CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS
Corporate social responsibility is a global issue every business looks forward for ways to involve itself in various CSR activities. Businesses who do not choose to involve in CSR activities do not have a high tendency of succeeding in the long run. There are various cases where businesses involved in CSR activities have gained employee motivation and investment from various third parties in order to tackle social issues.
Engaging in activities that not only benefit the business, but the society at large has been a major concern for several businesses worldwide. CSR is no longer associated with business charity and donations its much larger issue; it involves the wellbeing of the society as well as employees. For, example providing them with health care facilities, ensuring proper working conditions and giving them various other perks and benefits. Besides that, it involves insuring wellbeing of investors, the environment, government, business associates, competitors, shareholders and other associated groups.
(Armstrong Part 1, Ch. 8) CSR policy of a company is based on a company’s core values such as care and consideration for people, competence, competitiveness, customer service, innovation, performance, quality and teamwork. For example, (Armstrong Part 8, Ch.35) Employee well being is one of the major concerns of any businesses. Working conditions should meet health and safety conditions. Every employee should be treated as an individual with different needs and wants. The employers should make sure that they provide their employees a balance between work and non working activities by introducing ‘family friendly’ policies that facilitate flexible working.
There are various reasons affect the mental health of the employee’s stress being one of them. Stress can lead to illness and inability to meet deadlines. There are various ways in which businesses can help employees with stress Firstly, by clarifying the job role, setting reasonable targets and performance standards, offering career planning services, mangling performance, counselling, starting anti bullying campaigns and management and training.
Sexual harassment is another reason that needs to be addressed in large corporations there should be a clear statement that sexual harassment will not be tolerated, and strict actions will be taken. Organisations should provide help for anyone subjected to sexual harassment to seek advice, support or guidance.
Bullying is another form of harassment . A policy should be published that any form of bullying is unacceptable behaviour, people who feel that they are going through this situation should have the right to discuss the matter with HR or rained counsellor.
Services and group employee should be offered that include counselling through EAP programmes.
(Armstrong part 8, Ch.36) Health and safety of employees is a major matter of concern of employers (Health and Safety at Work Act 1974) Various regulations should be laid down in the Codes of Practice. Organisations should regularly conduct risk assessments, health and safety audits that provide a comprehensive review of all aspects of health and safety policies, procedures and practices and health and safety inspections which help in locating any faults in system
(Image 2 Source: Statista 2021)
ETHICS
Ethics of multi corporations involve working in an ethical manner and meeting the ethical standards
1. Ethical universalism Businesses should have same standards of what is right and what is wrong universally. This allows the company to implement a global code of ethics which is applied evenly across all their operations. For example, Sainsbury’s have developed their own code of conduct which includes standards such as paying at least minimum wages to workers, providing safe working environment, no usage of forced or child labour.
2. Ethical relativism According to the school of ethical relativism, morality is relative to norms of one’s culture. That means it depends upon the moral norms of the society if any action is right or wrong. There are certain drawbacks to this situation as well for example Many companies in the United States encourage equality amongst women and men and bribery is considered wrong. Whereas while operating in Middle Eastern countries women are considered as subordinate t men and bribery is accepted.
3. Integrative social theory integrative social theory states that in order to tackle ethical problems in business, they should uphold both universal ethical principles and local circumstances.
THEORY 1: CARROLL’S CSR PYRAMID
According to Carroll’s theory CSR activities consist of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic activities. They further form the foundation or framework for any businesses responsibilities towards society and its employees.
ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY
This is the foundation upon which all others rest. This is the only way for a business to support society and survive in long term. The economic responsibility of businesses is to create goods and services that cater to the needs of the society and further generate a profit on them. Only if they do so they would attract shareholders to invest in their business who further expect a reasonable return on investments.
LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY
Legal responsibilities of any company are to determine how businesses should conduct in a fair manner, it is about obeying the laws and regulations that represent society’s opinions of codified ethics.
While complying with these legal responsibilities’ businesses should keep in mind that they
1) Are performing in a consistent manner in line with governments expectations.
2) Obeying federal, state and local regulations.
3) working as law abiding corporate citizens
4) Satisfying all their stakeholder’s legal obligations
5) Producing goods and services that at least meet minimum legal requirements.
ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Societies expect businesses to conduct their activities in an ethical manner. Societies should respect the evolving ethical and moral standards that the society has adopted. Businesses should not let ethical norms to be compromised in order to achieve their goals.
