Executive Summary
To worthy causes, it is important that as a member of the society, the business entities should give their support which mainly includes donating money and devoted time. The corporate social responsibility emerged in the United State and Europe as corporation became more powerful and then the communities started reacting to their excess power.
Even thought the corporate social responsibility has been in existence since the 1990s, its application has increased in the 2000s with many nations developing legal basis for it. Many of these laws assert that the reason for using the CSR policy has two major reasons; to optimize the work of private sector in the societal welfare and to decrease the possible social gap between the local community and the “company community”.
The state has urged companies to become a source of welfare not simply for their employees but also for the whole community in general. For this company, the corporate social responsibility is normally stretched beyond money donations and volunteering of time for what it’s worth. This policy has become a way in through which the company basically operates.
The company seeks to be the best member of the society by operating responsibly to the employees, the community in general. The operations of the Company are environment friendly and supportive of the sustainable environment. This is the reason the firm invests in the welfare of the organisation through grants, fundraising, community service, scholarships and awards. The firm has made CSR an integral part of this business plan, action plans and goals.
Introduction
There are essentially three levels of social responsibility that this company pursues. The first level is just institutional and this is done in accordance to the company’s general responsibility as a business entity to the society. This includes paying tax and observing the minimum wage requirement.
The second is organisational level where this company takes responsibility for its activities and operations and the impact to the society like wastes and energy emissions. The third level and the one that is addressed in this report is the ‘individual’ responsibility and this is finds its basis in the fact that there is administrative discretion and managers act as social actors and they make the decisions on how the business would give back to the society.
Case Study I: Australian Red Cross
History
The vision of the organisation is to improve the lives of the most susceptible individuals in Australia and across the world by mobilisation of the humanitarian support.
The Australian Red Cross was established as a branch of the British Red Cross in 1914. The organisation was formed as an initiative of Lady Helen Munro-Ferguson. She was the wife of the governor general and she convened a meeting exactly nine days after the First World War had begun and this was on 13th august 1914 (Suter, 2010, p. 1).
She was previously been a member of the British red cross in Fyfe, Scotland and by virtue of this, she definitely aware of the crucial role the organisation had played in Britain in the previous years (Oppenheimer, 2008, p. 45). At the same time she invited the wives of all the governors to create a local committee in every capital which readily accepted and this way, the Australian Red cross was born (Suter, 2010, p. 1).
The First World War
The major task that the initial Australian Red Cross was charged with was to offer first aid care to the wounded troops. The services offered included distribution simple necessities like soaps for bathing and washing, special food stuffs for the victims, other toiletries and other help needed by the sick as well.
In very few weeks after the formations this organisation, it got help very fast and it was already set to distribute items like clothing. The victims were therefore provided with shirts, socks and cardigans since many had lost their properties. Because they also sustained injuries, the Red Cross enabled provision of medication and medical equipment.
In few months the Australian red cross expanded its services and begun shipping items like hospital facilities, food stuffs and mosquito nets. It started providing voluntary Aid Detachments where the volunteer took care of the sick and injured people in hospital on transportation on trains and the convalescent homes (Suter, 2010, p. 1).
In 1915, this branch of Red Cross started the transportation service which later became one of the main activities of the organisation. These services enabled driving of soldiers who were injured and brought to the hospital ships back to their homes and to convalescent facilities.
In a very short time, up to 1916, the services had enough vehicles serving battle fields of France, east Africa and Italy. This experience of the First World War made the organisation realise that transport was the main activity (Suter, 2010, p. 2). This included ambulance rounds and trips to collect materials and return patients home.
In 1945, the Red Cross had a very efficient transport department performing at its peak as a result of its efficiency and the number of victims of the war, this department experienced the highest need ever. The volunteering drivers drove 1000s of injured servicemen and prisoners of war to hospitals, homes, and convalescence facilities.
The roads were seen having many buses and vans in airports, railways and other terminuses picking soldiers (Suter, 2010, p. 2). The Red Cross supplied these personal except professionals like nurses and doctors. The Red Cross undertook to care for enormous activities during the Second World War period, consequently, its volunteers actively worked alongside medical practitioners to execute this assistance.
In the post war time, the Australian Red Cross became actively involved in offering emergency services and developmental relief help to many nations in the region (Suter, 2010, p. 3). Many parts of the world were in great disparity and the Red Cross took the initiative of fulfilling the humanitarian responsibility whenever it could. However the main focus was to provide help to regions overseas. These areas included the Asia pacific region and Africa.
