Matching Competitive Strategy and Social Responsibility

Question: Discuss about the Matching Competitive Strategy and Social Responsibility. Answer: Introduction Stakeholders can be described as an essential part of an organization. Any organization whether it is a manufacturing organization or a service organization needs to adhere to the needs of its stakeholders and to ensure that the organization is abiding by various responsibilities that the organization has with respect to the stakeholders. These stakeholders range from various customers, employees, suppliers to the public at large (Schwartz, 2017). The primary aim of the given essay is to throw light on one such company, Apple Inc. and its corporate social responsibility of looking after the employees of the organization. The given essay will analyze how the Apple matches its competitive strategies with its social mission. Apple Inc is an American company headquartered in California. The company is established in selling computer software, consumer electronics and online services. The products of the given company include iPhone, Ipad, Mac electronics, iPod and the smart watch (Apple.com, 2018). The company has been stated to be one of the best companies around the globe with a high revenue base. The social issue being discussed in the given essay is the one related to Employee Wellbeing. Companies need to follow a strategic approach to health and wellbeing of the employees in order to build a sustainable workforce. According to Tai and Chuang (2014), around 72% of workers fall in sick and suffer from contagious illness because of ill treatment at the corporations. The impact of this high turnover is taking a toll on the companies and hence, it lies to social as well as the corporate duty of the firm to ensure that the employees are being treated well and the organization works towards their well being. Given below are certain reasons, why the CSR activities form an essential part of the business enterprise: To gain trust from society- Engaging in corporate social responsibilities go a long way in helping the firm to engage into a trustworthy relationship with the society (Cheng, Ioannou Serafeim, 2014).When a society realizes that the organization has been doing well for them then they will go a long way in supporting the firm. To create awareness to the society- It lays the duty of the various companies to help them in understanding the various environmental and economic concerns which require awareness. To show effort of an organization to improve society in the some ways-The perception of the organization often remains as a profit making machine, however, it is important for the firm to show to the general public that the organization cares about the well being of the people and wants to take further initiative for their betterment. To build support- Engaging in corporate social responsibility activities goes a long way in helping the general public to view the company from a new perspective and support them in their requirements. According to Crane, Matten and Spence (2013), the sales of the companies increase if they engage in good corporate social responsibility activities As part of the organization policy and regulation- Corporate social responsibilities have become an important part of life necessary to include in their policies and regulations. Government intention- Governments tend to provide incentives to the company who engage in corporate social responsibility activities and have made it compulsory for companies with a high turnover (Servaes Tamayo, 2013). Engagement in corporate social responsibility also goes a long way in improving the financial position of the firm as it ensures that the share price and others remain high, this provides extra benefit to the stakeholders in return itself. How Apple could match competitive strategy with social missions The competitive strategy of Apple lies in making its products extremely popular and selling the best products in the market (Hill Charles, Jones Gareth Schilling Melissa, 2015). The company needs to make sure that its a leading brand in the market with the best phone designs and application of the latest technology. However, Apple has a well defined social responsibility and it utilized that in the well being of the employees. Apple realizes that it has a well defined competitive strategy all because of its employee base. The employees at apple work very hard in order to ensure that Apple comes up with the best structure and the best design of all the given phones in the market. For this purpose, Apple has made a well defined social missions that go along its competitive strategy and help the given firm to ensure that the employee well being is supported at its best. According to Bhattacharya et al. (2017), Apple has a well defined set of plans for its workers and it takes all necessary steps in order to ensure that it is able to educate and empower its workers. The company offers education and development programs, to more than 2, 80,000 workers in different courses during the year 2016. The company engages in various employee healthy benefit programs. The company also supports Labor and Human Rights by have a pre-defined set of working hours which the company has to abide by which is restricted to 60 hours in a week. Apple has invested in various workers and their working conditions in order to ensure that the employees are being treated well in the organization. As per Grayson and Hodges (2017),Apple is deeply concerned about the well being of its employees and for this purpose it has launched a program which has the duration of 18 months in order to see that all the workers working in the firm need to have the capability to identify and fight against the ergonomic risks. The company has various gender equality plans as well with the help of which it sees to it that the given organization performs well and there exists, equality in the workplace and the minorities are also protected at work. Employees are stated to be the lifeblood of the organization and it is the employees who tend to work for the welfare of the firm. If the employees work for the welfare of the organization and if the employees are happy, engaged and healthy they can contribute towards the welfare of the organization. Hence, the employee welfare and well being needs to be addressed and invested broadly in so as to form a bigger CSR programs (Clapp Rowlands, 2014). Apple broadly believes that the employees need to be the largest recipient of the CSR Activities of the organization. According to Takkar (2015), already Apple has various programs for its employees, it needs to realize that the employee well being should be the primary pillar of the company`s CSR Activities and wellbeing needs to firmly put under the CSR Basket. The benefits of the employee well being programs are many and according to the World Economic Forum estimates, the well being social responsibilities towards the employees can save around $700 per employee in a year. Furthermore, it also tends to increase the happiness and productivity within an organization (Pedersen, 2015). The positive results of the CSR Activities are that it leads to reduced Absenteeism, Staff turnover and productivity and greater satisfaction. Furthermore, as Employees tend to form the most important stakeholder of the organization and hence, it is the duty of the firm to offer a well being to the employees. According to Mousavi et al., (2013), Apple should increase its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts towards the employees and make sure that they are able to match their competitive strategies that is being the leading phone company with its well being plans for the employees (Porter Kramer, 2006) .It can take out various strategies which help the company to take better care of its employees to ensure that it remains the global lead in terms of employee satisfaction as well. CSR can be a source of opportunity, innovation and competitive advantage regardless of economic concerns Although engaging in the Corporate Social Responsibilities is considered to be a costly affair, the engagement proves to be a source of opportunity, innovation and competitive advantage for the firm in the following manner: Greater ability to attract talent and retain talent serves as a competitive advantage- With a better Corporate Social Responsibilities program for the employees, the firm gets the attraction of various talents around the globe. Hence, it will be easier for the firm to gain competitive advantage in cases where it is a storehouse of talent. Positive business reputation increases the opportunities for the business-As the companies who have their social missions and responsibilities extremely clear and well defined, tend to gain the praise of the government and various companies all around the globe (Dudovskiy, 2018). For this reason, various other companies want to collaborate with the firm and ensure that they prosper along with the firm. Better funding responsibilities help to seek innovation in the operations-Generally, firms which have a better corporate social responsibility for their employees and the general public tend to seek funds which are better for the innovation aspects of the firm. Conclusion Therefore, from the given analysis it could be analyzed that corporate social responsibility forms an essential aspect of any firm`s activities. The given essay examines the social mission and corporate social responsibility of Apple and its activities with reference to employee well being. The company has taken several steps to ensure that the activities of the firm are taken always keeping in mind the welfare of its employees, which it takes as seriously as its competitive strategies References Apple.com (2018). Apple. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/ Bhattacharya, C. 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