Corporate social responsibility is an initiative taken by the companies to assess and take responsibility of the impact of the efforts carried out by the company on social wellbeing and environment. Companies should carry out different corporate social responsibility efforts in order to build a positive brand image in the market. This report evaluates the corporate social responsibility efforts carried out by the Bank of Queensland and its impact on its sustainability. It also analyze the practices carried out by the bank with different theoretical frameworks related to corporate social responsibility. Bank of Queensland is founded in the year 1874 and has 190 branches across Australia and deals in provision of different banking products which are easily understood and support the needs of customers. The products and services are rendered to individual customers and businesses (Bank of Queensland, 2018).
The main of the research is to analyze the governance structure and corporate social responsibility activities carried out by the bank to meet the expectations of the stakeholders in an effective manner. For this purpose, different theoretical frameworks have been analyzed in order to evaluate the gap exists among them.
In order to attain the aim and objective of the report, there is a need to collect the information related to the corporate social responsibility from different sources such as books, scholarly articles, annual reports and other published data. It facilitates in gathering information related to different theoretical frameworks in order to apply it in the real situations.
Caroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility
The Caroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility identifies four types of responsibilities which are required to be undertaken in order to meet out the expectations of the stakeholders of the company. The foremost responsibility identified in the pyramid is economic responsibilities as it is the main aim of the business to earn high profits by carrying out the activities in an ethical manner. In order to carry out the economic responsibility, the bank has identified certain industries that fall out of risk appetite like online gambling sites, manufacturers of arms that are associated with criminal organizations and adult industries as the services rendered by such industries affect the lives and welfare of the people in a negative manner (Nalband and Kelabi, 2014).
Besides this, the other responsibility is legal responsibility which entails that the company has to complied with the laws and regulations established related to the industry in order to remain sustainable in the market. In context to Bank of Queensland, the bank is complying with the rules and regulations related to banking industry in an effective manner to order to remain competitive in the market. The credit team of the bank complies with the legislation and regulation in order to manage risk in an effective manner (Ehie, 2016).
In addition to this, ethical responsibility takes into consideration to carry out different activities which are considered to be morally right and are in the favor of the welfare of the stakeholders and the whole society. The philanthropic responsibilities are also termed as discretionary responsibilities that consider the allocation of the resources to different business activities in an effective manner. The bank evaluates the nature and operation of the business of the borrowers and the property where it is established in an effective manner (Hossain, Bashar and Noor, 2017). It is found out that the Bank of Queensland is accomplishing the responsibilities identified in the Caroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility in an effective manner.
Wartick and Cochrane’s Typology
Caroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility model has been improvised by Wartick and Cochrane and named as Corporate Social Performance which entails information related to the existence of the interactions between principles of social responsibility, social responsiveness process and the policies required to address the social issues. This typology emphasizes on the fact that the bank is required to carry out different activities within the guidelines set by the society. The business has a contract with the society and changes occurred in the society in terms of norms, lifestyle and so on would results in the change in the policies and programs of the business (Muafi, 2016).
It is essential for the bank to utilize the moral values and rules in the decision making and capacity to control corporate acts. Bank of Queensland complies with all its responsibilities towards the society in an effective manner by providing loans and accepting deposits in an ethical manner by evaluating the credit worthiness of the borrowers. This typology has also implies that the firm has to comply with the ethical obligations towards the society in order to remain competitive and sustain in the market (Elijido-Ten and Tjan, 2014).
This typology is the extension of the Caroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility as it is identified that by accomplishing the economic and legal responsibilities, the company is able to fulfill the basic requirement of the society. Along with this, society is also expects firms to attain and fulfill the ethical and philanthropic responsibilities in an effective manner in order to remain competitive in the business environment. This also results in attracting more number of stakeholders towards the bank to fulfill their requirements in a cost effective manner and results in creating value for them (Beddewela and Fairbrass, 2016).
CSR activities of BOQ:
Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) activities play essential roles in improving an organization’s reputation in the community. The CSR activities enable the organizations to make better engagement with their stakeholders and successful business journey through establishing the basics such as increasing awareness and exhibiting the importance of CSR’s. In this concern, it is analyzed that the Bank of Queensland (BOQ) implemented several CSR activities in its business model to engage with its stakeholders in a transparent and fair way to generate value for the customers, investors, employees and communities. The management of the bank is committed to provide better workplace for its employees and provide better financial services to potential customers along with the CSR activities. Different CSR activities of BOQ for different initiatives are discussed as below:
Customers: The management of the bank is improving its financial products and services to satisfy the potential customer. In order to know the customer needs and desires from the financial institutions, the bank engages customer satisfaction survey. BOQ aims to create an effective customer experience by putting the customers in command when they and where they want the financial services. In addition, the management is making effort to provide the accessible, transparent and affordable financial services in the associated community. The management of the bank believes in introducing the products and services in straightforward way, which can be understood by the customer and create exceptional value. In addition, addition the bank is committed to provide respect and safety of personal information during the operational activities. The complaints of the customers are resolved with pioneering banking solutions and excellent promising customer experience (BOQ, 2018). The pioneering or innovative of banking solution satisfies its customers in an effective manner.