One main department of the Australian Red Cross was the blood service which was established in 1929 to provide blood testing and transfusion services. Today it is the best blood service on the planet. Currently, the national office if the organisation is located in Melbourne and its chief executive officer has society-wide responsibility.
Each major city has state and territory officers responsible for recruiting and provision of services. These services include blood services, first aid, health and safety issues, tracing and refugee services and disaster and community service (Suter, 2010, p. 3). The organisation is also an active member of the international Red Cross operating in 186 nations.
The achievement of this organisation were to provide services to the world war victims and in the recent times, it has been very active in responding to the disaster like tsunami, accidents, the Indonesian earthquake and other program in the community supporting vulnerable people and giving them a chance to improve their lives (Suter, 2010, p. 4). The Red Cross also has programs across the world dealing in the issues related to HIV/AIDS pandemic, provision of clean water and sanitation.
The mission of the organisation has been to be the leader in provisions of humanitarian services in Australia, improving lives of susceptible persons via service delivery and to promote the humanitarian regulations and values. The size of the organisation is very large as it operates worldwide. It has over 1 million volunteers and 6,000 members serving in many countries across the world.
The structure of the organisation is simple and decentralized leadership style. There are overseas programs representing the organisation in international affairs and nine department of operation. Internationally, is managed at three levels; the council which comprises of 53 voting members with major positions of president and vice president (Australian Red Cross, 2009, para. 1).
There are also positions chairpersons of every divisional advisory board in the management team. Other important posts are the audit and risk management committee.
To ensure equal representation, there is the position of a youth member. There is the chairperson of the blood service as this is a major department of Red Cross. Finally there are six special councillors, state and territory representatives (Australian Red Cross, 2009, para. 1). The committee receives organisational reports and financial statements. They also have the powers to vote for or appoint board members. They have the responsibility of selecting auditors and to amending the royal charter and rules.
At the second level, the board comprises of 16 members headed by the president. The members include a youth member, blood services chairperson, divisional advisory board chairpersons and the risk management committee. The third level is the Chief Executive Officer who is delegated to the daily affairs by the board (Australian Red Cross, 2009, para. 1).
This is the manger of the services of the organization through departmental managers like chief financial officer director fundraising and marketing, chief operations officer. All the council members volunteers their skills, sacrifice their time and energy for humanitarian benefit.
The organisation recruits international workers are paid when on abroad mission. This is achieved through technical phone interviews where the applicant discusses their qualification, skills and experience. The Red Cross also conducts behaviour assessments and then successful candidates are hired and further trained on the relevant skills and policies of the organisation at the international Mobilisation for Action (IMPACT) (Australian Red Cross, 2009, para. 1).
Our company can support the Red Cross by allocating the $ 200,000 to the humanitarian kitty especially to support medical, health and safety services. This is because in the recent past, the cases of disasters have increased and medical response is needed where the Red Cross team is required to respond promptly (Australian Red Cross, 2009, para. 1).
Case Study II
History
In 1947, Dr. Bob Pierce reported that he had come across a situation that totally changed his life when he was on mission to China. Pierce had encountered a battered and abandoned child called White Jade this child was temporarily in the customer of her teacher, World Vision International, (2009, para. 2).
He gave five dollars, the only money he had at that moment to the teacher and promised he would send the same amount every month until when the child would fully recover. This encounter inspired him to establish an organisation that would take care of the needs of children ad they seemed to be uncared for by other humanitarian organisations across the world Vision International, (2009, para. 2).
This way, the Vision was born. In 1953, the child sponsorship program was initiated. The objective of this program was to respond to the needs (shelter, food, clothing, education, emotional support and love) of thousands of children who became victims of the Korean War. Currently, the organisation is operational in 90 developing nations across the world (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 369).
By the year 1957, the organisation had found enough grounds to get it rolling and therefore it opened its first office in a small space in downtown Toronto. Currently the organisation has big national headquarters in Mississauga and has become one of the major and busiest office in the partnership (Gibbs & Grey, 2006, p. 141).
Size, work and achievement
The organisation relies on support from individuals, government agencies, and corporate partners who are companies like ours (Rondinelli, 2006, p. 45). The world vision address the plight of the poor children, those marginalized for other reasons and seeks to develop developmental programs that are sustainable in community work (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 369).
The organisation has over 607,319 donors across the globe supporting it and some companies give out money to the organisation s part of their corporate social responsibility work. World vision also has partnerships with over 390 projects worldwide and this is what has given the organisation enough resources to be able to offer help to millions of children and impoverished around the world each every year.
