CSR as Corporate Political Activity †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the CSR as Corporate Political Activity. Answer: Introduction: In the modern day firms the ways of doing business have changed. They have become more conscious about their growth and welfare of their stakeholders. In the changing business norms it has become essential for the bigger firms like IKEA to manage the work in a better way (Fuoli 2012, 55-81). This can be done with the help of introspecting on the various aspects of the business. IKEA is one of the leading retail sector firms which deal in the business of accessories, furniture and home appliances. Since 2008 it is the worlds largest furniture retailer. This report analyses the behaviour and actions of IKEA as well as the communication that is being used inside the organisation. IKEA being one of the largest retailers have to think very positively on the way it behaves in the market. This can be understood by the fact that IKEA believes on its strong organisational values that somehow relies on the norms in Sweden. They are highly declined towards the opinion and values of their founder. The behaviour of the IKEA is or its employees are based on the norms and values that are outside the working hours. In the companys profile they have added many people from different domains. In the larger part of the story this company is assembling all its values in one line so that all the stakeholders benefits can be ensured. One of the best examples of this is their workforce diversity which has members from different ethnic society. The gender and age distribution inside the IKEA is best. Companys social performance has been on the good side as they are meeting all the demands of the society. In terms of community development, human rights and CSR activities they have surpassed most of their competitors. Company has dedicated their time on developing the environment at the workplace (Liao 2011). There is both positive and negative side of the behaviour. One positive aspect of their behaviour is their diversity management. Since they understand the importance of managing diversity at the workplace hence they have recruited people from different domain so as to fulfil the need of the industry. This has helped them in maintaining the human rights as their employees are highly paid and they work in the best of the environments. They have taken extra are regarding the health condition of their employees. The have launched their non-profit missions is to support innovation in field of interior and architectural design (Alnge, Clancy and Marmgren 2016, 1009-1022). On the negative side of their behaviour is related to the sustainable business as described in the article Atlantic Monthly in the year 2009, it was the least sustainable retailer on the planet. Since they are the 3rd largest cons umers of the good but they have not given their time towards plantation on the large scale. This company has refused to pay a premium wood guaranteed to be legal. Towards this they have to do more. IKEA has taken many actions so as to expand their growth margins. In their strategies they have taken the interest of their stakeholders along with the demand of the consumers on the first priority (Tarnovskaya and Chernatony 2011, 598-618). They are planning to move towards powering all their stores and workplace with the help of renewable energy. They have made their personal internal tool so as to measure sustainability (Schirone 2012, 54-73). This included a series of 11 metrics. This was important for the image of the company as they were scoring low on the sustainable business development. They have taken actions against the child labour. IKEA have dedicated their focus towards the design of the products they are selling. This has led to make products like furniture that can be easily transported from one place to another. All the actions taken by the company had a greater impact on the society and the stakeholders that is associated with it. One of the positive aspects of the IKEAs actions is that they have made plans for sustainable development which is necessary for the growth of society and their stakeholders. Their plan will help in reducing the amount of wood they are using by the method of recycling or conducting plantation programs. Since previously the prices of the products were on the higher side hence they are developing the operational management that will help them in reducing the amount of waste. This will further help in reducing the prices of their products (Awan, Arwar and Raza 2011, 1-3). With their actions towards the social marketing they have done well in the business. They have made changes in the organisational structure so as to promote their lower level staffs in the decision making process. This has resulted on the positive side. They have taken long term actions as well as voluntary actions so as to think about the native people that are linked with their business. On the negative side it has been observed that the stakeholders are compelled towards hidden cost (Blom 2015, 20-34). Many a times their business lacks in the social skills. They have made strategies towards increasing the available natural resources they have. This will also help in the development of flora and fauna which is necessary for the ecology. They conduct surveys from time to time among their stakeholders so as to understand their mood towards their business (Tarnovskaya 2011, 128-47). They look for the workers that shares organisations values and vision. IKEA has developed a corruption policy, where the rules of corruption is very strict and an investigation policy has been provided to all their workers so as to make sure that they have no illegal practices is taking place within the workplace. Their support towards the children education and save the children campaign has helped the society. They are also distributing solar lamps as well as they have spent 1.35 million euros that will assist cotton farmers in enhancing their incomes and