Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

INTRODUCTION

The corporate world is facing the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) wherever it turns these days. On a wide range of issues, corporations are encouraged to behave socially responsibly (Welford and Frost, 2006).

According to Zadek et al. (2007), the basic drivers of CSR consist of:

1. Values: a value shift has taken place within businesses where they not only feel responsibility for wealth creation but also for social and environmental goods.

2. Strategy: being more socially and environmentally responsible is important for the strategic development of a company.

3. Public Pressure: pressure groups, consumers, media, the state and other public bodies are pressing companies to become more socially responsible.

However, in both the corporate and the academic world there is uncertainty as to how CSR should be defined (Dalhsrud, 2006). Some go as far as saying ‘We have looked for a definition and basically there isn’t one’ (Jackson and Hawker, 2001). This is not quite true; the problem is rather that there is an abundance of definitions, which are, according to Van Marrewijk (2003), often biased toward specific interests and thus prevent the development and implementations of the concept.

DEFINITION

CSR is variously defined as:

The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2001).

The European Commission also defines CSR as:

Being socially responsible means not only fulfilling legal expectations, but also going beyond compliance and investing more into human capital, the environment and relations with stakeholders (European Commission, 2001).

Hopkins further noted that:

CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm ethically or in a responsible manner. ‘Ethically or Social responsible’ means treating stakeholders in a manner deemed acceptable in civilised societies. Social includes economic responsibility. Stakeholders exist both within a firm and outside. The wider aim of social responsibility is to create higher and higher standards of living, while preserving the profitability of the corporation, for people both within and outside the corporation (Hopkins, 2003).

It is thus worth mentioning that, there is no one definition for CSR (Blyth 2005). Conversely, CSR can best be understood and defined in terms of the changing relationship between business and society (UNIDO, 2002). CSR can be understood in terms of different stakeholders and the issues that they are concerned with. These issues relate to the overlapping spheres of social, environmental and economic impact as illustrated in Figure 1 below. 

                 Figure 1: Mapping CSR: Issues and Stakeholders

                 Source: UNIDO (2002, p.17)

CSR therefore means balancing the interests of a wider group of stakeholders and strategically managing the interconnected social, environmental and economic impacts of business activities.

The FTSE is the Financial Times Stock Exchange and they have put together the FTSE4GOOD Index or List. What that means is that all companies that meet certain corporate social responsibility standards are allowed to be members of that series (FTSE, 2010).Companies are included on the basis of their environmental record, whether they develop positive relationships with their stakeholders and whether they are supporters of universal human rights (ibid.).

According to Cicutti (2010), FTSE4GOOD List is typically used in four ways:

• Investment - a basis for socially responsible financial instruments and fund products.
• Research - a research tool to identify socially responsible companies.
• Reference - a reference tool to provide companies with a transparent and evolving global corporate responsibility standard to aspire to and surpass.
• Benchmarking - a benchmark index to track the performance of socially responsible investment portfolios.

There are many companies around the globe that are listed on the FTSE4GOOD Index. However, with respect to this assignment, the selected company which would be examined based on their excellent demonstration of CSR practice is the Marks and Spencer Group. 

Marks and Spencer (M&S) has always taken responsibilities to customers, employees, partners, suppliers and local communities seriously. Doing business in a responsible way underpins their values - Quality, Service, Innovation and Trust (Marks and Spencer, 2012a).

With its quest to improve upon its CSR practices, Marks and Spencer developed a strategy known as Plan A in January 2007 (Marks and Spencer, 2012b). Through Plan A, the company seeks to work with its customers and suppliers to combat climate change, reduce waste, use sustainable raw materials, trade ethically, and help its customers to lead healthier lifestyles.

This section lists and explains three examples of CSR practices within this company.

ETHICAL TRADING…………………………………………………………………………………..

Marks and Spencer has strong trading relationships across the world. It is a secular organisation embracing all cultures, nationalities, races and religions. It does not support or align itself to any country, Government, political party or religious bodies and this approach is applied consistently to sourcing all of their products (Marks and Spencer, 2012a).

