Expert answer:Corporate Social Responsibility explain your depar
Answer & Explanation:The BP and Toyota cases concern companies that acted in ways that would clearly cause harm to the public and/or the planet. To do so, individuals at many levels played a part. If you worked in the marketing department of BP or Toyota, explain your department’s responsibility related to these issues. You must use the text and at least one additional scholarly source.corporate_social_responsibility_text.docx
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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TEXT
10.3 Responsibility to Your Organization
When you accept a marketing position, you become ethically bound to serve the public and
the marketing profession. You also accept anethical responsibility to your employer. The re
lationship is not simply economic; it is a mutual dependency with impact on both employer
and employee. The employer has an obligation to consider employees’ welfare. The employ
ee has a duty to give a full measure of effortin return for a paycheck. In addition, employees
have an obligation to behave ethically in all transactions with stakeholders—coworkers,
managers, shareholders, and customers.
More companies today are making their philosophy and values transparent. The public exp
eriences that transparency in missionstatements, positioning slogans, and such. Stakeholde
rs are provided with company policies and guidelines designed to help managersdeal ethic
ally with questions and issues that arise. These guidelines typically cover the company’s CS
R philosophy plus policies regardingcustomer service, supply chain relations, and issues rel
ating to the marketing mix such as fair pricing, safe product development, andtruth in adve
rtising. Organizations bear the responsibility to ensure that such policies are credible, susta
inable, meaningful, and prudent(i.e., will not jeopardize profitability or the interests of shar
eholders.) Prospective employees increasingly say they want to work inorganizations whic
h share their philosophies and values (Balmer et al., 2011). Transparency regarding philoso
phy andsocialresponsibility policies helps employers and employees find the right fit.
Responsibility to the Brand
Branding as a marketing technique is intended to attract and retain customer relationships.
Marketing 3.0 consumers are looking forethical, customeroriented brands. A brand’s narrative emerges from public perceptions of the brand’s perso
na. Whether that story ispositive or negative reflects marketers’ performance in living up t
o the image they’ve created. Brands that have earned a reputation forsocial responsibility i
nclude Patagonia (outdoor clothing), Stonyfield Farm (organic dairy products), Tom’s of Ma
ine (personal care), TheBody Shop (personal care), and Ben & Jerry’s (ice cream) (Balmer e
t al., 2011).
No organization can maintain an ethical reputation for its brand when its rhetoric is divorc
ed from reality. Attempts to do so havebrought trouble to the likes of Enron, Toyota, BP, an
d a number of financial institutions. A closer look at the BP Deepwater Horizondisaster in 2
010 provides a vivid example of a brand’s failed effort to maintain an ethical identity.
The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 damaged the public’sperceptions of the company’s ethica
l identity.
Associated Press
In 1998 British Petroleum merged with Amoco. The new companyadopted the brand name
BP. In branding the new oil company, marketerschose a lowercase “bp” to communicate a b
rand that was selfeffacing,lesscorporate, and more friendly than previous perceptions. Thecompany’s name
was given a new positioning: “bp” became shorthand for”beyond petroleum.” Much of the c
ompany’s brand communicationsfocused on positioning BP on ethical and green credential
s.
But BP’s desire to brand itself as an environmental steward becamefarther from reality as t
ime passed. Greenpeace (an environmentalactivist group) identified that only 1 percent of
BP’s postmergeractivities came from sustainable sources. Safety transgressions in SouthHouston (a
2005 refinery explosion and fire) and in Alaska (2006–
2007Prudhoe Bay oil spills) showed a questionable environmental trackrecord (Balmer et
al., 2011). Then the Deepwater Horizon disaster blewthe last shreds of BP’S green positioni
ng out of the water.
Public statements following that disaster did not help the company’squestionable brand na
rrative. Within weeks thecorporatecommunications campaign was trumpeting “We will ma
ke it right”—
butthe company had yet to even complete capping the underwater well. To many, the BP id
entity became synonymous with environmentaldisaster andcorporate failure (Balmer et al.,
2011).
BP failed to walk its talk. The relationship between its marketing and its ethics was too wea
k. Employer and employees alike failed intheir responsibility to the “beyond petroleum” br
and.
Field Trip 10.6: Critical Lessons From the Toyota Recall
The episodes of sticking gas pedals that brought Toyota’s ethical lapses to light present a ca
se with some similarities to BP’sDeepwater Horizon episode. Follow the link to read an arti
cle in Business Ethics: The Magazine ofCorporate Responsibility titled,”Toyota Recall: Five Cri
tical Lessons.”
Responsibility to Channel Partners
An expectation of ethical behavior is part of the relationship among partners in organizatio
ns’ supply chains. A few negative events canundo the cumulative effect of many positive act
ivities. Factors most often cited in research about channel partner relationships areconflict,
opportunism, and unfairness (Samaha et al., 2011). Managers should take a proactive appr
oach—
for example, developingtraining for channel partners in the importance of ethical behavior
and enforcing contracts designed to mitigate the potential for conflictand opportunism.
