1996 when Nike child labor issue outcropped, it was devasted by the social criticism. The international brand was mocked and boycotted for employing underage children’s. The social pressure from the community, made the company rethink is an operational strategy. It revised its code of conduct and the company escalated from “laggard to leader”.

            But equally, the attitude of the citizen towards the CSR responsiveness depends upon the culture of their community there are brought up. In case of the western countries, the consumers are more proactive and conscious about CSR and environmentalism but the same may not be the scenario in case of least developed countries and in some middle east countries engulfed by the war. In India, the civic movement and lobby group compelled the supreme court to legalized consensual gay sex whereas the two lesbians were canned publicly in Malaysia.

In above examples, the responsiveness of the citizen has created a pressure in the organization as well as the government, but equal consideration has to be given that it should be unbiased. The responsiveness of citizen makes the community competitive and it necessitates corporation to be competitive which ultimately makes the country competitive.

Bibliography

BBC. (2018, September 18). Nicolás Maduro: Fury over Venezuela leader's Salt Bae 'feast'. Retrieved from www.bbc.com: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45559504

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.

Understanding 5 constituents of social domain in CSR and fragmentation with an example(CSR)

The five constituents of the social domain in CSR and Fragmentation as stated by (Thiel, 2016) are: -

The social domain as socio-economics

The socio-economics comprises of consumer, labor and occupational health safety whereas researches have focused the sustainability to be guided by economic and environmental factors.

The social domain as social welfare and well-being

 It focuses on enhancing the living standard of its stakeholders, the burning issues include poverty reduction, competitive wage, and good working conditions.

Stakeholder as the social domain

Stakeholders are all those parties that are directly or indirectly impacted by the action of the organizations. Often CSR is driven by the stakeholders and their decision and participation are important in CSR and sustainability.

Unequal social responsibility in the social domain

Most of the time the CSR and sustainability are seen as the burned to the organization alone with no reciprocation from the community.

Social progress in the social domain

The social progress challenges and addresses the lack of social responsibility and social competitiveness in the society beyond legal compliance. The social domain plays a crucial role in CSR and it has to be sustainable equally. 

Google LLC is renowned globally for its CSR initiatives for its stakeholders. The company has integrated the CSR and sustainability philosophy into its corporate strategies.

The social domain as socio-economics:

The company has always prioritized its employees. It provides competitive remuneration and conducive work environment for its employees.

Earning profit is most, CSR comes with the cost in terms of money, time and energy. So, the basic philosophy to implement CSR is to earn the profit in a sustainable way and CSR supports this. Google incorporates the CSR in its corporate strategy, it has helped the IT behemoth to accumulate reputation and brand image. Profit, People, and Plant is a circularity. Yahoo bad management collapsed its profit and market image, the search engine company is way far behind Google since the company is not even to come across its basic philosophy earning profits.

The social domain as social welfare and well-being

The company focuses on enhancing the standard of the living of its overall stakeholders. Its corporate office located at California is run vide renewal energies and substantially protects the natural environment . Google is working in “Project Loon”, the company is testing and launching the internets through hot air balloons. The success of the project will make internet accessible to 4 billion peoples where traditional internet technologies like optical fiber is a far cry.

The product and services that the company is innovating, has created a positive impact in the society. The Google uses the renewal sources of energies like a solar panel. A business who uses Gmail can reduce the Green House Gas(GHG) emission of its email service by up to 98% compared running an email in the local server (Google, 2016). The company currently employees 85,050 and worldwide has created a platform through which millions have earned and survive.

Unequal social responsibility in the social domain

Its vivid the burden of CSR generally falls in the shoulder of the company, in the case of Google also same has happened. The government plays a regulatory role. After the issues of data mining from Facebook, the tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google had to testify in Congress which brought strong rules regarding data policy.

Google advocated net neutrality whereas government of USA was against it. Though net neutrality is good, it was seen as the responsibility of the company alone. The philosophy of CSR and sustainability is also influenced by the political and legal views of political parties. The individuals also have to be equally responsible towards the CSR, they have to speak up and reciprocate. The women empowerment; “Me Too” aroused and change the overall corporate environment due to women’s awareness and reciprocation.

Bibliography

Google. (2016). Google Environmental Report. California: Google.

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.