Currently, over 454,309 children benefit from projects run by the organisation across the world. The organisation has focused on fostering change in developing nations and responding to emergency conditions in these regions. The organization strives to change unjust policies, and structure via foreign policy and establishing projects that empower the poor people (Garth, 2007, p. 5).
Its partnerships with the governmental agencies and other humanitarian projects across the world have made world vision become a leader in overseas development and as a result the organisation is able to address the vulnerable children (Tim & Claire, 2003, p. 294). The organisation provides help for child poverty eradication, offer health and nutritional help, assistance during armed conflict and HIV/AIDS intervention (Garth, 2007, p. 5).
Organisational culture is that the organisation is a Christian based relief and development body and a major humanitarian worker. it engages in activities like, provision of children sponsorship programs (Gibbs & Grey, 2006, p. 141), promoting Christian values, enhancing community awareness to justice, campaign for sensitivity to the needs of others, provision of emergency relief and working in collaboration with churches and governments to promote the general welfare of children especially the orphans (Tim & Claire, 2003, p. 294).
The World Vision International now headquartered in Monrovia California and it has a staff of 40,000 employee across the globe and 48 national officers across the world and operating in 100 countries. Most of the funding is from the private individual, foundations and corporations (Rondinelli, 2006, p. 65). The government also gives its support.
Organizational Structure
The world vision is a legal entity and it has a simple international organizational structure to enable it run its operations properly. The national offices include the members and partners of world vision. On the international arena, the organisation is managed by the World vision council (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 369).
The council has the responsibility of designing the structure of membership, finding and entering into partnership. The council also has representatives in every national office in the countries that it operates in. The council meets after every three years to develop policies and recommend them to the board, design strategies and evaluate whether the strategic goals were met (Tim & Claire, 2003, p. 294).
The board has 25 members and they are only from 19 countries where the organisation has operations. The board meets twice a year. The board has power to elect and fire officers and employees. It’s also the responsibility of the board to appoint members to national committees and make resource disburdenment. To exercise responsible management and accountability the board hires independent auditors and amend and repeal bylaws.
The Australian national management is a very good representation of corporate governance. It is managed by a board of 14 non-executive directors who regularly reviews the organizational mission, values, resources ethical standards and the financial position so as to ensure accurate auditing and legal, statutory and moral law compliance. The board has a number of subcommittee that helps to evaluate the business environment, threats and opportunities so as to protect the assets and oversee corporate governance processes.
Marketing and promotion
The strategy used is mainly promoting the organization on the television. Watching TVC has been very effective in pulling heart strings. The managers say how else they can get the attention of people when they are not aware that there is a pathetic nation suffering. The out of sight out of mind blocks people who can assist from thinking about charity.
The organization bombards the audience with the images depicting disparity in the developing nations to help them gain sympathy. Even though marketer complain that this negative images build disparity, world vision states that there is no actual ‘want’ that it wishes to fill and therefore the TVC creates a discontent.
Comparison and Contrast of Both Organisations
Comparison
The humanitarian work in Australia is very effective and the NGOs are very actively involved and this has greatly increased the impact to these organisation to the community and reach of the aid. Major players include Australian Red Cross and the World Vision among others (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 369). These two organisations have been very active for a very long time in the country especially delivering aid to overseas projects.
Both organisation are recognised by the Australian government as the most valuable NGOs in the country they have a very good partnership with the government and this has helped them to be efficient in their delivery of assist around the country. These two organisations alone account for up to 7 percent of the aid programs in the country (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 369).
These organisations are able to bring particular strength to the society and the Australian projects. The organisations mobilise public support and voluntary contribution to the support (Oppenheimer, 2008, p. 45).
These organisations have very strong connections and wider network with the community and this is what makes them efficient in penetrating and taking help to the needy people in the developing countries. They are able to offer aid and other type of services to even areas that the government-to-government connection or aid cannot be attained because of various reasons.
These organizations have a lot of experience and expertise in address the needs of people in disparity times especially during emergencies where there needs to be fast and flexible responses.
Both world vision and Red Cross contribute to the kit that the Australian government needs to progress its projects abroad or overseas. They do this in collaboration with the aid agency of the government of Australia and education.au (Oppenheimer, 2008, p. 48)
The world vision and the Red Cross have been very active in provision of quick response and generous support to the communities in need following humanitarian crises at national and international levels (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010, p. 369). The organisations have been effective in supporting international responses to places like pacific islands, Indonesia, Africa, Asia and Iraq.
