Review of the corporate social responsibility for Siemens Company

Table of Contents Introduction The case against Siemens The case for Siemens Conclusion Recommendation Reference List Introduction â€Å"Corporate social responsibility or CSR in short is also referred to as sustainable business relationship and is an integral integration into a business model to function as a self-regulation mechanism where the business monitors and ensures that it complies with the laws, standards of ethics and norms – both national and international.† (D Wood, Younger).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Review of the corporate social responsibility for Siemens Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For a multi-national corporation like Siemens, the approach of corporate social responsibility is a very important part of their business philosophy. Siemens always has an active participation approach to all their corporate social responsibility activities. Their employees are alw ays willing to give a helping and caring hand to those people who are in one way or another disadvantaged apart from the mere action of giving a fat cheque to cover expenses and serve as funding to the projects. Foote 1999 says â€Å"For Siemens, devoting their time and expertise to assist the needy – children, the youth and the elderly is a part of their identity.† It is what differentiates them from other corporate. Ranging from giving hope to the challenged or caring for the environment, Siemens has always participated in initiatives that require responsibility to be served to the society. Siemens always makes sure to satisfy all their stakeholders. The following are termed as the stakeholders: employees, suppliers, customers, investors, policy makers and the society at large. Brown, Dillard and Russer, Marshall say that, â€Å"To employees, the company â€Å"invests considerable resources in training them, upgrading their professional qualifications, safeguarding their health and assuring their welfare.† To supplier, the company aims to â€Å"promote sustainability by generating long-term value with the help of excellent and innovative suppliers – with a strong focus on economic, ecological and socially responsible operation.† â€Å"To customers, Siemens aims at aligning their business strategies, goals and objectives with the demands of customers as well as with what the customers expect,†(Correst, Nathan Bedford). To investors, the company aims at giving the best return on investments that pleases the investors as well as to maintain a good corporate image. To policy makers, Siemens makes their business decisions based on political decisions and public policy debates. â€Å"In addition to maintaining business relationships with government institutions and agencies which are customers for our products, solutions and services, we also openly contribute to the shaping of public opinion through various means in our capacity as a corporate citizen,† (Davis, Kirk Blomstrom and Dawart, Crowther).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The case against Siemens Despite Siemens terming themselves as being a â€Å"global powerhouse in the electronics and electrical engineering†, Siemens AG has been curbed by some corruption cases. The company was fined 1.6 billion US dollars. This was the largest fine for corruption in the history of the Anti-corruption cases and also in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) history. Evidence was sought signifying that the company was involved in bribing all over the world in several different business sectors. â€Å"The company (Siemens AG) and its subsidiaries in Venezuela, Argentina and Bangladesh were fined $450 million for allegations concerning corruption as per the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).† Dawart (20). Foote adds. Siemens which is listed in the New York Stock Exchange is regulated by the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) despite it being a German company. Siemens further agreed to top up with $350 million to cover charges incurred by SEC. Wills a renown researcher says that, â€Å"The company (Siemens AG) also paid $569 million to Munich Office of the Prosecutor General to whom the company had in October 2007 paid $285 in fines.† The evidence against Siemens revealed that the company bribed public officials in many business sectors and in many countries in order to be awarded large public contracts. Corruption within the company was so rampant and despite the company’s senior officials having this knowledge, they turned blind eye to the corrupt deals and did not do anything to attempt to stop them. Bribery almost became a part of the checklist in all of Siemens’ operations across the world. The agreement also made it that Sie mens had to be checked for a period of four years by an independent compliance monitory and also agreed to co-operate with the Department of Justice in further investigations of corruption within the company by agent and employees. If we examine Siemens’ corporate social responsibility in this case, the company did not stick to their own code of ethics and business conduct. The company also broke one of its core values which are to be responsible. Their value of responsibility states that â€Å"We are determined to meet – and wherever possible, exceed – all legal and ethical requirements. â€Å"Our responsibility is to conduct all business according to the highest professional and ethical standards and practices: There must be no tolerance for non-compliant behavior† (Habisch, Andre and Jan, Jonker. Schmidpeter), †This principle of responsibility is meant to act as a crucial guideline to the making of business decisions so by breaking this value an d encouraging corruption by not stopping it despite being aware of it, Siemens did not meet its ethical obligations here.