Environmental sustainability: The bank is committed to use the existing resources in efficient manner to reduce the environmental footprint. In the operational activities, the bank is using a number of recycling and energy-saving initiatives to protect the environment from the harmful impact. It is analyzed that the bank is employing a secure way of paper destruction and recycling of computer equipments in its all offices. In addition, BOQ is responsive to conserve the water so that entire taps of the corporate offices are fitted with water flow restrictors (Bank of Queensland, 2018). Therefore, the management the bank is committed to protect the environment from its operational activities.
Community: The Bank of Queensland is recognizing the valuable role in the helping the community by contributing in the public policy. Through the community investment strategy the bank is assisting youth population of the community across education, health and arts. The bank supports many of the non-profit organization with the aim of making optimistic impact in the genuine issues that are affecting to nation’s youth population. The community partners of the bank are supporting to develop the youth population of the country. Through the community partnership the bank allows its employees and customers to involve in the community programs.
People and culture: The Bank of Queensland has implemented the approach of creating a positive work environment, where they can get success in an effective manner. In this concern, the bank employs a systematic approach which contains different elements such as employee engagement and retention, diversity, flexibility, inclusion, workplace health and safety, reward and recognition and investment in developing the people through different training and development programs. The bank is committed to implement these elements in its employment policy to establish an attractive and safe working environment for the employee. Management of the bank is making efforts to provide flexible working environment end rewards for the organizational achievements. These efforts are making the bank an attractive place of work in the financial industry and improving the employee skills in better manner.
Governance structure:
The management of the BOQ is committed to follow the corporate governance and maintain the corporate governance recommendations and principles created by Australian Securities Exchange Corporate Governance Council as a basis of increasing the transparency and credibility of capital market. Consistent with values, collaboration, impact and integrity the management of BOQ has developed and implemented several policies that are constant with CGPR. The elements of corporate governance adopted by BOQ are as below:
Along with this the bank contains different charter such as auditor policy, St Andrew’s insurance and life insurance, diversity policy, code of conduct, disclosure policy of market, security trading policy and whistleblower policy (BOQ, 2018). Based on these initiatives the bank is operating its financial and CSR activities in authoritative manner.
Based on the CSR activities and corporate governance, it is analyzed that the bank is fully devoted to provide its financial services to develop the nation’s community in an effective manner. The CSR activities had made this bank most loved bank of Australia. In addition, the corporate governance structure is also making it an attractive for different stakeholders.
However, it is recommended to BOQ to include in more social programs to improve further market reputation in Australia.
References
Bank of Queensland (2018) Environmental sustainability. [Online]. Available at: https://www.boq.com.au/Shareholder-centre/sustainability/sustainability-environment (Accessed: 30 May 2018).
Beddewela, E. and Fairbrass, J. (2016) Seeking legitimacy through CSR: Institutional pressures and corporate responses of multinationals in Sri Lanka. Journal of business ethics, 136(3), pp.503-522.
BOQ (2018) Corporate Governance. [Online]. Available at: https://www.boq.com.au/About-us/corporate-governance (Accessed: 30 May 2018).
BOQ (2018) Sustainability. [Online]. Available at: https://www.boq.com.au/Shareholder-centre/sustainability (Accessed: 30 May 2018).
Ehie, I.C. (2016) Examining the corporate social responsibility orientation in developing countries: an empirical investigation of the Carroll’s CSR pyramid. International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 11(1), pp.1-20.
Elijido-Ten, E.O. and Tjan, Y. (2014) Sustainability Balanced Scorecard Disclosures and Corporate Commitment to Sustainability: An Australian Study. Issues In Social And Environmental Accounting, 8(4), pp.185-208.
Hossain, A., Bashar, K.A. and Noor, B. (2017) The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on National and International Corporations Prevailing in Bangladesh: A Comparison of CSR on the Basis of Carroll’s Pyramid. Journal of Investment and Management, 6(1), pp.6-12.
Muafi, M. (2016) Analyzing fit in CSR strategy research in state-owned enterprises: Indonesia context. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 9(1), pp.179-206.
Nalband, N.A. and Kelabi, S.A. (2014) Redesigning Carroll’s CSR pyramid model. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 2(3).
Bank of Queensland. (2018) Company Overview. [Online]. Available at: https://www.boq.com.au/About-us/company-overview (Accessed: 30 May 2018).
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