PHILANTHROPIC RESPONSIBILITIES
Philanthropy or business charity is not a mandatory act but is something that is expected by the public. Also, it is any business’s duty to give back to the society as much as they take from it as they do not have unquestioned right to operate in the society. The nature, type and quantity of these activities are elective and depends upon companies desire to take part in philanthropic activities. Being involved in philanthropic activities not only gives the impression to publi c that the company cares but also is a medium to encourage shareholders to invest in the business
(Table 1 Carrol’s CSR Pyramid Framework.)
CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT AND DIVERSITY IN ORGANISATIONS
Most of the successful fashion businesses operate globally. Therefore, every place has certain requirements that differs from the other. For example, Import and export, needs of each location, legal practices and policies, management of employees etc. International HRM deals with all these issues and comes up with suitable policies and solutions. HRM should come up with policies that support the achievement of international business strategies. Cultural differences, Institutional differences, convergence and divergence are issues that HRM investigates. To conduct smoothly across different nationalities, boundaries and cultures.
(Image 3: Carroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility)
THEORY2: HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSION THEORY
Hofstede’s Dimension theory was created in 1980 and examines how national cultures impact corporate management. Geert Hofstede was one of the first researchers to study the influence of national culture on business operations. national culture on business operations.
( Image 4 source: HofstedeInsights 2021)
Hofstede’s theory identified six major categories
1. Power Distance Index Indicates the extent to which the people of a particular society take the hierarchy of power. High power distance indicates that a particular culture highly accepts inequality and shows high respect for rank and authority.
2. Collectivism vs Individualism measures the level to which societies are unified into a category and their dependence on groups. Individualism states that there is more emphasis on achieving personal goals. Whereas collectivism states that more emphasis is laid on achieving group goals.
CSR, ETHICS AND CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT AT ADIDAS GROUP.
3. Uncertainty Avoidance Index measures the level to which uncertainty and ambiguity are accepted and dealt. A high rate of uncertainty avoidance index means low tolerance for ambiguity, risk taking and uncertainty. Whereas low uncertainty avoidance index means higher acceptance for ambiguity, uncertainty and risk taking.
Adidas has always valued the importance of csr ethics and cross culture management to build public trust, support and to engage in activities that help in improvement of society, contribute t
4. Masculinity vs. Femininity means the dispensation of roles between males and females. In masculine societies men are expected to behave in an authoritative manner.
We can understand adidas’s CSR strategy by the framework provided by CSR academy (2006)
6.Indulgence vs restrains Examines the extent and tendency for a society to fulfil its desires. Indulgence means that a particular society allows partial free gratification. Restraint stands for a society that does not support gratification.
5. Long Term Orientation vs Short Term Orientation Examines the point to which society views its time horizon. Long term orientation focuses more achieving long term success and delaying short term success. Whereas short term orientation pays more emphasis on delivering short term success.
CSR, ETHICS AND DIVERSITY AT ADIDAS
Adidas has always valued the importance of csr ethics and cross culture management to build public trust, support and to engage in activities that help in improvement of society, contribute to environment and most importantly to provide employees with positive workplace and environment.
We can understand adidas’s CSR strategy by the framework provided by CSR academy (2006)
1. Understanding society Environmental sustainability has always been a very important aspect of Adidas group’s business model. In 2021 company announced that most of its apparel lines, accessories and shoes would be made using 60% recycled polyester and aims to achieve its goal of using 100% recycled polyester for its products by 2024.
Adidas has put in efforts to replace leather by using more cotton and developing alternatives such as they launched a vegan line in 2020 where vegan version of Stan smiths’ shoe was the bestseller.
Adidas also plans to resume its partnership with parley to make worlds shoe made of recycled plastic from oceans and seas.
2. Building capacity In addition to this Adidas group is working with their supply chain is working towards global climate neutrality by 2050. This goal was attained via a 20% reduction in
(Table 2: Hofstede’s culture dimensions theory)
(Image 5: Hofstede cultural dimensions theory overview and categories)
water consumption at their Tier 1 suppliers' facilities, and a 35% reduction at their Tier 2 suppliers' facilities
3. Questioning business as usual Adidas has always been involved in improving the quality of life for various communities. In a global campaign ‘United against racism’ Adidas donated $120 million dollars to support the black community. Adidas has been funding over 50 universities scholarships, internships and job opportunities every year for black and Latin students where 30% of the new positions are filled by them.
