Company Q and Social Responsibility Essay

Evaluation Company Q’s attitude toward social responsibility reflects a negative reputation on them as a corporation in their current community. The geographical location in a major metropolitan area should sustain the business with a solid consumer base and maintain reliance of current investors. However, they closed two stores in high crime areas for consistently losing profits, waning investor trust and damaging employee faith. The decision to close the stores limits their ability to be socially responsible to its stakeholders and potentially contributes to the areas crime level. Customers requested health-conscience and organic products for years before it was finally stocked in limited amounts. Company Q ignored earlier requests from their customers and created a deficiency in establishing long-term relationships. The company needs to demonstrate a better approach for customer satisfaction by building long-term relationships and reflect a more socially responsible corporation to not only customers but all stakeholders. Donating to the local food bank would also demonstrate a better attitude towards social responsibility, yet Company Q’s management rejects donation requests claiming potential fraud and theft from employees. The company deteriorates employee commitment and trust in the corporation by insinuating that employees might steal if they handle donations. If Company Q maintains the existing attitude toward social responsibility they may find themselves closing every store in the future. Recommendations Action 1 Company Q can upgrade their current attitude toward social responsibility by addressing their ethical culture and ability to be a profitable company. Company Q will need to develop a financial plan, set financial goals, and identify areas of unreliable returns that will capitalize on investor  wealth. If action is taken to address poor financial returns, the company will not have make decisions to close stores because of consistently losing profits. Next Company Q needs to integrate an ethics program throughout the corporation that will lay the necessary ground of promoting an ethical culture. This ethics program should be designed by the company’s management to guide employee conduct, generate better-quality decision making and discourage potential theft from company employees. Management should then launch training courses with quarterly workshops and incentive packages which motivate employees to exercise guidelines. Employee trust is critical and laying an ethical foundation for employees to follow Company Q needs to begin at the upper management level. To be an effective program the company needs to educate upper management so that they initiate the standards and lead by example. Management of Company Q will have a stronger impact if they practice the ethical standards and set the standard to employees. The combination of executing an ethics program and improving the financial condition of Company Q is a major stride in social responsibility. As the company’s ethical culture develops and investor confidence and wealth returns, Company Q‘s overall integrity grows, thereby demonstrating a more socially responsible image. Action 2 Company Q took years to respond to multiple requests by customers for providing health-conscious and organic products. A current trend in society has increased awareness to be more health conscious. Customers are asking for these high margin products because they want them to be available for purchase. Company Q needs to listen to the desires of their customers and supply a broader selection of the higher margin items. By doing so Company Q forms stronger relationships with customers and increases their commitment to make purchases at the store. Customer relationships improve as more sales of the requested products increase and profit margins will begin to rise. Company Q needs to also set up a request station where customers can write down requests of products they would like to see available for purchase. The company can use these requests to poll which products that  the customers would most likely want to purchase. This way Company Q can zero in on satisfying their customers and eliminate products that have the least amount of demand. A second opportunity that presents itself is establishing new supplier relationships within the local community by generating partnerships between Company Q and organic producers. By the company forming new relationships with local producers the local economy is strengthened and new development encouraged in the community. The purchase of organic products from local vendors will also keep transportation expenses down and Company Q can then forward that savings to customers by offering lower prices. Company Q would benefit greatly from this action by offering a broader range of health conscience products and partnering with local suppliers. These relationships will supplement Company Q in changing their approach to being socially responsible. Action 3 A third recommendation is to revisit the decision of donating day-old products to the area’s local food banks. By denying the request all together and opting to toss out the day-old products is damaging to Company Q’s image. The company needs to exhibit accountability to society by supporting their local food bank illustrating community support by offering day-old products to their local food bank. Company Q should then monitor donations with a checks and balances system which would allow management to track the process of donations and reduce concerns of employee theft. The company will reveal positive decision making by donating instead of tossing the day-old products in the trash. The decision to be charitable through regular contributions will demonstrate to employees, investors and other stakeholders that Company Q is changing their attitude toward social responsibility. Conclusion Company Q should implement the above recommendations to become a more socially responsible corporation. Taking action of their profitability, promoting an ethical work place environment, and giving back to the community are the strategic actions necessary to attest Company Q’s changing  attitude towards social responsibility. The company will continue to suffer consequences for failing social responsibility if changes in their approach are not taken.