Corporate Social Responsibility for British Airways and Air China

Corporate Social Responsibility for British Airways and Air China

Introduction

There has been a lot of fuss about the adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility among many organizations. The fuss revolves around both the multinational and national organizations which have been forced to venture into the development of the organizational public relations as well as reputation by participating in community practices among other projects. Just to mention but a few, organizations are nowadays aware of the need to upraise the living standards of the people in the society in which they live, they are aware of their obligation to preserve the environment, provide employment opportunities to the neighboring communities as well as satisfy the myriad needs posed by various stakeholders. To this end, it is acknowledged that stakeholders is anyone who has an interest in the operations of a business. It ranges from being an employee to being an investor or the society which is to some extent affected by the dealings conducted by a business. In connection to this definition and illustration, the scope of this paper is defined by the need to understand how CSR is conducted in the following two organizations; the British Airways and the Air China (Lawson, 2006). Both organizations have a good reputation of being award winners in the environmental aware in connection to their efforts towards maintaining their CSR credibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Apart from conducting a research to establish the suitability of the CSR in the two listed organizations, this report aims at giving an elucidative definition of Corporate Social Responsibility abbreviated as CSR (Hochbaum, Moreno-Centeno & Yelland, 2011). These two companies have been on the forefront in maintaining their reputation and public image through social responsibilities which will be highlighted to illustrate the similarities and differences. By so doing, different approaches to CSR will be identified and additionally the benefits of CSR will be noted from the point of view presented from British Airways and Air China Limited. In a more detailed manner, the effect of CSR on the cost incurred by the business and the stakeholders will be demonstrated. To begin with the definition of CSR, it is a voluntary activity conducted by a company or any organization as a way of improving their economic operations in a socially acceptable manner so as to boost the sustainability of the business (Pitts & Janda, 2009).

Even though the attainment of CSR is not mandated by international business laws or treaties, global governments have encouraged businesses to participate in social responsibilities. Business experts also emphasize on the need for businesses to incorporate CSR into business operations not only for the purpose of building the reputation of the business but to win the goodwill and loyalty of their customers. For this research paper, the selection British Airways (BA) stands out among its competitors as an organization that has invested into the welfare of its stakeholders. BA is a flagship passenger airline whose operations are based in the United Kingdom but maintains international flights to various destinations (Grace & Cohen, 2009). The company has a large airline fleet which enables it to comfortably accommodate its many passengers. BA comes second after easyJet which is a competing airline operating in the same market. The mission statement enacted by the airline is focused towards giving priority to the customers through enhanced customer service. Apart from wanting to give the customers the best flight experience, the company has endeavored in conserving the environment as well as caring for the immediate communities.

British Airways found the urgency to integrate corporate social responsibility as a part of their business commitment thus they introduced the One Destination, our Corporate Responsibility Program geared towards ensuring that their CSR is kept in check (Dev & Don, 2008). With this program, the company has managed to grow its responsibility towards local communities, environment, government, individuals, suppliers and partner organizations. Air China Limited is a connotation for China International Airlines Company which is a flag carrier and a legendary airline in the People’s Republic of China. Its headquarters are in the Shunyi District, in the town of Beijing (Holloway & Daymon, 2011). Its major activities including the organization of international flights is in the Beijing Capital International Airport. Air China accommodates more than seventy two million passengers from both domestic and the international sphere.

In the year 2009, Air China won the coveted Best Corporate Image Prize which is an indicator of its endearment in sustaining a good reputation courtesy of a good CSR (Di Virgili & Ludema, 2009). The award came after the 2008’s Best Practice of Corporate Social Responsibility Award. The accolade was a confirmation for their sustained CSR which has been evident for the past four years. Despite being faced with emergencies and accidents, the company has managed to remain composed and focused towards improving its reputation, public image and upgrading the level of services to its customers as well as the communities in which it operates. Air China Limited has managed its CSR by maintaining favorable competition against international rivals. This has been enabled by their advancement of services to march international standards while at the same time taking suitable measures to ensure that the operational costs remain low so that they are not carried forward to the customers (Roux, 2008).

During the Wennchuan Earthquake and the sudden frost and snow that hit one of its airports, Air China responded to the emergency on a timely manner by ensuring the safety of their passengers (Dobkin, 2009). Emergency flights were availed to help people avert the disaster. The company further made its contribution to the immediate communities that had been hit by the earthquake by delivering them with basic supplies, supplying them with medical personnel and relief food and make shift shelter. The company made donations to the community by improving their infrastructure after the earthquake had subsided. They further established schools, medical facilities, roads among other infrastructure in a bid to revert the communities to their previous economic and social position. By so doing the company won the hearts of not only the communities that were afflicted by disaster but also from the Chinese people (Regester & Larkin, 2012).

Another instance of corporate social responsibility was implicit during the Beijing Olympic Games where Air China delivered quality and efficient services in support of the games. The airline did so by fostering security in the area. It has also shown support by sponsoring and partnering with other businesses to support the development off talents in China especially during the Paralympic Games (Curran & Morley, 2006). To the customers who are among its key stakeholders, the company has endeavored to provide them with quality services. Contrary to British Airways which introduced the One Destination, our Corporate Responsibility Program to countercheck its acumen towards the attainment of CSR, Air China introduced the corporate image evaluation program. The program allow for a joint evaluation of its services by authorized institutions after which the reports are reported through media. The evaluation process is often conducted as an open evaluation indexing system where several parameters are rated. The most basic parameters include corporate governance, staff relations, profitability, investor relations, staff relations, consumer relations, and brand communication, commercial relations, crisis management, sustainable development capability and corporate social responsibility.

The only difference in the approach to CSR by these two organizations is their initiation of programs in support of their course. Evidently the bottom-line premise on which CSR is grounded revolves around participating in similar activities. The British Airways has also involved itself in philanthropic associations. BA has partnered with charities such as UNICEF through its change for good campaign (Clow & Donald, 2009). Other charities have included comic relief and Susan G. Komen for the cure. By so doing the company has helped raise funds for these charities by making donations and fundraisers. The airline has further advanced their support towards charities by offering non-financial assistance in form of baggage and freight allowances and free flights. Given the One Destination, our Corporate Responsibility Program, the employees of British Airline have gone ahead to involve themselves in community based programs such as supporting youth groups, arts and schools (Simons, 2011). The employees have been helpful in sharing their time, resources and expertise in managing community initiatives.

Given the fact that the two organizations use a lot of funds to run CSR activities that require massive financial input and expenditure, they gain a lot from customer loyalty and good reputation. This is because the business world values customer relations and positive publicity above all other factors. By maintaining a positive publicity, both the Air China and British Airways have managed to attract more customers than their clients. The payoff derived from gaining a competitive advantage over their competitors makes them enjoy economies of large scale production which translates into a balance between the costs incurred and the revenues accrued by the company. The stakeholders who represent groups of people who have vested interests in the organization for example the shareholders benefit by gaining higher returns, the government gains more revenue from taxes and improved living standards of its citizens, while the communities gain from improved infrastructure (Sullivan & Schiafo, 2010).

From the case scenarios exhibited by the two companies, it stands out that the tcompanies participate in similar CSR activities. Even though their programs and approach to offering these activities are varied, the companies are focused on improving the living standards of their stakeholders with the sole purpose of boosting their reputation in the eyes of the customers and the public. By so doing the firms have stood strong against their competitors by attracting high revenue inflows accrued from maintaining a large customer base (Brown, 2009). With many customers the companies enjoy economies of large scale production which adds up into reducing operations costs while at the same time catering for the costs incurred in conducting the corporate social responsibilities.

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