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Review of the corporate social responsibility for Siemens Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There is no doubt on this. By breaking this principle, the stakeholders were negatively impacted.† The case for Siemens Despite the court cases and fines concerning Siemens and alleging corruption, the company has however learnt its lesson and there have not been any reports of corruption in its operations. At least by correcting where they had gone wrong, the company still showed that they were willing to be responsible by both handling the situation to curb corruption and agreeing to be accountable and responsible and paying fines. Siemens AG also launched a $100 million Integrity Initiative. This initiative has been argued by many to be as a result of the court cases concerning corruption since the initiative was started in 2009 after the huge fines that the company had to pay for corrupt deals. According to Wills, â€Å"The Siemens Integrity Initiative aims to fight corruption and fraud through activities such as education and training.† The company also has a large corporate social responsibility portfolio from all over the globe. They have some corporate citizenship programs in several countries. In South Africa, the company is well known for its AIDS program known as REACH. Siemens collaborates with several partners to support HIV victims by providing cheap health care and providing support to HIV positive employees. The patients receive their medications and/or vaccines and are given counseling and ongoing personal and group support. Grace, Darmoth and Habisch, Andre says that in Egypt, as part of the Siemens Generation 21 education program, the company supports university education with several projects. Some of the pro jects include contest to design energy saving systems and idea workshops on energy conservation and reducing carbon footprints. In Brazil, the company built a high-voltage line round the Brazilian rainforest. The line is 14km long with the aim of keeping to a minimum the project’s footprint and to reduce to the most possible minimum, the impact that the project would have on one of the world’s richest fauna and flora habitats. The project did not involve any heavy machine work. â€Å"Rather, they used laborers to excavate, pneumatic jack hammers and installed cables by hand or if needed, by helicopter.† Wills says. All waste was cleverly handled and no waste was left unprocessed or unmoved.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to Donations, employee volunteer work and partnerships 2008, â€Å"Siemens is an equal opportunity employer for the ‘different label’, when it comes to employment. Siemens has always given the challenged people a level playing ground in conjunction with the Ability Foundation, the physically challenged or those with other disabilities to interviews† (Jastram, Sarah and Paluszek, John). These interviewees are given aptitude tests like the others and are not given any special attention or consideration. The development of corporate social responsibility programs demonstrates that Siemens is fulfilling their obligation to the society and to the environment by developing sustainable development. Conclusion Siemens as a company has been involved in both the positive and negative influences in relation to their stakeholders that is the employees, society, suppliers, customers, investors, policy makers and the society at large. On the positive side, Siemens ha d engaged in positive environmental impacts and corporate citizenship roles that have empowered the stakeholders and made Siemens a company that all are ready and willing to be associated with. On the negative side, Siemens showed a lack of care for their core values and their delayed response in finding and handling the situation had a great negative impact to the stakeholders and in the way our society is wired, despite how much the company attempts to make up for the wrongs, it will be the most difficult thing that the company has done since people will always focus on the negatives more than the positives. In terms of its core business, through the rampant corruption within the organization, Siemens demonstrated that in order to please their stakeholders, they were willing to do this by any means be they clean or dirty. This is not a good business approach since it usually destroys businesses especially as seen in the huge fines paid to the courts. Recommendation I would recomme nd that Siemens AG stick to its core value of â€Å"exceeding all legal and ethical requirements and conducting business in the highest professional and ethical standards and having no tolerance for non-compliant behavior† (Habisch, Andre and Jan, Jonker Schmidpeter). In this way, Siemens will be able to give full value to all stakeholders in an honest way without jeopardizing anything. I would also recommend that Siemens AG should continue in its corporate citizenship and in the other good corporate social responsibility initiatives that it has in the past been involved with. Reference List Brown, Dillard and Russer, Marshall. Triple Bottom Line: A business metaphor for a social construct. Portland State University, School of Business Administration. Correst, Nathan Bedford. Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Careers. University of Edinburgh Careers Service. 2008. Davis, Kirk Blomstrom Business and Society: Environment and Responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill. 19 75. Dawart, Crowther, Social and Environmental Accounting. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2000, p. 20. Donations, employee volunteer work and partnerships. 2008 Web. D Wood, Younger. Corporate Social Performance Revisited. (1991) 16(4) The Academy of Management: Review 2005. Foote, Shelby. The Civil War in Corperate Accounting, a Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage, 1986. Grace, Darmoth and Sorroni, Cohen. Business Ethics: Australian Problems and Cases. Oxford University Press. 2005. Habisch, Andre and Jan, Jonker. Schmidpeter (eds.) Corporate Social Responsibility across the Europe. Heidelberg: Springer. 2005. Jastram, Sarah. The Link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Strategic Management. CIS Papers No.17. Centre of International Studies, Hamburg. 2007. Paluszek, John. Ethics and Brand Value: Strategic Differentiation. (PowerPoint). Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership Meeting. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University . April 6–7, 2005. Web. R Freeman, Strategic management  :a stakeholder approach. Pitman ISBN: 780273019138. 1984. Rowe, James. Corporate Social Responsibility as Business Strategy. CGIRS-Reprint-2005-08. Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz. 2005. Web. Saether, Kim and Ruth, Aguilera. Corporate Social Responsibility in a Comparative Perspective. In Crane, A., et al. (PDF). The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN  0199211590. Wheeler, David and Maria, Sillanpaa. The Stakeholder Corporation: a blueprint for maximizing stakeholder value. London: Pitman 1997. Wills, Brian Steel. A Battle from the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. 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Business Decision Making Essays

Business Decision Making Essays Business Decision Making Essay Business Decision Making Essay The business research process provides a roadmap with directions for conducting a business research project. There are three steps in the research process. They are the formulation, execution and analytical phases. Step 1: Formulation stage involves defining the substance and process of the research. To Develop: Theory, Research Questions, Hypotheses, and Study Design/Method. Example: Assume a luxury producer came and sought help from my company which provides business consultation services. He was worried about how to segment the current market.I would design the research objectives according to the Maslows hierarchy of needs theory, eg. How many people are there living this area? their income level. their occupation and so on. I would assume that people of certain income level would be interest in luxury goods to show his or her status. The research will be designed especially made for this luxury company. Step 2: Execution phase researcher is actively gat hering information from the appropriate sources. This information is then checked for errors, coded, and stored in a way that allows it to be analysed quickly and conveniently.Example: After the design of research is completed, I would send it to the marketing staff to implement the research, check the errors. Then I would transform the research questions into questionnaires, post them online or distribute them to certain areas. After people finished the questionnaires, I would gather all the information, check for errors, coded them into SPSS, and analysed right on the SPSS programme. Step 3: Analytical phase data are analysed. Hypotheses are tested and either (a) supported, or (b) not supported, based upon comparing the actual study outcome with the outcome predicted in the formulation stage.Results are examined to provide answers to the key research questions. The decision maker then take actions based upon better knowledge of the situation. Example: when the data have been anal ysed, I would test if the hypotheses are supported or not supported. Then make the conclusion. (b) Recent business trends have affected business research in many ways. They have helped shape the types of research performed, the way research is conducted and the phenomena that are studied, as well as the importance of research in business decision-making.Among the more important trends impacting business research are international research, relationship marketing and information revolution. International research. Firms around the world now perform business research to improve their decision making. This research influences decisions often involving unfamiliar cultures. Internationalization means business research also must take an international focus. Difficult managerial decisions involving consumers and employees in a foreign culture are made even more difficult by an array of communication barriers, both verbal and nonverbal.These decisions require research regarding cultural dif ferences including the ability to translate meaning from one language into the same meaning in another language. The internet means many businesses now consider the world