Introduction
The essence of corporate social responsibility programs or CSR activities can be found in the concept of giving back whether it may be to the people or to the environment. Each business is expected to have a certain CSR program which determines the ethical direction of the company. Over the years CSR programs have been heavily supported and promoted by top companies such as Starbucks Coffee, Marriott Hotels and the like but the problem is only a select few are actively involved in these activities (Hazarika).
Small to medium sized companies struggle to be part of CSR programs. Companies’ logic of CSR programs can be view as another venue to generate expenses more than income. They lose more money than gain when they participate in such programs.
Given such situation this paper aims to present a case which demonstrates common CSR problems encountered by a given company, how such problems were provided solutions and how such were applied and adopted. The case is will have a post modernist point of view which is in line with the author’s point of view. The goal of this paper is to present a case analysis of real problems encountered by a company in terms of CSR execution as this paper is based on the author’s experience.
Case Study Brief
Termaoil Inc. is an established petroleum distributor. The company is one of the leading oil products providers of the industry as it caters to the industrial sectors such as supplying to manufacturing firms, construction firms and shipping companies. They have been famous for their swift delivers and good account credits with the bank from both vendor and client sides. Termaoil supplies products such as fuels, lubricants and asphalts.
The company has its own in-house logistical team to help deliver the needed orders to the customers right away. They have their own warehouse and storage areas where they keep lubricant products and asphalt drums. As for storing fuels the company has three (3) tank depots within the said area. These depots are located on the north, south and east sides of the area.
Everything in terms of operations and finance has been set up accordingly and the said departments function efficiently the problem of the company lies within its corporate social responsibility sector. The company wishes to be certified by the ISO. In order for them to achieve such goal they must be able to be involved with corporate social responsibility activities (Oil Industry’s Increasing Focus on CSR 2010).
Under estimating such program as just being part of charity, the company gave the tasks of creating CSR programs to the human resource manager. It may not make sense why such was assigned to the person but as the company believes in multi-tasking they offered the said tasks to the HR officer.
Corporate Social Responsibility Problems
Proposals were made and dry runs were conducted but the company lost about $300,000 on its first failed attempt. The company conducted an event where it donated the profits of one of their tanks to campaigns of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) where the later would rally in front of government offices for the solutions of air pollution from vehicles.
The said support was not beneficial to the company (Corporate Social Responsibility: Companies in the News 2012). Top management found out that the person they hired to handle the CSR of the company must have previous experiences with regards to such.
Another problem the company encountered was some fuels would be contaminated. Though it is a standard operating procedure to never dump such contaminated chemicals, the company has resulted to the draining of such contaminated chemicals in their compounds. Though it may not be harmful in the eyes of the company, the environment can suffer from such.
The third problem the company encountered in terms of CSR was that they wanted to be environmental friendly in terms of their operations. They have slowly conducted a no disposable utensils policy among its employees. This being said the campaign wanted to promote the use mugs, spoons and forks, plates and bowls that can be used for many times rather than a onetime use.
This campaign aimed to reduce the trash the company’s daily operations accumulated. The problem with such program was vending coffee machines offered disposable cups, the cafeterias and pantries for the employees served food with disposable utensils. The campaign did nothing in terms of CSR.
The problem of Termaoil in terms of their CSR program was that they were all plans but there were no executions. Policies are not communicated well to the employees and there is no organized system which the employees would be involved in.
Proposed Solutions
The General Manager of Termaoil observed such disaster and decided to hire a group of academicians that can map out a viable CSR program plan for the company to adopt. These academicians worked as consultants to the company on a per project basis. They recommended that Termaoil should have a CSR team which would facilitate all the plans and execute such. The consultants informed Termaoil that they can execute programs that would help the environment benefit at a lesser cost or even none.
Proposed solutions include the formation of a CSR team which would be responsible for the brain storming of activities, consolidating information and executing such programs effectively. When the team was formed they drafted out programs the team suggested that the company participated in. These programs include:
Termaoil CSR 101 – A seminar program where each week a department is scheduled to attend a 30-minute briefing on the company’s CSR programs and their compliance to participate and be involved in such programs.
Orienting the employee body of their given responsibilities in terms of CSR can be of great help in the execution of such. Each employee can contribute to the said program’s success. The key has always been proper communication between parties (Seminar Sheds Light on CSR Policies and Strategies 2012).
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – A garbage program where pairs of trash bins are placed on the grounds of Termaoil labeled biodegradable and non-biodegradable. These trash bins are important to separate the garbage of the company. They can have the biodegradables buried on the ground to help the environment by feeding the soil. As for the non-biodegradable garbage, they can be either donated to a recycling plant so they will be melted and can be recycled for other purposes (Martche n.d).