Consider the fictionalized example of a SkyView Foods marketing analyst named Eric. He w
as tasked with improving the software thataggregated individual store sales in the 28store grocery chain. The aggregate sales data reports were used to claim promotionalreimb
ursement from a manufacturer in a trade promotion. The amount of each reimbursement c
heck was based on the quantity ofproduct retailers actually sold to consumers, rather than
the quantity purchased from the manufacturer. Eric’s department submittedsales reports t
o claim the reimbursement, which the manufacturer checked for accuracy, duplication, eligi
bility, pricing, and customerreturns. Once the claims were reviewed, payment was made to
SkyView Foods.
The new software Eric implemented automated the sales reports that were previously prod
uced by an accounting clerk. Eric’s boss cameto him with a command to revise the new soft
ware so that “counts could be modified.” When Eric probed about what sort ofmodification
s could be needed, he learned that the company had been fudging the counts of products pu
rchased to increasereimbursements from manufacturers. Eric’s colleagues encouraged him
to go along with the deception, citing better prices for customersas a result. Eric was still p
ondering his dilemma when the manufacturer discovered the discrepancy in past reports. E
ric did a quickonline search and learned that when similar deceptions were uncovered, oth
er retailers had been required to pay fines. In one suchaccount, he learned that five executi
ves—including the one who blew the whistle on the deception—
lost their jobs (Castleberry, 2011).
Eric’s situation highlights the difficulty for an employee when channel partner relationship
s veer toward the unethical. In this case,opportunism spelled real potential risk for Eric’s e
mployer—and possibly for its employees as well.
Responsibility for Value Creation
What’s your ROI? In other words, what return are you generating on the investment your co
mpany has made in you? You are responsiblefor creating value for your employer. If you ar
e not focused on that goal, you are slighting one of the chiefresponsibilities incumbent onan
employee. (This applies not just in the marketing field, but in any position.) Generating val
ue is your obligation—and your jobsecurity, to some extent.
What defines a valuecreating employee? Some of the attributes are tactical, having to do with handlingresponsib
ilities efficiently andeffectively. A valuecreating employee completes assigned tasks without waste and with positive outcomes.
Some of the attributes of a valuecreating employee are strategic, having to do with seeing the big picture and envisioning w
here effortwould add value. Do you bring a problem-solving mindset to your role in your employer company? The best problemsolvers aresystems thinkers who view a “problem” as an interdependent part of an overall
system. Rather than react to a specific part (problem),systems thinkers envision how the o
utcomes or events triggered by a proposed solution will potentially contribute to the whole
. Becauseof their attention to the whole, systems thinkers are better at contributing solutio
ns that improve operations without bringingunintended consequences.
A marketing writer was hired by a health insurer to respond to requests for proposals (RFP
s) concerning coverage for employer groups.He discovered the process of writing proposal
s consisted of cutting and pasting paragraphs from previously completed proposals. Hesug
gested improving the process by developing standard templates and customizing each prop
osal with specifics related to each newRFP. Shortly after his suggestions were implemented
, the company gained a large contract. The writer was promoted to manager of theproposal
department (Olderman, 2012). His contribution improved his department’s functions, addi
ng value while contributing to hisown career development.
Systems thinkers create value. If your current role does not allow you to bring a problemsolving mindset, what aspect of your work lifecould you use to demonstrate those capabilities and show
your potential to generate added value beyond the role you were hired to fill?
The bottom line is this: Employees who are not generating value are generating reasons for
redefinition of their job descriptions. Ifyou’re not creating value in your current role, you’d
better have your resume up-todate. Where would you like to be employed instead?Envision the type of company and posit
ion in which you will be able to generate a positive ROI for your next employer.
This discussion of the ethical requirements of employees toward their employers has cover
ed responsibility to the brand, to thecompany’s channel partners, and to value creation at t
he level of individual effort. The example of BP after the Deepwater Horizondisaster illustra
ted the customer alienation that can result whencorporate behavior fails to support a bran
d’s rhetoric. The example ofEric’s dilemma at SkyView Foods showed how opportunism cre
ated conflict for employees and a potentially damaging outcome for theentire organization.
At every level in an organization, it is important for individuals to walk the talk supporting
relationships among channel partners andbetween the brand and its public.
Questions to Consider
The BP and Toyota cases concern companies that acted in ways that would clearly cause ha
rm to the public and/or the planet.Individuals at many levels played a part. If you worked i
n the marketing department of BP or Toyota, would you have questioned themisalignment
between brand rhetoric andcorporate behavior?
If you were Eric working for SkyView Foods, would you have blown the whistle on your em
ployer or colluded in the deception?
If you were the creative director of an advertising agency that was assigned to promote a v
ehicle with known safety problems, wouldyou accept or refuse the assignment?
…
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