their market. In addition, translational equivalence which means that text can be translated from one language to another and then back to the original language with no distortion in meaning, becomes essential. Relationship marketing Relationship marketing emphasizes long-term interactions between a business and its stakeholders.The emergence of relationship marketing is changing research in terms of who and what is studied. A principal component of relationship marketing is the realization a firm cannot be everything to everybody. Otherwise, limited resources will be spent on unprofitable customers. Successful companies have loyal customers, loyal employees and loyal stakeholders. Relationship marketing has placed an increased emphasis on the study of loyalty-related factors. Employee loyalty issues such as turnov er and organizational commitment have been studied often because of their relationship to firm performance.Turnover represents the average tenure of an employee and suggests a replacement rate needed to maintain production. Organizational commitment is the degree to which an employee identifies with the goals and values of a firm. Information revolution The information age has facilitated many research processes. Technological advances in computing and electronic storage have dramatically increased research efficiency. Electronic communications, such as emails, has replaced the telephone and traditional ‘snail-mail’ for many types of business communications, including many matters directly related to research.Networking allows greater communication and data transfer between interested parties. Company information is now stored and catalogued in an electronic format, these electronic data warehouses replace other more costly approaches to storing data. Electronic data wa rehousing clearly has changed the way analysts and decision makers do their jobs. Further, numerous industry statistics are now available electronically. Motivated by the low cost of electronically storing information and a desire to better understand multiple relationships, many organizations have developed formal systems aimed at recording all important events in a database.The resulting database is an electronic representation of organizational memory. Organizational learning can be defined as the internalization of both external and internal information to be used as an input to decision making. One relatively new organization learning tool is data mining. Data mining electronically mines data ware houses for information that identifies ways to improve organizational performance. Business research even extends beyond the earth. Many companies are gathering and analysing information obtained from Global Positioning Satellite devices.GPS allows real-time tracking of movement. Rese archers can expected and able to be more productive than they were a generation ago. Question 2 (a) The graphical technique of multiple-line is adopted to illustrate the number of job vacancies reported in NSW, Victoria and Australia from 1998/99 to 2009/10. It is clear and easy to identify the trends among three places and make comparisons by using the line chart. We can see from the line chart that the number of job vacancies is greater than the number of Victoria through all the periods.We can see an upward trend in all three places. From 1998/99 to 1999/00, the job vacancies drop slightly in Victoria while the number of NSW went down dramatically from 20,000 to approximately 10,000. Job vacancies in Victoria were on the rise from 1999/00 to 2008/09. However, at the same time, the number of NSW fluctuated within the range of 20,000 to 40,000. In 2007/08, the job vacancies peaked at 40,000, followed by a dramatic fall. The overall trend of job vacancies reported in Australia was s imilar to NSW. It bottomed at 37,000 in 1999/00 and peaked at 116,000 in 2007/08. (b)The graphical techniques of clustered bar chart is adopted to show the percentage of earnings by three business segments, international airline operations, domestic airline operations and subsidiary operations, from 2004 to 2010. By using clustered bar chart, the percentage in each segment become evident, moreover, it is easy to make comparisons. The earnings by international airline operations accounted for the largest proportion in all the years except 2010. The figure peaked in 2009 with more than 60%. In 2010, the earnings made by domestic airline operations exceeded the earnings of international airline operations.The earnings made by subsidiary operations fluctuated in this period from 2004 to 2010. The graphical techniques of stacked bar chart is adopted to show the figures of earnings according to geographic area, Australia, UK and Europe, Japan, Southeast and Northeast, Asia, America and th e pacific and other countries, from 2004 to 2010. By using stacked bar chart, the amount of earnings in each segment become clear, moreover, it is easy to make comparisons among seven years. We can witness a upward trend for the total earnings in seven areas. The earnings made by Australia accounted for the largest proportion through all the years.Australia’s earnings figure peaked in 2010 with more 10000. It is clear that the earnings made by Australia were on the rise from 2004 to 2010, while at the same time, all the other geographic areas remained constant. Question 3 Brief report for the Frank City Council Respondents gender FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Validmale2141. 