Convert Contamination – Gasoline chemicals that have been contaminated can be brought back to the supplier’s petroleum chemical laboratory. They can be examined and converted to the regular type of product. Though this process may bring hassle to the operations of the company, this may reduce the level of toxicity brought about by the company to the environment.
The task of the CSR team must be to monitor and coordinate such program with the operations team as well as the supplier. Contaminated gasoline should not be dump into the environment for they may cause harmful effects to the society (Danielson 2005).
Proper Safety Procedures – Though this is a standard operations procedure for most oil plants but most of the time this has been neglected by personnel. The CSR team must heavily impose the execution of proper safety procedures so as to avoid accidents that may lead to death and the devastation of the environment.
Gasoline explosions have a great impact on the environment. To further push such the CSR team must coordinate with the logistics and HR team to train the people and give them reminders with regards to the procedures once in awhile (Health and Safety).
Rehabilitation program – The CSR team must create a program where the rehabilitation of areas affected by gasoline explosions. 1% of the company’s profits will be used to fund this program where there will be trainings and seminars on how to rehabilitate the industries of that certain area affected by the explosion.
People who have their homes burnt down due to the explosion will be supported by the program in building their houses. Basic necessities will be provided to the families affected and the employees of Termaoil will participate in programs facilitated by the company twice every month.
These are the drafts presented by the new CSR team as to how they plan to jumpstart the CSR activities of Termaoil. The team planned to make gradual changes by starting within the Termaoil employees and then gradually expanding horizons to help out the environment in the many aspects of the petroleum industry (Petroleum Cleanup Participation Program).
Actual Solutions Adopted
The solutions proposed by the CSR team seemed too idealistic for an old company that has long been operating without responding or giving emphasis to CSR activities but as the company progress the importance of CSR programs is essential to the participation of the company in terms of environmental concerns.
It is indeed correct that the company should slowly adopt the suggestions and plans of the CSR team so as not to shock the employees and the system of the company with a new culture but it is also essential that changes made should be implemented and emphasized among ranks and departments. The actual solutions adopted by the company were:
Termaoil CSR 101 – The problem with the trainings, seminars and orientations is that there is no new information to be disseminated on a weekly or monthly basis. The solution adopted by the company is that the CSR team only does email blasting and they also post notices and reminders to department’s activity boards. To have people actively involved in the CSR programs of the company, the CSR team would closely coordinate with the department heads on the latter’s respective department’s contributions to the CSR programs.
Reduce Reuse Recycle – The program will be properly be implemented but the program will have a standard policies which would be included in the employee’s manual. Failure to follow the reduce, reuse, recycling guidelines and policies would result to sanctions, punishments and penalties.
Conversion of Contamination – Management agreed to implement such programs but with the aid of the respective departments such as the contact personnel from the suppliers’ side, the operations department which would coordinate the said contamination to the suppliers and the CSR team which would closely monitor the activities to prevent toxins from proliferating the soil.
Proper Safety Procedures – The top management agreed on such solution to emphasize the implementation of the safety procedures in line with the CSR team. The execution of such procedures has been closely monitored to avoid accidents that may harm lives and the environment.
Rehabilitation Program – The top management were a bit hesitant with such proposal considering it as a bold move from being conservative. The company would use 1% of its profit in sponsoring the said program which the top management did not seem to agree with but through the constant discussion the company has agreed to push through with the program with partners. The target partners would be NGOs as well as government organizations which focus on the rehabilitation programs of areas affected by gasoline explosions.
The CSR team is asked to evaluate which partner is viable in joining the said activity of the company. Partnerships would mean fewer costs that would be shouldered by Termaoil in facilitating the said program. Employees would be required to facilitate in the program at least once a month. It would be imposed on them that their participation is mandatory so as to achieve success on the said program.
The initial implementations of the adopted solutions of the programs drafted out by the CSR team can be of great significance as they reflect the actual capabilities of the businesses.
Evaluation of Problem, Actual and Potential Solutions (Post Modern Ethics)
“From a postmodern worldview perspective, ethics is the logical outgrowth of a prior commitment to a particular theology” (Postmodern Ethics 2012). In order to fully understand and evaluate Termaoil’s CSR system, the problems we have encountered as well as the actual and potential solutions from a post modernist point of view with regards to ethics are of great significance in evaluating situations related to morality.
