The Essay Highlights The Importance Of CSR In Organizational Change.

Procedures of Implementing CSR in the Entering and Contracting Phase

Organisational change is a procedure through which a company bring positive changes in the operations and functions. It helps in increasing the overall performance quality of the company, with the help of newly developed strategies (V?rzaru, Bocean and Nicolescu 2021). For example, Woolworths is a large-scale retail chain based in Australia that planned an organisational change. This company included AI technology in the main operations of the business, which is a significant as well as large-scale change in the business. In order to make the organisational change or development procedures successful, incorporating corporate social responsibility is important. The CSR strategies are also beneficial for the organisation to develop their brand image among the customers in the market. In many cases, it can be observed that in terms of improving the operational quality, the companies often forget to consider the external factors such as social factors of community benefits (Cai 2021). Therefore, incorporating the corporate social responsibility principles through the entering and contracting phase of the large-scale organisational change or development is important for both the external and internal growth of the organisation. In this study, the importance of CSR in an organisational change will be evaluated. In addition, procedures of implementing CSR in the entering and contracting phase of the organisational development. In order to manage a large-scale organisational change appropriate management strategies, as well as planning is required. In addition, the key issues of the organisational change will be identified, which can be mitigated using appropriate corporate social responsibilities.

The external factors such as consumer demand, market trends or the political factors are continuously changing (Tsalis, et al. 2020). If the company fails to cope up with the continuous external changes, the company will face difficulties in terms of retaining customer count from the market, and eventually the revenue of the company will decline. As a result, it becomes important for the company needs to bring changes within the operations of the organisation. For example, Woolworths apart from investing in the AI technology, the company launched Dairy Innovation Fund, which is worth of 5 million dollars, in order to help the farming conditions (Madzík, Budaj and Chocholáková 2018). In order to establish this particular innovation-funding program, the company had to initiate a planned process for developing the idea, as well as establishing contract with the partners, also known as entering and contracting.

Figure 1: CSR factors

(Source: Escrig-Olmedo et al. 2019)

There are mainly five stages of the entering and contracting, which are entering with a idea of the organisational change, identifying the key issues of the organisational aspects that requires changes, determining a team that will be responsible for the organisational development progress (Cai 2021). Then it is important to select practitioners who are experts in terms of developing beneficial strategies for the organisational changes. Lastly, the final step is to develop a contract among all the parties who are involved in this procedure. One of the most important factor that the company has to consider is the CSR principles during these steps of entering and contracting.

Key Issues of the Organisational Change and How CSR can Mitigate Them

It is important for an external agent to identify the aspects of the operations, which mainly disrupts the overall organisational performance quality. There are several types of issues such as financial problems, decreased market share, lack of customer interests and many more. The organisation has to identify the main key issues, and based on that external agent has to develop the organisational development procedure (Dikhanbayeva, et al. 2020). The entering stage of the organisation change includes, developing innovative ideas for the change, and selecting teams who are supposed to handle the change process. The contracting phase of the company consists of developing a contract, which is mainly a documentation that contains written agreements of the company regarding the organisational changes policies that are going to be implemented in the company, for positive results.

Developing a successful organisational process is a complicated procedure, for which the external agent has to face several challenges. The most difficult problem that can arise is the lack of appropriate resource in the organisation. In order to develop appropriate strategies, the company needs to have monetary stability, skilled workers and other resources, without which the organisational change plan might fail in the entering stage itself (Madzík, Budaj and Chocholáková 2018). In addition, the external agent also has to consider the CSR policies, for which conflict may arise among the company authorities. The employees may feel reluctant in terms of following the newly developed CSR policies. The external agent can promote as well as utilise the Triple bottom theory, in order to make increase awareness among the employees regarding the benefits of CSR and innovation in the organisation. The issues of limited resources can also disrupt the systematic procedure of the company, resulting in the failure of the organisational change process.

