How Fabulous Fits Can Practice Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Ways to provide remedy to affected stakeholders

Key Stakeholders 

The key stakeholders as per the given case study of Fabulous Fits are as follows: 

1. Garment workers (permanent and contractual) 
2. Garmentz International: The production unit of Fabulous Fits in Bangladesh 
3. Suppliers and Vendors: who contribute to the supply chain of Fabulous Fits
4. The community and society at large (Jorgensen 2021)
5. The NGOs (being part of the society)- NGO Clean Clothes Campaign
6. Media Outlets

Following are the ways in which Fabulous Fits can provide remedy to affected stakeholders in the immediate term: 

• Community and virtual volunteering: As a CSR manager, I can initiate a programme that allows employees (at the Australian Branch) to select their own charities, set volunteer hours, and even run crowdfunding campaigns using CSR operating systems. As staff members become more engaged in Fabulous Fits' CSR programme, we will be able to have higher levels of organisational commitment and a passion and commitment to aiding our stakeholders (Farooq et al.2020), such as Bangladeshi garment workers, by sending them these grants.
• Using the Media Outlets,Fabulous Fits can hold a conference and make clear statements and a temporary assurance that the unit would not be closed. Diplomatic stance could be taken to acknowledge the miscommunication that happened between Fabulous Fits and Garmentz International
• A compensation for the miscommunication can be paid to Garmentz International from the fabrics, thread, buttons and the other raw materials that they had to buy for the consignment. 
• We can endorse the “Charitable global giving” campaign.  

Following are Fabulous Fits’ roles and responsibilities in given situation: 

1. Form a genuine strategic partnership with Garmentz International, leaving no room for miscommunication between the headquarters and the production unit.
2. Contributing factors should be more engaged and take ownership from the start (Carlini et al. 2019). As a result, Fabulous Fits must accept responsibility for the mishap that occurred as a result of its own negligence and compensate. Garmentz International, Inc.
3. Changing focus from short-term to long-term. In the short run, not paying compensation may save fabulous Fit money on the cancelled order. However, the firm's brand value may suffer in the long run as a result of such unethical behaviour.
4. Commit more than just financial resources: a business is about more than just profit. Profit alone cannot ensure the long-term viability of Fabulous Fits. As a result, it is required to fulfil its roles and responsibilities to its stakeholders.
5. Fabulous fits can also take on the responsibility of integrating programmes rather than operating in processing facilities.

Contribution of Fabulous Fits to the Situation 

The core principle next to CSR for Fabulous Fits should be to pursue all pro-social performance targets in the best interests of the stakeholders (Tamvada 2020) (those have been aforementioned). In addition to profit maximisation. According to TBL, Fabulous Fits would not be able to survive if they only focused on profit rather than people.

Hence, Fabulous Fits can legitimately contribute to the given situation in the case study by adhering to and adopting specific CSR objectives for the corporate entity. Typical examples of CSR objectives which they must include in order to assist in assisting the situation are as follows:

1. Making a donation as a charitable act. If Fabulous Fits does not pay the full compensation to Garmentz International right away, at least a token of charity or donation could be sent so that Garmentz International does not have to shut down the production unit.
2. Encouraging volunteerism among corporate employees (Baskentli et al.2019); thus, motivating the permanent staff at the headquarters could be a useful contribution in this scenario.

Fabulous Fits must transform into an ethically responsible firm in order to be sustainable in the future. Fabulous Fits' ethical responsibility should be concerned with ensuring that it operates in an ethical and fair way. Fabulous Fits must therefore begin to accept ethical accountability and strive for fair and equal treatment of all stakeholders, such as customers, supply chain partners, employees, shareholders, and leadership, as well as all other stakeholders (Shim et al. 2021). Fabulous Fits must make some changes in order to thrive in the future. Hence, the following are the changes Fabulous Fits should make in the future:

Change 1: Adopting Economic Corporate Social Responsibilities 

With Economic Responsibility being a central goal, Fabulous Fits would be able to back up all of its investment decision making with a commitment of doing good in aspects that support both the company and the community at large. The ultimate goal of this CHANGE is to positively influence the society, people, and the environment rather than merely enhance profitability (Pan et al. 2021).

Change 2: Adopting to Philanthropic Corporate Social Responsibilities 

Fabulous Fits will be able to adequately channel and set up its corporate objectives by adopting Philanthropic responsibilities; such objectives would then aspire to vigorously make the whole world as well as society a better place. Fabulous Fits, if driven by philanthropic responsibility in future, then it can donate a percentage of its profits in regards to taking action as ethically and ecologically sound friendly as possible (Masud et al. 2019). Although many businesses give to charity as well as charitable organisations that coincide with their trying to guide missions, others donate to deserving causative factors that have nothing to do with their corporation. Some also go so much further as to establish their own charitable foundation. So, in the given situation, Fabulous Fits could choose to give back to its society and stakeholders in any of the above forms based on its corporate goals.