4. Stakeholder relations Adidas has always valued by considering them the key. To their success. Adidas offers its employees with several monetary and non monetary perks and benefits. (APPENDIX 1) besides that Adidas offers Services to their employees such as performance management to encourage regular high quality engagement between employees and managers, provide regular framework, regular feedbacks, and ensure goals are reviewed regularly. The results have confirmed that this has increased employee enhancement and motivation. To reduce the risk of bias while performance evaluation, Adidas has provided its line mangers with tools and guidance. Besides Adidas offers services such as travel security health management and internal communication to its employees.
5. Strategic views For years Adidas has supported various social communities and has closely worked with several organisations both local and global level to bring a positive impact. They also provide financial aid and donate products to international aid organisations that support affected victims
Adidas’s community involvement also includes supporting refugees in 2016 they joined a German business driven integration initiative ‘wir Zusammen’ to steer long term projects that help refugees find their place in society. Since then, more than 100 refugees have been offered internships, temporary or permanent places in the company.
In 2016 and 2017 the company supported refugee camps in Greece, Italy, turkey, Iraq, and Balkan route and donations for children in Syria for their education.
Adidas has also done extensive product donations in North America and Latin America (img 6) statistics for year 2020 2021)
6. Harnessing diversity Adidas strongly believes that diversity, inclusion and equality are the key to success
Adidas has a clear diversity and inclusion framework Which highlights their approach internally and externally which focuses on areas such as
A) workplace: creating an environment where all employees feel valued and empowered and further give exceptional results.
B) Workforce to maintain diverse workforce at all levels and to recruit, attract, retain and promote the best talent from all around the world.
C) Marketplace serve diverse community by providing excellent services, quality products and serving them through partnerships and investments.
In addition, women hold 35% positions in management in Adidas group.
As discussed, Adidas has always operated business in an ethical manner and has always met the ethical standards i.e., ethical universalism, ethical relativism and integrative social theory. All the company policies, environmental, diversity and inclusion policies are ethical.
CONCLUSION
The following report clearly demonstrates and gives clear insight into adidas’s csr, di versity and ethics. However, there is opportunity for the company to improvise and be more efficient. In order to cater to diversity Adidas should come with gender neutral collection and policies that benefit
people from LGBTQ+ community. Adidas should look forward for collaborations with small and ethical business. Adidas is renowned sportswear brand therefore they should encourage to follow their passion for example pursuing a sport, gym, hiking etc. Adidas’s Modest wear range included hijabs for women which got outstanding feedbacks therefore in future Adidas should come up with more of such products that cater to specific religious groups of the world.
Following in an informal interview conducted as a part of primary research to gain an insight into Adidas’s CSR policies
Q.1 The best thing about your job that makes you happy while working here?
Ans “The best thing about Adidas would be its diverse workforce . You get to meet people from all around the world who have several different things to offer. Also, I Work here whilst studying, and it has been the best retail job I've had. Work as a team to reach targets with a bonus when met. You can work your way up in the business and gain tons of transferable skills.
Besides that, I’ve felt that the company genuinely cares about the employees by offering several benefits.”
Q2. Does Adidas offer any staff discount?
Ans “Yes, the company offers 44% discount online to all its staff.”
Q3. Besides the discount what other perks and benefits does the company offer?
Ans “Discounts are a really good incentive besides we are offered onsite gym fitness facilities, healthcare and the pension rate at Adidas is high than other companies.”
Q4. Do, you feel that working hours are flexible and you don’t feel pressurised.
“Yes, I feel that working hours are flexible and for the managerial staff 20% is work from home.”
Q5 what is your say about the salary at Adidas?
Ans “Adidas offers its employees competitive salary which is really good Besides that rate of pay are all same regardless of age.”
Q6, Do you think company is doing enough for the environment as a part of their and how are you a staff member involved
“Yes, Adidas firmly believes in giving back to planet as much as we take from it. Besides that, the staff is well aware of their csr policies regarding environment, people, investors etc. we have special meetings and training sessions where we are made aware of each and every little detail. Also, I am a fashion student I understand the importance of sustainability in fashion and its impact therefore I feel that this is really great initiative and makes me feel that the company genuinely cares.”
APPENDIX
1
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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(Image 1: Adidas’s global employee population 2019 and 2020)