Blog Eight - Corporate Social Responsibility

Blog 8 - Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility can be defined as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as that of the local community and society at large (Anon., 2012).

The Body Shop is a manufacturer and seller of beauty products to consumers. This company shows that they have undertaken corporate social responsibility (CSR) in to their strategy and views of the business as a whole. There are many ways in which the body shop have shown CSR in practice and have provided an informative channel to show these strategies both within their stores and through their website to ensure the public understand their views on certain issues involving CSR. ‘HRM innovations have an important role to play in creating an organisational culture that builds trust, flexibility, cooperation and a commitment to organisational goals’ (Bratton and Gold, 2003). This shows that through the HR department developing ways to incorporate CSR strategy into their ethics of the business, they can build trust with customers and show their ethics and beliefs of CSR being incorporated into their business culture.

One way in which The Body Shop expresses its CSR ethics is through the creation of a sustainable supply chain strategy. This includes The Body Shop working with their suppliers who manufacture the products and the farmers who provide the manufacturers with the fair trade stock used to make the produce. They ensure that ingredients put into products sold are gained from economical communities from across the globe and were also the first company to bring fair trade to the industry. This strategy also requires fair trade ingredients to be used and that they are bought at fair prices negotiated with the farming suppliers. This shows that they follow a positive CSR strategy ensuring that the suppliers of the ingredients retrieve fair pay for their stock and therefore maintains the lifetime running of the farming work. Creating this sustainable supply chain strategy benefits over 25,000 people in 22 countries worldwide therefore helping these communities to create a sustainable future. (Anon., 2012)

Another way in which The Body Shop show CSR is through engaging in community-based projects including launching a campaign to stop sex trafficking of children and young people and another campaign in 2008 focused on stopping violence in the home. Through these campaigns, they were able to provide women with tools, help, guidance and support on this particular issue. ‘We strive to treat all people in a fair and open fashion, to respect and value their integrity’ (Anon., 2012). This statement on the Body Shop’s website mirrors their belief through the work they carry out within the community aimed at helping the public.

The Body Shop also helps non profitable organisations through donations of their profits from the creation of their own charity, The Body Shop foundation launched in 1990. ‘The Body Shop Foundation's focus is to assist those working to achieve progress in the areas of human and civil rights, environmental and animal protection’(Bilson, 2010). Therefore they offer financial support to communities with little funding to support their projects of improving their lifestyle and making a living for themselves financially showing they invest heavily in corporate social responsibility within their business.

The benefits to The Body Shop of these initiatives are that they show to customers they value CSR highly throughout the operation of their business and this is evident to their target market. This benefits sales growth as customers may be more inclined to shop at The Body Shop following its positive ethical guidelines and may entice new customers to begin buying their products. This may also reduce their need to compete on price as their CSR strategies may have a positive impact on differentiating them from other competitors. Overall, investing in CSR has a positive impact on the company’s image and therefore if sustained will help to incur long term profits.

References

Anon. (2012) corporate social responsibility - introduction [online]. tutor2u. Available from: http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/corporate-social-responsibility-introduction.html [Accessed: 25 April 2012].

Anon. (2012) Our values [online]. The Body Shop. Available from: http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/services/aboutus_values.aspx [Accessed: 20 April 2012].

Anon. (2012) Values and Campaigns [online]. The Body Shop. Available from: http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/values-campaigns/community-trade.aspx [Accessed: 20 April 2012].

Bilson, J. (2010) Corporate Social Responsibility at The Body Shop [online]. Suite 101. Available from: http://jo-bilson.suite101.com/corporate-social-responsibility-at-the-body-shop-a215660 [Accessed: 20 April 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2003) Human resource management, theory and practice. 3rd ed. Bath: Palgrave Macmillan.