reducing pesticides use and water on their crops. Ikea developed the plan for recycling almost 87% of the waste it generates. Communication in IKEA Ikea has been taking use of effective communication mediums so as to ensure the smooth work process. In the retail sector it is very essential that a healthy communication is practiced at the workplace. Since Ikea believes in transforming the ways of doing business hence they have managed their operations in a better way (AKAY and BA?CAN 2016). They have regular programmes in their workplace where the demands and mood of the employees are heard. Their organisational structure is well communicated which helps in empowering the communications at IKEA. Their customer relationship program has been well defined and hence a high quality communication is established between the consumers and the company itself (Edvardsson and Enquist 2011, 535-551). Their employee engagement program has helped the firm in building the trust among the employees towards companys value and strategies. Their universal digital strategy with the use of social media has helped them in making better relations with their existing clients. They have implemented a communication mechanism where the chance of data leakage is less and information cannot be lost. It is also due to the use of modern technologies for the communication purpose. They generate their communication campaigns where they show themselves a bigger than life concept. For marketing communicating with their clients they have taken use of various mediums like televisions, new papers and advertisements through internet mediums (Singh 2013). This plays a crucial role in their business as their consumers wants to know about the plans and offers they have made. This company believes in transparent communication so that each and every stakeholder of the organisation has faith on the operations of the firm. Hey believe in the fact that health communication is always good for having healthy environment at the workplace. IKEA believes in strong corporate values and hence communication plays a decisive role in the strengthening the bonds b etween the workers as well as engraining companys culture to employees. They have a training program where the communication skills within the employees must be developed. This is highly necessary for having effective communication at the workplace. They have taken the approach of social communication which helps them in their CSR activities (Morsing and Roepstorff 2015, 395-409). Companys performance in the society is highly dependent on the internal and external communication they have incorporated. Communication has helped them in safeguarding against the failures that arise due to lack of information. Conclusion From the above based report it can be said that IKEA is one of the biggest company in the retail sector. In order to ensure their long term growth they have adopted a behaviour that is highly inclined towards the societys success. This behaviour of theirs has helped them in ensuring their position in the society. They have also taken many actions in the favour of the society and the stakeholders they have. It is also to be made sure that while they achieve a higher growth rate they do not undermine the responsibility they have towards their society. Apart from this they have incorporated an internal and external communication mechanism that helps them in ensuring smoothness in their work process as well as maintaining stronger relations with their clients. This also helps in avoiding the failures in the business due to confusions. References AKAY, Deniz, and Sarp BA?CAN. "Intercultural Communication and Crisis Management: Ikea Case Study."Global Media Journal: Turkish Edition7, no. 13 (2016). Alnge, Sverker, Gunilla Clancy, and Magnus Marmgren. "Naturalizing sustainability in product development: A comparative analysis of IKEA and SCA."Journal of Cleaner Production135 (2016): 1009-1022. Awan, Usama, Shakeel Sarwar, and Muhammad Amir Raza. "Green consumer behavior and environmental sustainability."Journal of Science Technology1, no. 1 (2011): 1-3. Blom, Mikael. "Visualization and establishment of product design regulations as interactive modules: An interaction design study at IKEA."Journal of Systems and Information Technology17, no. 1 (2015): 20-34. Edvardsson, Bo, and Bo Enquist. "The service excellence and innovation model: lessons from IKEA and other service frontiers."Total Quality Management Business Excellence22, no. 5 (2011): 535-551. Fuoli, Matteo. "Assessing social responsibility: A quantitative analysis of Appraisal in BPs and IKEAs social reports."Discourse Communication6, no. 1 (2012): 55-81. Liao, Li-yu. "Studying the relationship among the experiential value, satisfaction and, loyalty: An case study of IKEA."Unpublished master dissertation, National Suan Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan(2011). Morsing, Mette, and Anne Roepstorff. "CSR as corporate political activity: Observations on IKEAs CSR identityimage dynamics."Journal of Business Ethics128, no. 2 (2015): 395-409. Schirone, Dario A. "Customers behaviour analysis in furniture field: IKEA case in the Northern Part of Bari province." Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology2, no. 6 (2012): 54-73. Singh Aman Ikea: Suustainability and Profitability two ends of the same stick, Forbes, 2013, available at: https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/csr/2013/02/07/ikea-sustainability-and-profitability-two-ends-of-the-same-stick/refURL=referrer=#52523d7d71ba Tarnovskaya, Veronika V. "The brand I call home? Employee-brand appropriation at IKEA."Branded Lives: The Production and Consumption of Meaning at Work. Ed. Brannan, Matthew J., Elizabeth Parsons, and Vincenza Priola. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar(2011): 128-147. Tarnovskaya, Veronika V., and Leslie de Chernatony. "Internalising a brand across cultures: the case of IKEA."International Journal of Retail Distribution Management39, no. 8 (2011): 598-618.