M&S source from over 70 countries worldwide, including China, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and the UK. It always clearly labels which country all the products are made in to give customers the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to buy from certain countries.

In 1999, M&S developed a set of Global Sourcing Principles in partnership with their suppliers. These Principles set down their requirements for suppliers to comply with all relevant local and national laws, particularly on: working hours and conditions, health and safety, rates of pay, terms of employment and minimum age of employment ( ibid.).

As well as labelling all of their products with the country of production, many food products have further information about raw materials. This in itself is a unique approach for a large-scale retailer. It means that customers have the necessary information if they want to avoid goods produced in a certain country because of political or social beliefs.

As part of Plan A, M&S have committed to improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in their supply chains. M&S is working on the following:

1)  Introducing semi-announced on-site assessments of its suppliers, conducted within a three-week period, to ensure they are working to their Global Sourcing Principles at all times. These on-site assessments will have a greater level of involvement of worker representatives.

2)    Increasing the number of people based in the countries of production to follow up concerns identified by their assessment system within 12 months.

3)    Enabling suppliers to address difficult issues such as '‘living' wage and working hours through collaborative networking, conferences and the launch of an Ethical Exchange website. Setting up best practice projects including at least three Ethical Model Factories and a worker's rights training programme which can be extended across their supply chains (Marks and Spencer, 2012a).

RECYCLING

In partnership with charity organisations such as Oxfam, Marks and Spencer engages its customers in its clothing recycling activity (Marks and Spencer, 2012c). Marks and Spencer, through this strategy, ensures unwanted clothes feel wanted again. Customers are encouraged to send their M&S clothes, shoes and bags they no longer need into Oxfam shops and receive a £5 off voucher when they spend £35 or more on clothing, home and beauty at M&S (ibid.). The company believes that it makes a much greater difference to the consumer to be participating in the Plan A journey rather than just being told about it by the company.

Also, the company donates returned clothing and business surplus to the charity Newlife. Newlife funds medical research, nurse support and awareness campaigns and vital equipment for disabled and terminally ill children. M&S donates returned clothing and business surplus to them and the money raised from the sale and recycling of the garments directly funds 400 pieces of equipment for disabled children each year (Marks and Spencer, 2012a).

HEALTH/FOOD

The debate about the impact of food on health has created high levels of customer interest and media attention. As part of its commitment to improving the health of both customers and employees, Marks and Spencer have reduced salt, fat, and saturated fat levels across its food and continues to make sure it offers healthier alternatives through their “Eat Well” and “Count on Us” offers. The ‘Eat Well’ campaign goes beyond individual fat, salt and sugar ratings and provides an overall indication of whether a product can be considered as a healthier option. Over 1,000 products, nearly 20% of the food lines sold are labelled with the ‘Eat Well’ sunflower logo. The company has also improved labelling to make it easier for customers to eat well, and have trained 1,500 in store Health Advisors to provide customers with advice on healthy living (Marks and Spencer, 2012d).

Marks and Spencer was the first major retailer to meet the salt reduction targets agreed by the British Retail Consortium and are on track to meet the more demanding targets set by the Food Standards Agency (Marks and Spencer, 2006). It has also created a Health and Nutrition website dedicated to providing useful health tips for customers and employees.

Marks & Spencer's also donates its date-expired food to charitable organisations. The first choice to receive the donations is Fare Share, a community food network that redistributes surplus food from the food industry to vulnerable people in the community. The food manager in each local store manages this process (Marks and Spencer, 2012a).

BENEFITS

Marks and Spencer’s Plan A made the business an extra £50m in the 12 months to 31 March 2010. The programme is now five years old and aims to reduce the retailer’s environmental impact while trading ethically and helping consumers become healthier. This involves meeting 180 self-imposed targets by 2015 (Barnett, 2011).

