Different Strategies Used by Organizations to Communicate Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Title: The different strategies used by organizations to communicate their CSR activities Course: Date: Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is perceived as the corporate focus that a company takes in order to ensure a continuous measure of its responsible business practices aligned with the business mode. This helps to promote higher standards of living among the employees, working environment and the society at large while maintaining the profitability level of the organization (Hopkins 2007). Therefore, CSR is a business concept or practices that a company pursues to behave responsibly in a socially and environmentally manner to ensure that its day-to-day activities meaningfully and sustainably contributes to the society. Companies that promote socially responsible behaviors, benefit in terms of brand recognition, market differentiation as well as employee satisfaction. However, it is quite unfortunate that some companies are still unable to make effective communication of their CSR activities particularly to their targeted audiences. This makes it difficult for such companies to realize the above stated business benefits.CSR communication is considered a difficult undertaking because it involves a number of threats and opportunities. As a result, it is crucial for companies to adopt the most appropriate CSR communication strategy so as to successfully influence the consumer attitude and behaviors (Alsop 2005). Reasons why Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communications are failing to communicate Research indicates that a number of CSR communications have become irrelevant or do not clearly convey the message because they fail to inform the story about the really people who benefit from such activities. Therefore, companies are required to re-think how they communicate their CSR commitments to ensure that what they claim do and how they convey the message makes sense to their stakeholders (Zucker 2013). It means that companies that commit their efforts on and engage in CSR invest huge amounts of resources in promoting the awareness of their CSR commitments as well as leverage them to maintain their positive corporate reputation. Strategies used by organization(s) to communicate their CSR activities (1) Minimizing the stakeholder skepticism to effectively communicate CSR achievements Since corporations are to a larger extent engaging in CSR activities, it is crucial for them to communicate their achievements to stakeholders. It is important to point out that those corporations that publicize their CSR activities in an aggressive way, risk achieving the unexpected results. Generally, stakeholders do not directly monitor the CSR policies or initiatives of a corporation but largely rely on the corporation’s reports. The major challenge for managers is to minimize the stakeholder skepticism as well as effectively communicate their CSR achievements to avoid being seen as “greenwashing.” Due to the complexities that affect CSR activities, some managers seemed skeptical about the capability of corporations to effectively communicate their CSR policies and activities. Today, managers avoid underestimating the public because of the recent growing interest in the CRS activities (Montgomery & Catherine 2007). This implies that managers believe that the public can effectively understand their CSR actions and issues because there is a widespread knowledge of such subjects not only in the media, but also among the opinion leaders. Communicating CSR activities is a concern of the entire organization, and thus a number of organizations disregard the perception that communicating the CSR agendas as the responsibility of only CSR communicating department should be seen as a mistake. This is because stakeholders interact with different individuals and departments of the organizations. For this reason, communicating CSR has been regarded as the responsibility of the whole organization whereby the rest of the members must set a more visible example of their CSR being communicated (Laura et.al 2013). It can be noted that although the main work of the communication department is to inform the world about the CSR activities of their corporations, the rest of the members in the organizations are expected to show the world that they believe or support this message. (2) Social Obligation Social obligation is one major step that organizations take towards communicating their corporate social responsibility activities. Organizations that adopt this social response strategy accomplishes all their activities in more a legally required manner, and thus they are able to achieve their legal and ethical requirements. Therefore, the highest level of social responsibility that an organization can practice is implementing the social contribution approaching. Generally, organizations that adopt this strategy consider themselves as citizens of a particular society which encourages them to proactively seek more ways to contribute to their corporate social responsibility (Fombrun & Van Riel 2004). Apart from ensuring effective communication with shareholders or customers, organizations also have recognized the need for adopting an inclusive and balanced stakeholder management strategy that involves actively communicating with this group. Therefore, the idea of having a corporate identity has become a major factor in corporate communication strategies. This involves understanding the basic profile that a particular organization intends to project to its key stakeholders as well as how it should be perceived in terms of its corporate images and reputations. A number of managers in various corporate organizations have recognized the importance of integrating all their communication disciplines and the associated corporate CSR activities (Christensen, Morsing & Cheney, 2008). Initially, communication was organized and controlled in a fragmented manner. However, a more organized form of CSR communication has been adopted that effectively integrates the different works of communication practitioners. It should be noted that when communication practitioners work in coordination, the entire communication function creates a great impact on the strategic decision-making at the top corporate level of a particular organization (Argenti 1996). This means that coordinating communication disciplines and CSR programs such as advertising and direct marketing, media relations and management of other global issues is the most appropriate way of organizing CSR communications. Shuili, Bhattachrya and Sankar (2011) examined that creating stakeholder awareness is a prerequisite for achieving the strategic benefits of a particular business initiative. Therefore, it is crucial for board members and senior executives initiating the social responsibility programs to develop a deeper view of the critical issues of CSR communication. The authors emphasize that creating stakeholder awareness as well as managing their attributions are the key approaches to reaping the strategic achievements of a given business initiative which board members and senior managers take into account