Contrast
Australian Red Cross focused on emergency response to the victims of accidents, natural disasters and war (Oppenheimer, 2008, p. 45). The organisation has hence been seen to be active in activities like distribution of health facilities and water. For instance when the Cyclone Yasi hit Australian in the northern Queensland, about 150,000 fled their homes to seek safety elsewhere.
The Red Cross responded to provide first and safety services, food stuff and water among other things. Since then the organisation has sought to up its effort to provide for the needs of those in desperate situation and has included major activities like evacuation and recovery as main projects it ventures in. The word vision does not actively engage on provision of first aids services and evacuation activities.
By virtue of this, the Australian Red Cross has been actively providing emergency preparedness services to help people in preparation for emergencies focusing on the most vulnerable communities like the elderly and people with disabilities (Oppenheimer, 2008, p. 48). They also seek to strengthen people’s resilience when faced with emotional and financial problems.
Red Cross responds to emergencies and offer personal support to the victims to survive after the disaster or problem they experienced. This helps in coping between with the long term impact of the disasters. World vision supports children to cope when they are orphaned contrary to the emergency respond to unexpected disasters.
The world vision operates mainly with projects to target its clients. The relief projects could be short terms while project like rehabilitating people can last longer even up to 15 years. The main goal for the program is to empower the community and help the people to become self-reliant via a number of activities that could include health benefits, leadership development and trainings in small businesses.
Besides relief and long-term projects, world vision is also involvement in emergency responsible. Initially the organisation only focused on helping children and meeting their long-term needs like education but it has since revised its policies and now offers emergency services.
When tsunami hit Japan, the organisation was among the first ones to respond to the disaster and provided relief services. It was also very actively involved in the Haitian earthquake as well as that of Chile. It distributed emergency materials to Miyagi and also provides clean water, blankets, food and temporary shelters.
The main goal of world vision has still remained to focus on children especially those orphaned by HIV/AIDS and offer them basic needs, education and social support. This has enabled the organisation to be very strong in empowering the society.
Conclusion
Generally, the change in economical output and productivity of businesses can be influenced by corporate citizenship. The government polices and the public policies have an impact on the way CSR is implemented and the distribution of resources.
The implementation can be decreased when the government gain more trust from the public or when the economy greatly improves and when the public demands the government should take more responsibility on the social welfare on the community. As already implied companies are not island and need to develop good relationship with the community as corporate citizens as well. It has a second benefit of improving the company’s reputation besides the feeling of satisfaction for doing the right thing.
Recommendations
We recommend that the $200,000 be allocated to health activities. This is a good place to exercise corporate responsibility (Aaronson & Reeves, 2002, p. 67). Humanitarian activities are not about competition but collective responsibilities and consequently, organisation that are pursuing these goals need to work together in partnership.
It is recommended that the organisations that support provision of water and sanitation as well as hygiene projects. Access to clean water is very critical for the community’s basic health and it can actually reduce the mortality rates of children in Australia.
Considering that accidents happen unexpectedly and cause serious damage and mayhem, there needs to be better and enhanced international and regional coordination of the Australian humanitarian projects. The health systems are usually the most affected in such events.
The Australian policy provides that health should be given the highest priority especially infectious diseases among children. World vision seeks to prevent this as the Red Cross supplied medical equipment and material to be used.
Reference List
Aaronson, S & Reeves, J., 2002, Corporate Responsibility in the Global Village: The Role of Public Policy. National Policy Association, Washington, DC.
Australian Red Cross, 2009, Organization Structure. Web.
Garth, L., 2007, How is the Neighbours’ Health?, World Vision, Australia. Web.
Gibbs, E.A & Grey, P. G. 2006, Five Foundations Of Human Development: Is Our Material Driven Life A Threat, Authorhouse, Bloomington P. 141.
Johnson, J.A., & Stoskopf, C.H., 2010, Comparative Health Systems: Global Perspectives, Jones & Bartlett Learning: Sudbury, MA.
Oppenheimer, M., 2008. Volunteering: Why We Can’t Survive Without It, UNSW Press: Sydney.
Rondinelli, D. 2006. ‘Globalization Of Sustainable Development? Principles And Practices In Transnational Corporations,’ Paper Presented At MESD 2006 International Research Colloquium In The Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Suter, K. 2010. Australian Red Cross Society, Global Direction.
Tim, K & Claire, M., 2003. ‘Empowering the People? World Vision and ‘Transformatory Development’ In Northern Tanzania,’ Review Of African Political Economy, 39 (96): 293-304.
World Vision International, 2009. History. Web.