Some of the fabric recycled through Marks and Spencer’s scheme with Oxfam goes back into the supply chain, while handing on old garments gives consumers an incentive to buy new items, along with the voucher rewards that M&S gives out. It is also now a programme that is generating money for M&S, rather than costing it cash. It does this by persuading customers to take positive action. Thus clearly, this kind of consumer involvement will also benefit the retailer.

Plan A has also been a vehicle for moving M&S into new business areas, notably M&S Energy, which now supplies more than 500,000 households. The service offers gas and electricity through Scottish and Southern Energy, and pledges to return one unit of low-carbon hydroelectric energy to the National Grid for every unit used by customers (Barnett, 2011).

Additionally, as a result of the commitment of Marks &Spencer to fulfilling their CSR obligations through their Plan A Strategy, the good reputation of the company has been strengthened over the years. For example, the company was adjudged the Responsible Retailer of the Year 2011 (Marks and Spencer, 2012e). Retailers shortlisted for this award had to demonstrate world class standards of best practice in corporate responsibility but above all show how they have significantly impacted their key stakeholders including employees, suppliers, customers and the community in which it operates.

The judges explained their reasons for presenting M&S with this prestigious award in the following words:

The Judges Panel for the Oracle World Retail Awards was unanimous in selecting Marks and Spencer as the Responsible Retailer of the Year because of the commitment and dynamism of Plan A. It’s a strategy that is involving not just all levels of the business but its customers too and in a way that they could not see being applied so effectively anywhere else in the world. As such the company deserved this accolade (Marks and Spencer, 2012e).

CONCLUSION

Corporate Social Responsibility is an increasingly important part of the business environment. The past twenty years have seen a radical change in the relationship between business and society. As mentioned earlier on, there is no one definition of what it takes to be a responsible corporate. Furthermore, Van Marrewijk has suggested that if CSR is too broadly defined, it will be ‘too vague to be useful in academic debate or in corporate implementation’ (Van Marrewijk 2003). The key is to have a rigorous process for identifying those responsibilities and fulfilling them (Blyth 2005).

Marks & Spencer is on a journey to make their business more sustainable. Over the decades, it has never stood still; moving from philanthropy to community investment and then corporate social responsibility (CSR).

In 2007, the company launched Plan A as a radical commitment to move from the CSR world's focus on specific issues to a more holistic approach that tackled all sustainability issues (Marks and Spencer, 2012a)…………………………………………………………………

With its new Plan A commitments, focused on involving the customers, M&S is putting in place the long term foundations to build a sustainable business.

The brand today is arduously taking care of every sensitive issue of the society be it charity for the society, issue relevant to climatic changes, industrial waste management, sustainable raw material management or health people and ethical trading as evidenced by the discussion above.

REFERENCES

Barnett, M. (2011) The new CSR: This time it's profitable. Marketing Week [online]. 14 April. Available from: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/analysis/cover-stories/the-new-csr-this-time-its-profitable/3025435.article [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Blyth, A. (2005) Business behaving responsibly. Director. 59 (1), p. 30.

Cicutti, N. (2010) What is FTSE4Good? [online]. Available from: http://money.uk.msn.com/money-guides/ethical-money/articles.aspx?cp documentid=154464601 [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Dalhsrud, A. (2006) How Corporate Social Responsibility is defined: An Analysis of 37 Definitions. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 15 (2008), pp.1–13.

European Commission (2001) Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social

Responsibility. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities.

Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) (2010). FTSE4Good Index Series [online]. Available from: http://www.ftse.com/Indices/FTSE4Good_Index_Series/index.jsp [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Hopkins, M. (2003) The Planetary Bargain – CSR Matters. London: Earthscan.

Jackson, P. and Hawker, B. (2001) Is Corporate Social Responsibility Here to Stay? [online]. Available from: http://www.cdforum.com/research/icsrhts.doc  [Accessed 25 January 2012].