when instituting their CSR programs and communications. Over and above, it is important for the senior officials to overcome or minimize the challenge of stakeholder skepticism (Shuili, Bhattachrya & Sankar 2011). (3) Understanding the shifting communications dynamic Corporate social responsibility is one of the major areas where some companies have failed to put into practice the significant lessons they learn or challenges they face in the shifting communications dynamic. It is important to note that today’s successful organizations are keen to understand that particular change. The massive use of digital and social medial channels has created a more networked, engaged and empowered groups of stakeholders who actively involve in different online conversations that increasingly shape their views, attitudes and behaviors that in turn impact brands. As a result, the old model that involved the strictly managed corporate and highly protected brand strategy or brand expression has been outdated by a decentralized dynamic model. Thus, all stakeholders are assessed on different aspects of business strategy ranging from the product design through pricing, distribution and marketing to corporate social responsibility (IPRA 2013). Although most of the CSR-associated communications concerns a company boasting about its unique initiative, the most fundamental question is that communicating that important initiative really going to build a sustainable consumer relationship? In other words, will that initiative change the hearts and minds of all stakeholders in the attempt to build reputation, understand consumer preference and behaviors? Companies that achieve good reputation often communicate their CSR commitments or activities in a manner that demonstrate those CSR as being truly relevant to all stakeholders (IPRA 2013). This implies that successful organizations should be able to identify, listen and engage in all their CSR conversations so as to effectively shape such strategies. It is time for companies to stop misusing corporate resources on CSR communications that fail to convey the intended message. Therefore, focusing on creating relevancy will contribute to increased CSR awareness and improved reputation. This will truly engage the minds of employees and consumers who can participate effectively in addressing their companies’ most pressing or issues related social and environmental challenges. It is important to note that a solid and well-created CSR initiative not only builds a strong reputation, but also results in a positive influence on the profits of an organization, creates more opportunities of acquiring and retaining the highly talented personnel. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to communicate all their responsible activities adequately. This is because by letting people understand what their commitments are companies are in addition to providing information about their values and services, they are also setting a good reputation for other businesses to emulate. In the past decades, companies have communicated their CSR activities in various official documents which included annual corporate responsibility reports, corporate websites as well as press releases. Today, a number of companies are using different ways of communicating to keep their CSR revisited and interesting to their stakeholders particularly employees and customers. For example, order to meet the requirements of external CSR communications, social media is one of the modern approaches of interaction that are being used to develop a buzz around CSR programs. Through social media companies are able to acquire feedbacks about their CSR performances, discuss with their stakeholders about the interests to them as well as how they share responsibilities to meet the global needs. Intel is one of the IT Companies that are relying social media to enhance their earth-friendly consciousness so as to work closely with other companies in ICT sector and consumers. Research reveals that the company’s Corporate Responsibility department utilizes the social media to communicate the positive ways that Intel is adopting to control its global carbon emissions (Topping 2013). This clearly indicates that a number of corporations have recognized the importance of innovating and communicating their CSR activities in an engaging manner. Perhaps this can explain why most companies are able to raise their profile and achieve reputation through their CSR communications. Social platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter provide information pathways for stakeholders particularly customers, communities and employees. Therefore, social media have been put at the forefront of various CSR campaign strategies as a way of engaging in sustainable business communications to create a high level of trust and loyalty among the stakeholders. Through the social forums people find it the most convenient way for them to enhance brand messaging and sustainability as well as provider other philanthropic services to the community. This is simply because people develop a feeling of being highly connected and engaged with the different CSR activities they feel interested in, and thus contributing more to the future performance of these CSR campaigns. Generally, companies are using social media as communication agents to communicate the performance of their CSR campaigns instantaneously allowing stakeholders to engage with the companies at their most convenient time as opposed to use of annual CSR reports that do not regularly capture stakeholder information. For example, responsible advertising through the social media has become more prevent because it allows companies to effectively share their information about CSR practices they have adopted, communicating the necessary they have taken in the real time (Desantisbreindel 2013). It is relevant to point out that communicating valuable information that is purpose-driven and resource rich to stakeholder is critical to companies. Conclusion Based on the above discussions, it can be concluded that communicating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities is a concern of the entire organization. This clearly explains the reasons as to why most organizations disregard the perception that communicating the CSR agendas is the responsibility of only CSR communicating department. Companies that promote socially responsible behaviors, often benefit in terms of brand recognition, and market differentiation and employee satisfaction. Creating stakeholder awareness is a prerequisite for achieving the strategic benefits of a particular business initiative. Therefore, it is crucial for board members and senior executives initiating the social responsibility programs to develop a deeper view of the critical issues of CSR communication. It is apparent that modern companies are using social media as communication agents to communicate the performance of their CSR campaigns instantaneously allowing stakeholders to engage with the companies at their most convenient time as opposed to use of annual CSR reports that do not regularly capture stakeholder information. Bibliography Alsop, R. 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