For example, Woolworths is a global company, as a result, the company has to manage multiple teams at once. Managing multiple team at once also increases conflicts and disagreements among the employees. In often cases, it can be seen that the company faces problems in terms of aligning the objectives with the change policies. In order to make an organisational change process successful, effort and commitment of the employees are required (Cai 2021). Most importantly, it is responsibility of the company to ensure that the newly developed strategies and practices are ethical, which helps in maintaining the company ethics. For example, a controversy was raised against Woolworths, regarding their unethical manufacturing practices for the baby products. The unethical measures are considered a barrier against the corporate social responsibilities taken by the organisation. According to Van Tonder (2006), ethical management is the most important principle of corporate social responsibility that are needed to be maintained during an organisational change.  Apart from ethical issues, problems regarding limited communication can also be a problem for the society.

Corporate social responsibility is defined as a unique business model, which allows the companies to take decisions that are beneficial for enhancing the societal and environmental factors. There are mainly four factors of the CSR model, which are philanthropic, ethical, legal and economic factors (Neri et al. 2019). The company has to ensure that the policies and strategies are being developed on the basis of these four factors. The CSR theory also states that the company needs to be ethical, which is also beneficial for developing the brand image in the market.

Challenges Faced in Developing a Successful Organisational Change Process

Figure 2: Corporate social responsibility model

(Source: Cuypers et al. 2021)

Incorporating corporate social responsibilities within the organisational change management procedure is important. However, considering the five main CSR principles while developing new strategies are considered extremely crucial for the company benefits (Madzík, Budaj and Chocholáková 2018). The external agents plays an important role in terms of aligning the newly developed strategies with the CSR policies. The main five principles are business-based social purpose, clear theory of change, quality and depth of information, concentrated effort and collaborating with experts (Deleryd, M. and Fundin, A., 2020).

In the entering stage, mainly during the development of the new ideas, it is important to align the principle of business-based social purpose principle. It means that the company has develop policies that are beneficial for both the business operations and the external communities (Madzík, Budaj and Chocholáková 2018). The outcomes of business performance, needs to have a positive effect on the customers, stakeholders, or any external associates of the company. If the change policies manages to satisfy the internal and external associates of the company, it means that the company has successfully achieved the organisational change management (Panait et al. 2022). In terms of identifying the key problems within the business aspects, the clear theory of change can be applied by the leaders. It will help in bringing clarity regarding the in-depth issues, which are the main setbacks for the organisational growth. In terms of executing the organisational change, the company needs to utilise quality information, concentrated effort, and they need to collaborate with experts (Rousseau, Hansen  and Tomprou 2018). The company can also collaborate with professional experts who has previously worked with the company that has gone through large-scale organisational change. The CSR principles are beneficial in terms of increasing the overall effectiveness of the organisational change. In addition, the corporate social responsibility is also important for improving the integrity of the overall operations of the organisation, by increasing ethical practices (Ren and Jackson 2020). Therefore, it can be said that incorporating corporate social responsibility principles within the organisational change management is effective for the company growth as well as the society and the environment.

An external agent who has been hired in order to manage the change procedure of the company, are responsible in terms of ensuring company key goals, targets, activities, schedules and most importantly the due dates of the project that they are assigned for. Aligning CSR policies with the company is one of the major task assigned to the change agents (Masoud 2017). As it was previously discussed, the entering and contracting phase can be concluded within five major points. Application of the corporate social responsibilities within this factors are important, in order to enhance the effectiveness of the outcome of the change project.