 

Marks and Spencer (2006) Corporate social responsibility report 2006 [online]. Available from: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/documents/publications/2006/2006_csr_report.pdf [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Marks and Spencer (2012a) Corporate Social Responsibility [online]. Available from: http://fashiongear.fibre2fashion.com/brand-story/mands/corporate.asp [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Marks and Spencer (2012b) About Plan A [online]. Available from: http://plana.marksandspencer.com/about [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Marks and Spencer (2012c) Recycle your M&S clothes at Oxfam [online]. Available from: http://plana.marksandspencer.com/about/partnerships/oxfam/ [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Marks and Spencer (2012d) Health [online]. Available from: http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing/health [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Marks and Spencer (2012e) M&S awarded Responsible Retailer of the Year 2011 [online]. Available from: http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing/climate-change/retailer-awards-2011[Accessed 25 January 2012].

 

United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) (2002) Corporate Social Responsibility: Implications for Small and Medium Enterprises in Developing Countries [online]. Available from: http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media/Publications/Pub_free/Corporate_social_responsibility.pdf [Accessed 25 January 2012].

Van Marrewijk, M. (2003) Concepts and definitions of CSR and corporate sustainability: between agency and communion. Journal of Business Ethics. 44, pp. 95–105.

Welford, R. and Frost, S. (2006) Corporate social responsibility in Asian supply chains. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 13(3), pp.166–176.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (2001) Corporate Social

Responsibility: Making Good Business Sense. Geneva: WBCSD.

Zadek, S., Pruzan, P. and Evans, R. (1997) Building Corporate Accountability: Emerging Practices in Social and Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting. London: Earthscan.

Personality

 

Personality can be defined as a person's unique behavioural and cognitive patterns. Alternatively, it also refers to a person's unique consistent pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting (AlleyDog, 2011).

According to Powell (2010), it has been reported that, the use of the terms "nature" and "nurture" as a convenient catch-phrase for the roles of heredity and environment in human development can be traced back to 13th century France. In general, debates about nature versus nurture do not refer to physical traits. There is little doubt that a person's hair colour or skin colour is determined by his/her genes. Rather, the nature versus nurture debate seeks to understand how a person develops factors such as personality, behaviours and intelligence (Lending Tree, 2011).

According to McLeod (2007), nature is that which is inherited or genetic, including those appearing through maturation.

On the other hand, nurture refers to all environmental influences after conception, for example experience (ibid.).

The nature argument states that everything a person will ever become, their physical appearance and personality is already decided since their developmental information is in their genes (Stiles, 2011). In contrast, the nurture approach argues that although inherited genes make up the person, they do not limit the potential a person can achieve if the right environment is provided (Lending Tree, 2011).

The major difference between both nature and nurture is that:

·     Nature is basically associated with the genetic make-up of an individual while nurture dwells on the environment in which an individual is located.

In my opinion, it is difficult to draw a clear distinction between both nature and nurture approaches in relation to personality development. To some extent our personalities are determined by genetic factors. Our nature as children significantly predicts our behaviour in adulthood. For example some forms of psychopathology are heritable. Environmental factors (family, culture) influence our personality development. I believe genes may affect behaviour directly or may exert an indirect effect in a number of ways. However, in reality, it is most likely that, an interaction of nature and nurture that affect the development of a person. Even in the womb, genes interact with hormones in the environment to signal the start of a new developmental phase (Schmid, 2009). The hormonal environment, likewise, does not act independently of the genes and it cannot correct lethal errors in the genetic makeup of a foetus (ibid.). The genes and the environment must be in sync for normal development (Stiles, 2011). Similarly, even if a person has inherited genes for taller than average height, the person may not grow to be as tall as is genetically possible if proper nutrition is not provided.

Thus, it can be said that, both heredity (nature) and environment (nurture) play a role in shaping our personalities and behaviours. 

It is worth mentioning that, nature-nurture is not the same as cause-effect; if you were born that way, then that does not necessarily mean that you will behave that way forever. Personality can change over time.

Gordon Allport was an American psychologist who focused on individuals personalities. He believed that the study of personality could also be characterised in two ways namely nomothetic and idiographic approaches (AlleyDog, 2011).

