CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE - CSR

CSR HISTORY  

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a formation of corporate self guideline module merged into a business model. It is also alternately termed as Social performance, Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Conscience and Sustainable Responsible Business. H R Bowen first referred CSR in his academic topic "Social Responsibilities of the Business" in the year 1958.   It then gained significance in the 1960’s and became prevalent since then covering the moral and legal responsibilities of the Corporate for the society as a whole. The term "Corporate Social Responsibility" became highly popular and has been retained as a term used randomly by the masses to relate morally and legally to its responsibility towards social obligations. Corporate Social Responsibility can also be defined as receptiveness of businesses towards stakeholder’s ethical, social, legal and environmental expectations. It’s a dedicated response to the civil society and consumer expectations. Here the policy works as an inherent self regulating mechanism where organizations regularly monitor and implement its continued compliances within the regulations of law & social ethical standards by abiding all international norms.

The standards for measuring CSR or recognized international parameters of evaluating CSR are ISO 26000, whereas public sector organizations also adhere to the John Ellington’s 1994 coined Triple Bottom Line Concept (TBL, TPL, 3PL) of integrating People, Planet and Profit referred as the Three Pillars namely. Various social aspects affecting business practices like environmental degradation & pollution, labor exploitation, human right abuses, gender discrimination, complex cross cultural work environments and consumer awareness negligence have forced organizations to seriously rethink towards environmental & social causes. Strategically also organizations have recognized the business value of being able to align products with relationships and be more responsible towards society as a whole. The World Bank which promotes industrial growth worldwide defines CSR as a commitment of businesses contributing sustainable economic development by working fairly with their employees and families, local communities and society at large. CSR has helped in impacting and improving Community living, which has further reflected positively in organization’s businesses and enlargement goals.

CSR MODELS AND ITS INDIAN CONTEXT

Indian Pre and Post Independence contribution to CSR has grown steadfast at a healthy pace from Philanthropy to active participation in shouldering social & community responsibility and development.  Mahatma Gandhi- ‘The Ethical Model’ (1930-1950) is one of the prime model where during 1930’s Gandhiji laid emphasis on Family Businesses and promoted joint family ventures for contributing society by providing employability, security and cultural upliftment. Through this model many companies voluntarily contributed in Nation Development. Leading M.K Gandhi’s model Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Statist Model (1950-1970) was implemented where States were the prime owners for promoting extensive developments on social structure regulation and administrations. This model gave States freedom for developing industry and providing employability and resourcefulness to states for far-reaching corporate regulation. Milton Friedman’s Liberal Model (1970-1990) illustrates the purpose of CSR is primarily focus on the relation between the owners and the stakeholders. It also highlighted that all profitable organizations must pay tax the generated revenue must be used on social reform and development. R. Edward Freeman’s Stakeholder Model (1990- present) highlights the collaborative ownership of each responsible citizen of the country towards raising the social structure, the role should not only be reserved to stakeholders but also to employees, customers, corporate, public and private partnership. 

INDIAN PERSPECTIVE OF CSR

In the globalized 21^st century unprecedented opportunities and challenges have risen with the craving for comprehensive development and the necessity of accessing crucial climate changes. In the last two decades, India has emerged as a global leader at various commercial forums with its economy undergoing tremendous growth. It has been acknowledged as one of the fastest growing economies and billed as the next superpower in the coming years. CSR in India is a welcome & healthy challenge and it is implementing it cautiously and judiciously in respect to international perspectives.

Business & Commercial industry here is viewed globally as a liable component of the poised growth that the country is looking to achieve and has made several inroads into. Now it’s also imperative to take leadership roles towards those challenges. It is also joining hands in integrating environmental, social and ethical responsibilities with able governance of businesses to achieve sustainability, competitiveness and long term success and goals. We have faith in the global viewpoint, that all businesses are a essential part of society and have a vital and prominent role in sustaining and promoting a healthy ecosystem, along with fostering social equity and upholding good governance by following ethical practices. Indian organizations and entrepreneurs have value based ancient traditions of well being of the stakeholders and nation building as a whole. These values and prior traditions are prevalent even today in the neo modern India and thus encompassing modern day challenges of the enterprises, stakeholders and citizens to actively participate in the socio economic growth and development measures.

Taking a keen interest in the challenges of Social corporate responsibility the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs have formulated and proposed voluntary guidelines for Indian organizations in 2009.

Voluntary Corporate Social Guidelines-2009

Adopting responsible governance practice by the organizations is the government’s primary focus and to assist them they have framed some guidelines as per expectations & challenges of the society and the country. These have been drafted in consultations with the industry experts, stakeholders, chambers of trade and commerce along with internationally practiced and prevalent guidelines.

Fundamental Principle

A CSR policy should be formulated by each individual business entity detailing roadmaps for implementing its CSR initiatives. These initiatives should align with the business goals of the concerned organization, thus being a vital part of their overall business policy. Framing of the policy should be done by the active participation of the executives at different levels and duly approved by the board.

