CIB100 Assignment Business Submission

CIB100 Assignment Business Submission Sinopec Ltd is one of the major Chinese oil and gas companies. The company is dedicated to implement the global standards with respect to social performance. In this report, Sinopec Ltd is proposing recommendations with respect to business practices and approaches that will ensure compliance to the following two principles of United Nation’s Global Compact initiative (United Nations Global Compact 2014):

• Principle-1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights
• Principle-7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges

Review

The Sinopec and other companies in the market place are following various approaches and business practices to achieve compliance to the Ten Principles of Social Performance of Global Compact. Here are some of the business practices that are used to achieve compliance to Principle-1 and Principle-7 (Scherer and Palazzo 2011, 909):

• Principle-1:
  • Providing healthy and safe conditions at the work places.
  • Providing freedom to from unions to represent the issues of the employees.
  • Providing an atmosphere where the religious and other beliefs of the employees are respected.
  • Ensuring that the financial benefits provided to employees are sufficient to meet their basic necessities.
  • Creating a culture where any kind of discrimination is not allowed.
  • Not allowing any kind of labour malpractices.
• Principle-7:
  • Allowing all the stakeholders to have healthy interactions with the company management which will enforce regulations to prevent environmental issues.
  • Enforcing commitment to develop products and services which prevent environmental issues.
  • Collaborating with industry and make efforts to address the environmental issues
  • Forming a special team or committee who will look after the precautionary measures to prevent environmental issues.

Lessons Learnt

• Principle-1:
  • The companies are increasingly following business approaches which ensure preservation of human right. The best thing that is happening is the companies are allowing the employees to form unions and thereby empowering them to put across their concerns (Warhurst 2005, 160). The employees have also become aware of their rights and the processes to claim their rights.
  • On the negative side, many of the regulations and company policies are still on paper and the implementation efforts are lacking. The businesses are still unable to see the indirect benefits received through these approaches. Specially, in case of small scale businesses, the management cannot see the benefits of protecting human rights and indulge in the unfair practices.
• Principle-7:
  • Most of the companies are facing the pressure from various organizations and global forces to implement precautionary measures to protect the environment. The customers have also become sensitive about the environmental issues and they are keeping in mind this aspect while making purchases (Warhurst 2005, 160).
  • All said and done, there are still many areas of improvement and most of the codes of conduct are on papers. The companies and businesses needs to enforce the implementation systems.

Recommendations

• Principle-1:
  • The enforcement of the human rights in the businesses should be audited by an outsider organization. It has been observed that the companies are lacking in terms of implementation. Social audit by an outsider will resolve this issue (Thorne, Ferrell and Ferrell 2011, 26).
  • A checklist should be prepared with a view to achieve compliance with various human rights. This should be circulated to the departmental heads in case of large organization and to the management team in case of small businesses asking them to meet the standards.
  • A committee consisting of officials from top management, employee unions and outsiders should be formed to keep track of the enforcement of regulations protecting human rights.
  • Apart from protecting human right at the business level, the businesses should take initiative to help the needy by indulging in corporate social responsibility practices. This will add a feather to the crown.

CIB100 Assignment Business Submission

•  Principle-7:
  • Environmental audit should be done on regular basis by an outsider organization. This will ensure implementations of the code of conduct which is as of now mostly on paper (Thorne, Ferrell and Ferrell 2011, 26).
  • There should be a certificate issuing authority which examines the products and services of the companies and then issues certificate of compliance to environment protection standards.
  • Industry wide collaborative efforts should be made to adopt the approaches which focus on precautionary measures to protect the environment. This can be done by forming a team which will work solely for the purpose of development of business practices to ensure environment safety.

Benefits, Challenges & Implications

In terms benefits are concerned, the implementation of already established standards for protecting human rights will improve. This will benefit the general public at large and will create a culture of positivity and better life. The enforcement of business practices related to environment protection will improve global climate and a better environment to live healthy life. The approaches are more focused on implementation aspect which will have significant impact on the social performance of the companies.
As far as challenges are concerned, the challenges will stem from the resistance of the companies to adopt the new approaches. All the aspects of protecting human rights and environment have indirect benefits to the company. It needs a visionary leader to see the benefits that the companies receive by way of better social performance. Such leaders are lacking in the economy. Also, all these approaches are easier said than done. The success of the business practices will depend on the willingness of the companies to adopt the approaches.
The business practices recommended above will have various implications on the stakeholders of the companies. The increased focus on the implementation of the business practices to comply with the principles will lead to extra time consumption of the management and more resources will be required to ensure the compliance. The business practices will induce trust and confidence among the employees and the society in general which will improve the brand name of the companies (Yoon, Gürhan-Canli and Schwarz 2006, 385).Order Now

References

United Nations Global Compact. 2014. freeassignmenthelp.com.unglobalcompact.org/abouttheGc/TheTenprinciples/index.html (Accessed April 25, 2014).
Scherer, A.G. and G. Palazzo. 2011. The new political role of business in a globalised world: A review of a new perspective on CSR and its implications for the firm, governance and democracy. Journal of Management Studies 48: 899-931.