        Nomothetic approach: This is refers to traits and rules of personality that can be generalised to large amounts and types of people (AlleyDog, 2011).

Idiographic approach: This is a way of studying personality through in-depth analysis of one individual and the dimensions relevant to that person’s personality (Burger, 2004).

Thus, Allport attempted to explain personality be answering the question of uniqueness versus universality. 

The nomothetic view highlights comparability among individuals but sees people as unique in their combination of traits. This viewpoint sees traits as having the same psychological meaning in everyone. The belief is that people differ only in the amount of each trait. It is this which constitutes their uniqueness. This approach tends to use self-report personality questions and factor analysis. People differ in their positions along a continuum in the same set of traits (Wilderdom, 2004).

The idiographic view on the other hand, underscores that each person has a unique psychological structure and that some traits are possessed by only one person; and that there are times when it is impossible to compare one person with others. This viewpoint also points out that traits may differ in importance from person to person (cardinal, central and secondary traits). It tends to use case studies, bibliographical information and diaries for information gathering (Wilderdom, 2004).

BBC PERSONALITY BIG TEST SUMMARY

My Big Five personality traits

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/feedback/big-five-text

Personality trait	Score (total of 5)	Rating
Openness	3.8	Medium
Conscientiousness	4.3	High
Extroversion	3.8	High
Agreeableness	4.6	High
Neuroticism	1.8	Low

Openness

This trait is sometimes known as ‘Openness to experience’. People with scores like mine tend to have a fairly broad range of interests. I am also likely to find it easy to come up with original solutions to problems.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness describes how dependable, organised and hard-working a person is likely to be. This may be the reason why, of all the personality traits, Conscientiousness is the most consistent indicator of job success. People with scores like mine tend to be extremely dependable and organised.

Extroversion

Extroversion is characterised by positive emotions and the tendency to seek out pleasure-stimulating or risk-taking activities. People with scores like mine are often perceived as gregarious, expressive and energetic.

Personality studies have shown that scoring highly on Extroversion often translates to a natural capacity for leadership. High Extroversion may also indicate a tendency to earn more than those with lower scores, but the reasons for this are unclear.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness measures how sympathetic and considerate a person is likely to be. People with scores like mine are likely to find it very easy to get along with other people.

Neuroticism

In the context of the Big Five personality traits, the term 'Neuroticism' relates to a person’s response to threatening or stressful situations. People with scores like mine are often seen as being calm and even-tempered. They cope well with stressful situations and may seem tranquil despite adverse circumstances.

Does personality predict my outcomes?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/feedback/life-outcomes

Personality trait	Score	Rating
Life satisfaction	5.4/7	High
Relationships	4.4/5	High
Job satisfaction	5/5	High
Health	82.5/100	High
Life goals	No preference	Neutral

CONCLUSION

The nature versus nurture debate is not without its controversies. Some of the issues that have stirred conflict in the debate include homosexuality and obesity. While some scientists strongly believe that both sexuality and weight are inherited, many think that both are shaped, at least in part, by our environment.

It has been suggested that the key to understanding complex human personality is to study genes, the environment, and the interactions between the two equally (Stiles, 2011).

REFERENCES

AlleyDog (2011) Personality [online]. Available from: http://www.alleydog.com/topics/personality.php [Accessed 20 December 2011].

BBC, (2011) The Big Personality Test [online]. British Broadcasting Network. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/ [Accessed 2nd December 2011].

Burger, J.M. (2004) Personality. 6^th ed. Wadsworth: Thompson Learning.

Lending Tree (2011) Nature versus Nurture: Genetics and Environment [online]. Available from: http://www.nurture-or-nature.com/articles/nature-versus-nurture/index.php [Accessed 20 December 2011].

McLeod, S. A. (2007) Simply Psychology; Nature Nurture in Psychology [online]. Available from: http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html [Accessed 20 December 2011].

Powell, K. (2010) Nature vs. Nurture: Are We Really Born That Way? [online]. Available from: http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture.htm [Accessed 20 December 2011].