Change 3: Adopting Ethical Corporate Social Responsibilities 

Fabulous Fits' ethical responsibilities must be tasked with ensuring that it operates in an ethical and fair sense. Fabulous Fits will be capable of accepting ethical obligation and aiming to handle all stakeholders fairly, such as command structure, venture capitalists, staff, supply chain partners, and consumers. As a result, Fabulous Fits must encompass ethical and legal responsibility in a variety of ways. As an example,

1. Fabulous Fits has the right to set its own, relatively high minimum wage if the one deemed necessary by the state and federal govt is not a "fair wage."
2. Similarly, Fabulous Fits may demand that product lines, raw materials, or components be procured in accordance with free trade doctrines and standards (Štreimikien? and Ahmed 2021), like while trading from Bangladesh or India, etc.
3. In this particular respect, Fabulous Fits will need to develop its own procedures to ensure that they are not buying products that are the consequence of slavery or forced labour, or deceived remuneration, or no compensation to suppliers, and so on. (Just like what happen in the given case study, so Fabulous Fits will be able to deal with such situations and will be acting ethically if they adopt to the proposed changes above) 

Roles and responsibilities of Fabulous Fits in the given situation

Change 4: Adopting Environmental Corporate Social Responsibilities 

Fabulous Fits will allegedly begin to behave in an environmentally responsible manner by adopting environmental responsibility. It is among the most prevalent types of corporate social responsibility. Fabulous Fits may choose to allude to such initiatives as "environmental stewardship." Fabulous Fits, if it wishes to start embracing commitment to the environment, could do so in a variety of different ways:

1. Taking steps to address adverse environmental impacts by tree plantation, financing survey, and making a donation to preventable complications, for instance (Kappo-Abidemi and Kanayo 2020).
2. Growing reliance on renewable power, environmentally friendly resources, and recyclable materials or fabrics as raw materials or partly recycled materials
3. Environmental damage, greenhouse emissions, the consumption of single-use polymers for packaging Fabulous Fits Products, rainwater harvesting, and waste bins are all being reduced.

Here is a strategy that highlights the key steps that Fabulous Fits must take and what they entail:

Step 1: Defining the concept: Especially in the contemporary corporate setting, Corporate Social Responsibilities has become a much necessary element of the corporate policies of any company. Thus, the first step to implement a CSR change in the company, Fabulous Fits, is to understand the concept of CSR itself. Fabulous Fits has to create a self-definition of what they want to portray with their CSR initiatives to its stakeholders.  

Step 2: Understanding the benefits for stakeholders: as aforementioned, a company cannot sustain on profits alone, stakeholders’ needs must be met at every step (Siltaloppi et al. 2021). The benefits here is, that the happier the stakeholders are, the more backing Fabulous Fits will get in the long-run. 

Step 3: Getting project approval: after setting up its benchmarks for new CSR policies and changes, Fabulous Fits must get it approved by the stakeholders, to check and evaluate if the clause and initiatives reconcile with the needs and interests of the stakeholders or not. 

Step 4: Setting project goals: after getting the approval, it is the next step where Fabulous Fits will be setting its prime goals, that it seeks to achieve by incorporating the changes in the corporate and CSR policies of the organisation (Tien and Anh 2018). The goals must comprise of both financial, and social components. 

Step 5: Running a current CSR analysis: this will be a trial-and-error based step where the outcomes will be evaluated based on the anticipated outcomes, to check the gap in the initiative/strategies. 

Step 6: Launching Fabulous Fits’ CSR campaign: when Fabulous Fits successfully runs its CSR analysis and finds no flaws in it, the initiative can be allied as ready to launch. Hence, after which the firm will be ready to practise the CSR roles, responsibilities and operations. 

Step 8: Managing Fabulous Fits’ program to success: the last step is management of the CSR plan. Merely implementing a CSR plan is not enough.  Fabulous Fits has to ensure its stakeholders that it will continuously follow the guidelines and keep monitoring the CSR performance of the firm. 

References

Baskentli, S., Sen, S., Du, S. and Bhattacharya, C.B., 2019. Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility: The role of CSR domains. Journal of Business Research, 95, pp.502-513. 

Carlini, J., Grace, D., France, C. and Lo Iacono, J., 2019. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) employer brand process: integrative review and comprehensive model. Journal of Marketing Management, 35(1-2), pp.182-205. 

Farooq, Q., Liu, X., Fu, P. and Hao, Y., 2020. Volunteering sustainability: An advancement in corporate social responsibility conceptualization. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(6), pp.2450-2464.

Jorgensen, T., 2021. The Future of Fashion: Corporate Social Responsibility and Essential Marketing Strategies.

Kappo-Abidemi, C. and Kanayo, O., 2020. Higher education institutions and corporate social responsibility: Triple bottomline as a conceptual framework for community development. Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 8(2), p.1103.

Masud, M., Kaium, A., Rashid, M., Ur, H., Khan, T., Bae, S.M. and Kim, J.D., 2019. Organizational strategy and corporate social responsibility: The mediating effect of triple bottom line. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(22), p.4559.

Pan, X., Sinha, P. and Chen, X., 2021. Corporate social responsibility and eco?innovation: The triple bottom line perspective. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 28(1), pp.214-228. 

Shim, J., Moon, J., Lee, W.S. and Chung, N., 2021. The impact of CSR on corporate value of restaurant businesses using triple bottom line theory. Sustainability, 13(4), p.2131.

Siltaloppi, J., Rajala, R. and Hietala, H., 2021. Integrating CSR with business strategy: a tension management perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 174(3), pp.507-527.

Štreimikien?, D. and Ahmed, R.R., 2021. Corporate social responsibility and brand management: evidence from Carroll’s pyramid and triple bottom line approaches. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 27(4), pp.852-875.

Tamvada, M., 2020. Corporate social responsibility and accountability: a new theoretical foundation for regulating CSR. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 5(1), pp.1-14.

Tien, N.H. and Hung Anh, D.B., 2018. Gaining competitive advantage from CSR policy change: case of foreign corporations in Vietnam. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 18.