242. 042. 0 female2956. 958. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 Of the sample, a large proportion of the sample is female (58%), while 42% of the sample is male. Statistics Age of respondent NValid50 Missing1Mean46. 78 Median45. 50 Mode35a Std. Deviation18. 074 Va riance326. 665 Range78 Minimum21 Maximum99 Percentiles2531. 75 5045. 50 7560. 00 a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown In Frank City, there are three main age groups in the sample with 23-25 years old, 33-44 years old and 57-65 years old. People of other ages are pretty even within the range from 21 to 99 years old. The minimum age is 21 years old and the maximum age is 99 years old. The Average age is 46 years old. Ethnicity of respondent FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Validwhite2549. 050. 050. 0 lack1733. 334. 084. 0 other815. 716. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 In the sample, most of the people are white (50%), 34% are black, 16% are other ethnicities. White people accounted for the largest part in the sample, followed by black thnicity. Region in the Council FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Validnorth1427. 528. 028. 0 south1631. 432. 060. 0 west2039. 240. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Tot al51100. 0 In this sample, most of the people live in the west region (40%), there are 32% live in the south, 28% live in the north.Number of brothers and sisters FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Valid035. 96. 06. 0 11121. 622. 028. 0 21121. 622. 050. 0 312. 02. 052. 0 459. 810. 062. 0 535. 96. 068. 0 659. 810. 078. 0 7917. 618. 096. 0 1012. 02. 098. 0 1212. 02. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 Of the sample, most of the people have 1-2 brothers and sisters 21. 6%. There are 18% of people who have 7 siblings. 10% of the people have 4-5 siblings. Number of children FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative Percent Valid01631. 432. 032. 0 11019. 620. 052. 0 21019. 20. 072. 0 3917. 618. 090. 0 423. 94. 094. 0 523. 94. 098. 0 812. 02. 0100. 0 Total5098. 0100. 0 MissingSystem12. 0 Total51100. 0 Of the sample, 32% of the people do not have a child. However, 68% of the people have 1-3 kids. Those who have 1-3 children accounted for the largest propor tion in this sample. Respondent’s occupation category * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal malefemale Respondent’s occupation categorymanagerial Professional Speciality9615 technical, Sales Administrative Support4913 Service189 Farming, Forest Fishing213Precision Production, Craft Repairs336 Operation, Fabrication General Labour224 Total212950 Of the sample, more male were occupied with managerial Professional jobs than female. On the contrary, far more female engaged in technical, Sales Administrative Support and Service jobs To obey * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal malefemale To obeyMost important3710 Important134 3rd important336 4th important31114 Least important11516 Total212950 Of the sample, female tend to be more aware of obedience than male. While more male thought obedience is least important.To be well liked or popular * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal mal efemale To be well liked or popular0011 Most important314 Important459 3rd important325 4th important5611 Least important61420 Total212950 Of the sample, most of the female thought to be popular is least important than male. Both genders think it is of importance to become popular. More male than female thought it is most important to be liked. To work hard * Respondents gender Crosstabulation Count Respondents genderTotal malefemale To work hard0011 Most important729 Important51015 3rd important41115 th important426 Least important134 Total212950 Of the sample, 33% of male think to work is most important, by comparison, only 7% of female thought so. Those female who thought to work hard is important and 3rd important are almost twice as much as male. But those female who thought to work hard it least important are about 3 times than male. It is evident that those who completed 16 to 20 years at school engaged in managerial % professional speciality jobs and most of the people who f inished 12 to 14 years at school were occupied with technical, sales Administrative Support jobs and Service jobs.Recommendations for Frank City Council According to the data analysis given above, I would suggest the council to be aware of the following factors. Of the sample, we can assume that in Frank City, there more females than males. The council should take special actions for caring the females, for instance, allocate special bus or trains just for females in order to avoid crimes speculation against females. The aging problem is becoming more and more serious due to the fact that people of 57 to 64 years old accounted for a largest proportion.Actions should be made to improve the medical services and more medical facilities are needed. More people live in the West region, so the council should build more public transportation services and facilities in the West region. It is of great importance to allocate appropriate funds to the West in order to keep the capital construc tion. It is beneficial to the society to provide better education opportunities to both genders in order to keep the balance of each types of job.People are better motivated when same amount of genders engage in work.