From the post modernist point of view the problems encountered by the company were that of a very selfish one. According to the Golden Rule where the “approach would suggest that there is need for a social contract for society to exist. As such, because people desire to live free of murder, rape, child abuse and other crimes, they agree to not engage in these behaviors. Although this perspective does not state that these are morally wrong, it does provide a way to provide a way to limit these from occurring“ (Postmodern Ethics).
Given such considerations then we could say that the initial purpose of the company in setting up CSR programs is gain something and prevent bad things from happening. The logic is indirectly associated with Termaoil’s goal of attaining ISO standards. The problems encountered by the company in terms of ethical practices can be seen in their daily acts.
The strict implementation of proper safety procedures and the conversion of contaminated chemicals to reusable gasoline are ideal solutions to simple ways of giving back without doing much effort because these are already in line with the company’s goals. The second point of view from the post modernist thinking is that ethics and morality are socially constructed thus the one belief may not be in favor to another person in terms of logic. It is the society which dictates what is ethical and moral.
In this point of view we can say that though the dumping of contaminated chemicals in the said grounds of the company may be an ethical thing to do because the company assumes the safety of outsiders but risks its own, in another point of view this act may be considered unethical or immoral. The last point of view is that “some ultimate truths may exist however; we are not able to fully know these truths.
There are many truths we believe to be objective or universal that are essentially not. In different cultures, a certain universal truth may not be applicable to another. The same way with how Termaoil strives to universalize their CSR system by which they assigned academicians to act as consultants in the improvement of their CSR department. A third point of view is essential to get a truth and try to universalize such.
The solutions proposed by the CSR team were ideal in nature. They made a step by step process in which they assumed a hundred percent compliance from the employee body. The first solution on conducting orientations, trainings and seminars with regards to the plans of the department for the company can be time consuming thus affecting the operations of the company as the employees would be required from time to time to attend meetings that are not directly in line with their jobs.
Such would disrupt the day to day activities of the company as a whole and that of the teams as well. The second solution the team suggested was the reduce, reuse, recycle program which has a good concept. The concept of such is to reduce wastage to fully maximize natural resources. The garbage level of the company would reduce by reusing old utensils and by segregating trash. In the post modernist point of view such can be very beneficial for the company as they can help avoid pollution and destruction of the environment.
Another program proposed as a solution to the company’s contamination problem is that to convert such contaminated products via the laboratories of suppliers and resell such converted products at a lower price. This solution helps the company minimize product wastage and reduce the loses in terms of sales. Margins may go down because of contamination but the company still gains a potion of sales instead of dumping the product and losing the sale completely at the same time harming the environment.
If the company pushes through with their current strategies they may destroy the environment and lose sales all at once. The emphasis of the implementation of proper safety procedures is essential to both the operations and CSR team as such procedures affect the operations of the company as well as the environment when something goes wrong.
The solution of having a rehabilitation program to serve as the company’s main CSR activity may be quite expensive but the purpose of giving back would mean allot to most families who had been affected by devastations brought about by petroleum accidents.
Actual solutions implemented were closely related to the real life situation. Though there were some changes in terms of the set up like the Termaoil CSR 101 seminar and training where the physical meetings will no longer be conducted for it disrupts the sales operations of the company which may be considered unethical in the sense of the finance side, information will be disseminated via emails and information boards.
There are no changes in the proposed solutions of the reduce, reuse recycle program, conversion of contaminated chemicals and the implementation of strict proper safety procedures. There were arguments in terms of the rehabilitation program but with the final solution of looking for partners to fund the program the activity will push through.
Conclusion
Evaluating the CSR problems and solutions of Termaoil from a post modernist point of view enlightens us on how morality and ethics differ from one another. The ultimate universal truth of the matter can be very different from another from different points of view. The CSR team did a good job in planning out the said activities and programs for the company.
Conducting such programs is ethical in most cultures but if they disrupt some company activities they may be considered immoral and in some sense unethical. The purpose of CSR programs is to instill the act of giving back to the environment for the fruitful harvest the company had collected from the former. It is in this sense that the relevance of CSR to a company can be analyzed through the belief of ethics and morality.
Reference List
Corporate Social Responsibility: Comapanies in the News 2012. Web.
Danielson P., Gas Purge Solutions to Oil and Water Contamination Problems. Web.
Hazarika, T., Corporate Social Responsibility: The Oil Way. Web.
Health and Safety. Web.
Oil Industry’s Increasing Focus on CSR 2010. Web.
Petroleum Cleanup Participation Program 2012. Web.
Postmodern Ethics 2012. Web.
Postmodern Ethics 2012. Web.
Seminar Sheds Light on CSR Policies and Strategies 2012. Web.
Martchek, K., The Importance of Recylcing to the Environmental Profile of Metal Products. Web.