Schmid, R. (2009). Nature vs. nurture begins in the womb [online]. Discovery Channel. Available from: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/03/nature-nurture.html. [Accessed 20 December 2011].

Stiles, J. (2011) Brain development and the nature versus nurture debate. Progress in Brain Research. 189,pp. 3-22.

Wilderdom (2004) Personality Traits: Idiographic vs. Nomothetic [online]. Available from: http://wilderdom.com/personality/traits/PersonalityTraitsIdiographicNomothetic.html [Accessed 20 December 2011].

Perception and Communication

Perception can be defined as the process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them. Though necessarily based on incomplete and unverified (or unreliable) information, perception is equated with reality for most practical  human behaviour in general (Web Finance, 2011). It can be influenced by various factors including attitudes, past experiences, and backgrounds. 

There have been many instances where I got to realise that, my initial perception about someone had been wrong. The most recent was during the period when I was working on part-time basis at Thistle Hotel. The incident happened on the first day I was to report to work. As I got off the bus and started walking on the pavement to the hotel, I was on the phone when all of a sudden I realised a guy was walking right behind me. I then decided to take caution by quickening my steps and also moved to the other side of the pavement knowing very well of how people get attacked on various streets across the United Kingdom. After making my way to the entrance of the hotel, I realised this guy was making way towards the same direction. Interestingly, he was wearing an all black attire just like I was wearing but that did not convince me enough of not suspecting him. I then decided to slow down my pace in order for him to get ahead of me. As he walked in front of me, he greeted and then quickly rushed into the hotel. I followed him closely and eventually realised he was a worker in the same Department I had been assigned to which was the Restaurant section. Immediately he entered the restaurant, he noticed I was standing at the entrance so he retraced his steps and asked if I was a new staff. I told him I was and he asked me to follow him. We later found ourselves in the closet assigned for workers to keep their personal items such as handbags before proceeding to work. After showing me a place to put my bag, he then pleaded with me to take out any valuables from my handbag since there have been incidences of theft reported among workers. I took out my phone but since I had no pocket on my uniform, he offered to keep it in his pocket.  I hardly knew this guy but looking at the assistance he had offered me so far, I decided to give him my phone. As we entered into the working area, he took me to the Departmental Manager who then did a brief introduction to the team. The manager then asked me to understudy what goes on in the restaurant by asking another female staff to show me around. As the weeks went by, I made enquiries from other staffs from the restaurant about this guy and all of them praised him as being an honest and supportive staff. I then decided to verify this by getting to know him better. I started by exchanging greetings with him anytime I saw him at work, and as my work in the hotel progressed, he became my close friend. By the time I was ending my working days in the hotel, I realised that my initial perception about this guy as being a potential attacker on the street was wrong. After getting to know him better through communication, I realised he was rather a friendly, supportive and honest individual as he always made sure I was happy at work and offered me assistance whenever I consulted him or he saw that I needed help. From this experience, I decided not to form the wrong perception about people when I meet them for the first time but rather, get to know them personally through communication or other appropriate ways before making my judgements about them.

Communication can be defined as the process of giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions (Communication Dictionary, 2010). The importance of communication to an Organisation cannot be underestimated. As identified by Management Study Guide (2011), the importance of communication can be summarised as follows:

• Communication promotes motivation by informing and clarifying to employees about the task to be done, the manner they are performing the task, and how to improve their performance if it is not up to the mark.
• Communication is a source of information to the organisational members for decision-making process as it helps in identifying and assessing alternative course of actions.
• Communication also plays a crucial role in altering individual’s attitudes, that is, a well informed individual will have better attitude than a less-informed individual.

In a survey involving 2000 CIPD employees, Clark (2010) reported that, that fewer than half of the respondents felt either “fully” or “fairly well” informed about what was going on in their firms. Furthermore, there were also low levels of trust between employees and senior management. The findings therefore revealed that it was very important to improve communications within Organisations. Clark (2010) at the end of the study posited measures that could be adopted to ensure effective communication between employees and senior management in an organisation. The three measures are explored below to establish how best Buckinghamshire New University can improve communication with its students.