Developing ideas for the organisational development is the first step of the entering procedure. In this procedure, the agent can utilise the systematic management theory, which states that the company needs to take systematic decisions based on the demands of the employees in the organisations (Madzík, Budaj and Chocholáková 2018). There are various types of employees, and different types of designations in the company. Each employees have different demands, and various range of skills. As a result, the productivity level of the employees also varies; therefore, it becomes difficult for the agent to develop the new ideas that are beneficial for increasing the organisational growth. In this phase, the agent can utilise the business-based social purpose principles (Shayan et al. 2022). It is beneficial for developing strategies that are beneficial for developing the business performance as well as the society and the environment. This principle states that the business operations should reflect the ethical practices of the company among the customers. This theory also illustrates that the innovative change ideas along with the corporate social responsibility principles has the capacity to provide the company a competitive advantage (Madzík, Budaj and Chocholáková 2018). The CSR initiatives provides a unique value proposition to the company, which helps in attracting a large number of customers from the market. In addition, it also increases the market expansion opportunities for the company, which also increases the overall revenue generation of the company.

Clear theory of change is another CSR principle of the company, which can be incorporated in the phase of identifying the main issues within the company operations (Madzík, Budaj and Chocholáková 2018). It helps the agents to develop growth strategies or approaches that has the capacity to identify the effective measures that can bring change in the organisation within a short, medium or long time span. The change can happen in either financial aspects, operational, or any other aspects of the business.

One of the most important CSR principle is quality and depth of information. Before entering or clarifying the key issues of the company, it is important for the company to collect all the important data and information related to the employees, external stakeholders, and the customers (Stouten et al. 2018). It will be helpful in terms of understanding the internal and external conditions of the company, which will simplify the procedure of the identifying the gaps in the organisational operations. In order to increase the information flow, it is important to develop appropriate communication measures.

Concentrated efforts is another principle of the corporate social responsibility, which states that in order to become successful in the market, companies like Woolworths need to focus on every aspects of the business. The company needs to focus on the ongoing social issues such as increasing climate change conditions, increasing carbon footprint, or any other social or environmental issues. For example, Woolworths decided to bring sustainable changes in the company operations that are beneficial for reducing the carbon footprint by 55% within next few years (Ren and Jackson 2020). It has helped the company to gain recognition from the global market. Therefore, it can be considered that focusing on the sustainability, social and environmental issues, apart from the main business operations helps the company to increase its value position in the local as well as the international market.

Lastly, the most important principle of the corporate social responsibility is collaborating with experts. One of the major phase that comes before contracting is selecting credible partners, who are experienced in terms of understanding the importance of implement ting CSR principles in the change management (Stouten et al. 2018). The company can select social issue experts or may be professional from the non-profit organisation, who mainly works for social or environmental causes. The agent can understand the factors that are required for enhancing the organisational change, and push the company to be a sustainable entity in the market.

Apart from these principles, the company can also focus on bringing advanced technologies in the company, which are also helpful for reducing the manual efforts (Ren and Jackson 2020). Before developing the contract, the company also has to ensure that every associates in the company are aware of the organisational change and the newly developed CSR policies. It allows the company prevent any internal conflict situation from occurring, and focus on the organisational growth.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the overall discussion that the principles of the corporate social responsibilities are beneficial for enhancing the organisational success. The entering and contracting procedure of the organisational change has mainly five different steps, in which the five different principles can be aligned. The companies initiates external changes in the organisation in order to increase the overall business performance, as well as enhance the revenue generation. The external agents plays a crucial role in terms of developing the plans and scheduling the activities of the change management. The success of the organisational development depends on the entering and the contracting phases of the company.

It has been observed in the study that collaborating with the experts, who deals with the social factors, helps the company in understanding the factors that are required for bringing external changes in the organisation. It has also been identified that the company needs to gather every important data and information regarding the external condition of the company. It is important to remain aware regarding the ongoing external market trends, and customer demands. Based on the external factors, the company can develop appropriate objectives, along with the CSR initiatives. One of the most significant factor of the corporate social responsibility model is the ethical management. It is important for the company to maintain integrity in the organisational operations, which is also beneficial for increasing the brand image of thee company in the market. Therefore, it can be considered that aligning the corporate social responsibilities is beneficial for enhancing the effectiveness of the organisation.

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