Employers increasingly come up against interview questions about ethical, socially responsible and environmental conduct. Business leaders say that the graduates they hope to recruit often demand to know exactly what their company is doing on issues such as community work, diversity and climate change. Companies cannot afford to close the door to the talent that will drive their business forward, so responsible business must be ethical.
Local and regional community
The local community is a big influence on Tesco as their house prices are affected by Tesco. Their house prices could go up or down depending on the sort of expansion they are producing. It can adversely affect the area. Tesco should operate ethically in order to attract the loyalty of the local community. It is Tesco’s responsibility to look after the local community, Since Tesco has had a twenty-four hour opening the safety of the neighbourhood is more at risk with it staying open so late because more and more people are going into the store and causing bother as they may be intoxicated or youngsters may just be going out of their way to cause hassle. If trolleys are taken off the site and left lying around nearby houses it creates an awful lot of litter and makes the place look untidy. In order to be ethical and overcome the concerns, I suggest Tesco should provide the local community with parking spaces for the disabled and the parent and child parking. They must ensure that there are enough of these different spaces so that the overflow of the customers does not have to use normal spaces. Tesco should also encourage other modes of transport.
Tesco must make sure they operate ethically in all regions because if one region has faced any problems or unethical trading, the whole business will be under a risk. In every country where Tesco operate, they work with local communities to provide jobs and services and support local causes. In order to make a major contribution to the community Tesco employ hundreds of thousands of people depending on their success. But this alone is not enough; I believe Tesco stores should be special places in communities. They should be places where people can rely on them, always feel safe and are treated with respect. Acting responsibly for communities should be the core Tesco value as this is the fundamental to any businesses success.
Nowadays customers care about big unifying issues such as climate change, education, natural disasters and other causes supported by major national charities, and they expect Tesco to act on these therefore, Tesco invest through Community Fairs, community awards, local education programmers and community notice boards. As well as the community Tesco’s staff also want them to be involved in helping local community. In internal surveys 98% of Tesco employees said it was important for them to help local communities. Tesco work hard to find new ways to enable the staff and customers to participate directly in the causes they care about.
In order to meet the needs of the community and operate ethically Tesco Charity Trust was set up on 1 June 1987 to support both national and local community charities, and to add a 20% top up to staff fundraising. It is run by a board of trustees recommended by the main board of Tesco PLC. On a local level The Trust aims to support the needs of employees, customers and communities around stores. On a national level, the aim is to support initiatives that address identified need through existing charities activities.
Corporate Social Responsibility has acquired importance in recent years due to increased global awareness of environmental issues. CSR as a concept has been implanted in several countries through various regulatory measures that force businesses to adopt measures to avoid pollution, and look after the communities. Several large and global businesses like Shell and Tesco have unified the attitude of social responsibility into their corporate vision and mission statement. Many others have stretched beyond the statutory obligations to comply with legislation and taken additional steps to improve the quality of life for their employees and their families as well as for the local community and the society at large.
Tesco can contribute immensely towards making businesses socially responsible by first becoming aware of issues surrounding CSR. They must not remain apathetic to this global issue that affects each one of us directly or indirectly.
Conclusion
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Improving CSR is a gigantic task but still it is the need of the hour. By helping the local community and operating ethically Tesco can play an essential role in improving in the area of CSR.
In this task I have explained the ethical concerns facing the communities in which Tesco operates. I have also suggested measures that could be taken to improve corporate responsibility.
