Harris KhanAn accommodative strategy is defined that management may take a positive view toward CSR activities and thus is willing to partially participate in these activities or invest some corporate resources in them.
What is Accommodative Strategy?
Accommodative strategy is the middle way between Defensive and Agressive Strategies. It is a rather objective and neutral approach to corporate social responsibility.
The objective of the Accommodative strategy is to get the best out of CSR while not really committing a lot of resources to it.
The choice of this strategy is driven by various factors such as :
- Limited commitment of management to CSR related activities
- Limited resources due to other more pressing objectives
- Limited awareness of the necessity, value and implication of CSR
- Limited internal resources within the organization to pursue CSR activities
- Limited external resources within the organization to pursue CSR activities
Once there is awareness within the management that the Accommodative strategy, with gradual increase in intensity, can indeed deliver high scores in corporate social responsibility or enhance the corporate image, they can move into Agressive strategy.
Following are some pointers for designing a primarily accommodative strategy for CSR in your organization.
Initiate and/or develop an active CSR committee/department/unit within the organization.
Corporate social responsibility is the response from a business to the needs of the communities in which it operates. Business can be instrumental in addressing local social issues that range from health to environment protection, and community building activities. These activities are the responsibility of the business merely because it can do it and its role models in the community. The business has the ability to make a difference in the society and it is indeed expected from the business to incorporate these activities in their strategy and make a difference.
The CSR activities of business vary with the objective and business model of the organization. A business may choose to target certain specific activities and divert a certain percentage of profits, goods or resources for the targeted cause. The activities may range from a single activity or a large-scale program depending on the scope of the issue and the resources available for the program.
Corporate social responsibility is not a rigid framework but an approach to the corporate strategy and activities (within the means and resources available) that can help in social development. The activities may include :
- Products and services developed for communities
- Community outreach (such as health care facilities)
- Direct investment in communities (such as new factories)
- Provision of financial resources for community-oriented organizations
It is required of business to get involved in the social activities and thus contribute in the development of the communities in which it operates. Thus business should creatively pursue the development of the communities in which they operate in sync with the overall corporate objectives and key performance indicators. Corporate social responsibility is about making the world a better place through the business venture or business effort.
CSR activities need proactive strategy from the management of the business. The strategy for CSR activities of a business must be a part of the overall corporate strategy that incorporates social as well as financial goals. Corporate priorities are changed with this change in the perspective of the business.
The management must be attentive to the activities that are being executed, the involvement and evaluation must be done on an ongoing basis. The strategy must be flexible, the objectives must be clear, and should include communication with the stakeholders involved. CSR activities are not an isolated or independently managed project. The CSR activities are interrelated with the corporate objectives as well as with the overall business strategy.
The principles of a business strategy must be:
Sustainable
CSR cannot be done for the sake of doing it. The business must ensure that the CSR activities are sustainable in nature.
Profit oriented
The business must ensure that the CSR activities and development of communities must be integrated into the profits and must yield profit.
Impact oriented
CSR must be impact oriented. This means that the business must ensure that the social activity in which it is involved penetrates the community and fills up the gap wherever required. It will bring a positive impact to the concerned community.
Relevancy
The business must ensure that the CSR activities are relevant to the community being served.
This accommodative strategy can be framed in the following phases :
Planning
- Phase 1: Business interest
- Phase 2: Business preparation
- Phase 3: Business start
Optimization
- Phase 4: Analysis
- Phase 5: Evaluation
- Phase 6: Conclusion
- Phase 7: Recommendations
Corporate governance refers to firm’s policies and practices that are designed to align the interests of management with shareholders and other stakeholders.
Business must maintain a balance between the interest of the shareholders and the stakeholder. Business must have a vision and strong management. It must maintain vigilance about its objectives and goals. It must involve the employees and strengthen the internal infrastructure so that it may withstand the impact of the CSR activities.
Corporate profit is the ultimate goal of the business. The business should not indulge into CSR activities beyond its means or means available. The business must understand the implications of the strategy and must plan and execute the activities in this direction.
In order to be successful with the accommodative strategy, the business must ensure that it is aligned with the corporate strategy and it must be prepared to pursue the CSR activities to the extent possible. The business must be prepared to put CSR in the balance with other performance indicators. It must give CSR a higher level of importance and create a policy for CSR which should be brought out into the open and transparent to the stakeholders.
‘Corporate social responsibility’ is a term which means “responsibility of corporations to be socially responsible” or “business social responsibility”. In this model, the corporation itself (through certain of its employees), plans a series of activities to benefit a selected group of people. This plan could also result in a loss if the activity does not work out to achieve the objective specified.
Accommodative Strategy
The business plays an important role in a country’s economy. It contributes to the growth of communities in which it operates. The business has the ability to make a difference in the society and it is indeed expected from the business to incorporate these activities in their strategy and make a difference.
The CSR activities of business vary with the objective and business model of the organization. A business may choose to target certain specific activities and divert a certain percentage of profits, goods or resources for the targeted cause. The activities may range from a single activity or a large-scale program depending on the scope of the issue and the resources available for the program.
Corporate social responsibility is not a rigid framework but an approach to the corporate strategy and activities (within the means and resources available) that can help in social development. The activities may include:
- Product and services developed for communities
- Community outreach (such as health care facilities)
- Direct investment in communities (such as new factories)
- Provision of financial resources for community-oriented organizations
The aims of enterprise CSR activities include:
Growth of company
The company must understand that the CSR must be integrated into the company’s growth and cannot be a hindrance.
Value
The CSR activities must be able to bring value to the stakeholders of the business through the development of the communities where the business operates.
Partnerships
The business must have strong partnerships to formulate and implement the CSR activities in harmony with the stakeholders.
Heuristic
The CSR activities exhibit an innovative spirit to solve social problems.
Comprehensive
CSR activities must be broad based in order to impact the development of the communities and give opportunities to community members.
The social activities of a business can be segmented into 5 categories. These categories are:
Under sensitive market conditions, business must take a huge initiative to safeguard its position by incorporating the concept and strategy of CSR.
Business must formulate CSR objectives and the strategy must be aligned with the business objectives. Once the CSR strategy is formulated in alignment with the overall corporate strategy, the business must make sure to communicate the same to its stakeholders and the employees.
Social performance measures are used to assess and evaluate the impact of the activities done under the CSR activity. The evaluation of CSR activities need to be human oriented. Evaluation gives insight into how employees, consumers and other stakeholders perceive the CSR activities of the business. The evaluation is based on the outcomes of the activities.
Social performance measures help businesses to assess and evaluate the impact of the activities done under the CSR activity. The evaluation can include any of the following measures:
Evaluation can be done in many ways based on the relevance and type of the CSR activity. The evaluation can include questionnaires, interviews or focus groups, analyses, observation, etc.