Author: Manjul Thapliyal

             Principal Consultant

             Visions Ahead

             Web: www.visionsahead.com

                  

MANAGEMENT AND ITS DIVERSIFIED STYLES - EDUCATION

MANAGEMENT & HISTORY

The term Management signifies coordination of self & people’s efforts, efficiency’s and effectiveness to accomplish Individual & Organizational goals. In the Corporate world it involves the right mix of organizing, planning, leading, directing and controlling the day to day activities to accomplish desired objectives of growth & profitability.  It’s also generally assumed as a factor of production including materials, machines and money that is often supplemented with innovation and tools of marketing. This resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of natural, technological, financial resources along with human resources. The foremost function of management is to satisfy its numerous stakeholders, in rather simpler terms it refers to making profits by producing valued products and services for consumers and thus providing work opportunities for the people. Management or to manage was derived from Managgiare, which in Italian means to handle and Manus in Latin which stands for Hand and the French word  Maneger meaning to direct a household. The French word Mesnagement influenced and was later transformed to English word Management in the 17^th and 18 centuries. Before the industrial revolution, the little management functions were focused around the owners, But the management split between the daily operational managers and owners with the growth and complexity of the industry in terms of output and size. By the end of 19^th century the first few identifiable groups containing remunerated managers began to emerge and their related scientific theories also gained prominence around the 1920’s. The renowned Havard Business School in 1921was the first to award initial degree in Master of Business Administration (MBA), with writers like Henri Fayol (1841-1925) laying emphasis on the other correlated segments of managements and their interrelationship matrixes. In 1946, writer Peter Drucker (1909-2005) was first to present a book on Applied Management named ‘Concept of the Corporation’. By the end of the twentieth century six segments of Business Management gained prominence namely as Marketing, Finance, Operations,  Human Resource, Information Technology and Strategic Management. Presently in the twenty-first century it has become extremely multifarious to subdivide them into different functioning categories but the precise mix of each function is being absorbed for accomplishment of Total Quality Management (TQM).

CORPORATE MANAGEMENT 

The arduous task of proficiently running a corporation or organization by overseeing different departments and the complete business is known as corporate management. It integrates the diversified functions of different departments into a cohesive unit as a whole to achieve the defined goals of the company. Decisions involving procedures & policies of the organization and their implementation through the right channels are formulated by the Management and they are also liable for them and making the staff visualize the company’s mission and vision through set procedures and hierarchy. The channels of corporate management are formed by The Managers, General Managers, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer (COO/CEO) and the Board of Directors but the ultimate Onus lies with the Owners of the Corporation.

 MAJOR FUNDAMENTALS OF CORPORATE MANAGEMENT

Some of the major fundamentals of corporate management are listed below:

•      Managing Mid &Large Scale Organizations
•      Management structures and Objectives
•      Management Styles
•      Change Management
•      Evaluating Organizational Performance

 MANAGEMENT STYLES

Management styles differ as per different characteristic ways of decision making. It is the overall practice of leadership followed by the manager to execute his ideas. Business, clients, staff and subordinates are all affected and influenced by the forms of different management styles. Organization structure, demand and challenges also influence some companies to adopt a particular management style.

DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT STYLES

a. Authoritative: Long term directions and vision are the primary objective of this style of management. Here directions are firm but fair and guides employees clearly. The guiding factors are motivation, persuasion and feedback on performance. Here vision is laid down by the management and then work is delegated in accordance to guidelines provided.

b. Directive:  It is a model of military style leadership and can be termed as a coercive style which demands automatic compliance. This management style influenced by threats and discipline was earlier the most often used and also the least effective one. It became unpopular as its commanding nature failed to raise the morale of the employees and undercut job satisfaction.

c. Democratic: This participative style of management tends to build consensus and commitment to achieve the organization goals. Here management strives to tap the collective wisdom and strength of the group. Here team members feel privileged as their opinion is often considered by a voting procedure in the decision making events. This approach in crisis can be disastrous when critical events demand instant decisions.

d. Pacesetting: The criteria of governance here are high standards of performance or standard benchmarking. In this style the leader often sets the pace for the pack to follow and lead if possible but expects the employees to follow self direction while implementing tasks. It is vital to remain focused while retaining pace, but should refrain from intrusion in others path. At times this race to victory sets obsessive behavior in some and undercuts the morale in other employees, thus polluting the climate of the organization.

e. Affiliative: This style of management promotes harmony and well being among employees by focusing on team work, communication and better coordination. Here people come first and tasks are secondary and there is avoidance of any direct conflict among employees. It is to be used tactfully, as it tends to hamper corrective actions on down sliding performance.

f. Visionary: This style encourages new direction, from the conventional approaches of management. It’s an articulated and farsighted approach to achieve innovative dreams which promotes experimentation and calculated risks. Most management gurus are visionary who take a bold path towards achieving glory to the organization.

g. Coaching: One to one mentoring is the approach in this style of management as the emphasis is on everyone to succeed. It promotes long term overall development of the employees while focusing on organizational goals simultaneously. Training and skill development are key learning areas (soft skills, image management, behavioral development programs) and encourages employees to strengthen their skills and improve performance.

Manjul Thapliyal

Principal Consultant

Visions Ahead

www.visionsahead.com