1.    Authorities of the University must realise the importance of communication and take time to share the vision for the institution with students.

The importance of sharing the vision of an organisation with its members cannot be underestimated. This is because, when people are made aware of the overall goal of the organisation, it makes them appreciate the difference they can make. Additionally, employees feel a part of the company when authorities share the vision with them. Applying this to the way Buckinghamshire New University can improve communication with its students, it is imperative that, lecturers for example, make time to make known to their students, the learning outcomes of the courses they teach. This would give the students appreciate the need of working hard to make sure they get the best out of the courses offered at the University. Also, there is the need for the senior management of the University to make efforts to communicate the University’s vision to the students in person instead of using other channels such as sending out general information to students using the University’s website. This puts a face to management and offers the opportunity for students to approach them whenever the need arises. It is also important that, delegation of other personnel to communicate issues to students should be kept low as much as possible in order for the students to get to know the authorities of the University on a more personal basis. In my opinion, I think it is just not satisfactory that, the only time students get to see those in authority such as the Vice Chancellor of the University only during matriculation and graduation throughout their stay in the institution.  Authorities must therefore take time off their busy schedules to meet with students at least once a term to relay any important vision or information. This would make students feel more involved and better understand what is going on within the university.

2.    Create communication that is two-way.

Clark (2010) noted that, another way to improve communication is to ensure that communication is two-way process, not only top-down. A two- way communication offers a feedback mechanism which ensures that communication is effective (see Figure 1 below). 

         Figure 1: Diagrammatic representation of a two-way communication

                            Source: Community Eye Health Journal (2011)

Authorities should therefore ensure that, they do not always pass down information to students without allowing them to make contributions or react to what has been relayed to them.

The University should create avenues that would enable students express their views, resentments or observations about any information passed on to them by authorities. For example, lecturers should give students the opportunity to have their say about the rules governing their mode of teaching. A two-way communication process also offers an opportunity for negotiation between students and the University regarding pertinent issues. When students feel their views are always welcome, they would be satisfied with changes or developments made knowing very well that their views formed part of the final decision. This would also encourage the University and students to work as a team to meet the goals of Buckinghamshire New University. A two-way communication would mean that, both parties are active within the communication process. It is also worth mentioning that, the key component of any real two-way communication is the clear indication that both parties are listening to each other (Meyer, 2011).

3.    Measure the success of actions.

The third way in which Buckinghamshire New University can better communication with its students would be to measure the success of its actions. According to Clark (2010), it is necessary for an organisation to establish mechanisms that would enable it assess the effectiveness of their communication structures. Applying this to ways in which Buckinghamshire New University can improve communication with its students, it would be appropriate for the university to engage the students in surveys soliciting for their views about how effective their communication strategies have been. Apart from such measures allowing the University to measure the success of its communication strategies, it would also offer the chance to identify loopholes in the existing strategy while allowing students to make suggestions for its improvements.

In conclusion, it must be said that a good perception is very important to understand others. Conflicts occur because we fail to perceive others correctly.  Perception also forms the underlying basis for decision making in Organisations. Thus, it is important that the management of institutions make every effort to promote a positive perception of their businesses.

Communication is easily overlooked, but the ability to communicate effectively is necessary to carry out the thoughts and visions of an Organisation to people (Kam, 2009). An effective and efficient communication system requires managerial proficiency in delivering and receiving messages. A manager or leader of an organisation must discover various barriers to communication, analyse the reasons for their occurrence and take preventive steps to avoid those barriers. Thus, the primary responsibility of a manager is to develop and maintain an effective communication system in the organisation (Management Study Guide, 2011).

REFERENCES

Clark, R. (2010) How to improve staff communication [online]. Available from: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/07/how-to-improve-staff-communication.htm [Accessed 23 November 2011].

Communication Dictionary (2010) Communication Theory [online]. Available from: http://communicationtheory.org/definitions-of-communication/ [Accessed 20 November 2011].

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