In my opinion many businesses get too big for their own good and forget about the importance of their role in the local community. The social responsibility of local businesses is the same as the social responsibility that each citizen of that community has.
At the end of the day we are all responsible for the way our society is. Company Q is behaving in a way that demonstrates as though they have no social responsibility. Legally of course this is true, but ethically one would hope that they would want to improve upon their community.Their attitude is perhaps most evident with the complete disregard for the needy. A profitable business should look for ways to give back to the community.
In this case, they did not need to spend time looking for a way to give back, or really put any thought into it at all. They were approached by a local food bank for the donation of day old items, but Company Q declined. Of course we can understand not wanting to give the food bank the high margin items that have been hard to keep on the shelves, but the food bank was willing to accept anything they could get donated and still were given nothing.Furthermore it took years of requests for the voices of their customers to be heard with regard to getting organic products and healthier alternatives. The first action that Company Q should be taking is to get more involved with the community.
Sponsor a little league team or some kind of school clubs. As the workers within the company get to know the members of the local community more, they will feel more obligated to help out where they can. The second action they can take serves as a way to prevent fraud and theft by their employees.Assign specific foods that are lower risk for fraud that will still be useful for the local food bank. An example of this might be produce, vegetables, baked goods, etc. The third and last action I recommend taking to improve Company Q’s attitude towards social responsibility is to utilize their employees to take the donations to the food bank personally.
This can be used to reward employees and will show them the effect that the donation has on families that truly are in need. Slowly there will be a change within the employees and their intent through internal feedback hopefully a change in management as well.Management should be more concerned also with what bad publicity might arise from such a situation. The risk of bad publicity from these acts is a much greater risk than the risk of the loss of revenue coming from theft by their employees. It is my recommendation that Company Q take immediate action to prevent bad publicity which will eventually lead to a loss in revenue. Whatever action is taken needs to be focused on your responsibilities as a business in building up society as a whole.
The first two recommendations made were, sponsorship of local teams/clubs, and donation of products that do not carry a high margin with them.Lastly using your employees to deliver the donation, this will create that deep rooted feeling of gratitude and responsibility to not only the community but to the company as well. Through these actions your company will become more socially responsible, and the community as well as your employees will notice this change. A happier employee will stay with you longer and work harder without having to be monitored which will reduce costs for you and increase productivity. This is the recipe for success for both society and business and I am sure that now you can clearly see that.
