Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana

Question: Discuss about the Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana. Answer: Introduction Green-washing is a concept, where an organization represents that their business proceedings and approaches are ethical but in reality they are not so ethical. Moeller (2012) describes that organization spends more time and money and claims that they follow all the regulations and legislations through advertising and marketing but their actual business practices breaches this claims. In this assessment, the primary aim is to evaluate that claiming for following an effective CSR effective is, in reality, a green-washing and this will be examined through the example of Krafts acquisitions over Cadbury. Cadbury is known as the most ethical organization. It is also recognized for following effective CSR. They not only value their community but they also value their employees and offer them benefits. However, Cadbury being acquisition by Kraft suffers from many problems and the employees are not satisfied by the business approach of the takeover company. It is found that Kraft did not precede Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies and commitments of Cadbury after acquisition. Thus, in 2010, the takeover of Cadbury PLC by Kraft Foods Inc. led to the questioning of long-term growth and CSR practices (Tsagas 2012). Moeller (2012) stated that a takeover organization has to adopt CSR practices and integration procedure of non-financial information into investment decisions of acquisition company. However, it is argue by Visser (2014) that Kraft did not follow such things while taking over leading organization like Cadbury. Cadbury has considered being the most ethical company regarding trading. This company adopts this approach after being in arguments for buying cocoa from slave farms located in West Africa (Tsagas 2012). After this incidence, Cadbury took initiatives to commit with the CSR practices through its commitment for the betterment of both of their employees and community. Cadbury further acquisition Green Blacks, which is also a chocolate manufacturing company famous for their organic and fair trade labelled products. Amponsah-Tawiah and Dartey-Baah (2016) highlighted that both of these ethical companies align their business procedure and work for providing fine chocolate confectiona ries in the society. Cadbury also launched a GBP 44 million Cocoa Partnership in 2008 that is denied by Kraft after it was taken over the Cadbury Plc (Tsagas 2012). Prior to the acquisition, Kraft committed to continuing with the Cadbury's support for the Cocoa Partnership but seemed to not following the commitments months after the acquisition. Kruschwitz (2012) believes that Kraft first agreed due to the pressure of media, trade unions, and the House of Commons and then denies to fulfill their commitment to successful acquisition. In the blog named Bittersweet: How Kraft's Acquisition of Cadbury Ended the Dynasty of a CSR Luminary" it is highlighted that behaving well with the employee also adds value to the CSR activities that an organization is proceeding with. As Cadbury is considered as most ethical organization, they also provide offers and benefits to their working personnel. Deborah Cadbury also mentioned that Quaker is one of the largest food companies in the world and the underlying reason for this is they offer benefits like unemployment benefits and sickness benefits, raising wages, pensions and Saturdays off along with the free doctor and dentists appointments (Justmeans.com 2016). However, these proceedings not followed in recent times and thus this can be considered as green washing. The managing authorities do not treat their employees well as use words like 'bugger off', which leads to lower CSR ratings of the organization and is not mentioned in their CSR report (Justmeans.com 2016). Moreover, Moeller (2012) stated that Kraft's breaching of commitment could also be seen from the closure of the Cadbury's Somerdale factory. It is stated by the research experts that before the Kraft taking over the Cadbury, they have committed that they will keep the Cadbury Somerdale factory open; however, Tsagas (2012) argues that after successful acquisition, they were no longer able to comply with their undertaking. The CSR rating of the Kraft diminished as 400 jobs of Cadburys employee had lost that result in a bad reputation of the concerned organization in UK (Justmeans.com 2016). This also led to adversity, where the relationship with Cadburys employees was also affected. Thus, this reflects that the statement or the commitment they had released that they will value the business proceeding of Cadbury even after their acquisition was simply a green washing. In reality, it is found that Kraft overlooks the high standards of care and accuracy of the Cadbury and neglect the pros pective business plans for Cadbury. Tsagas (2012) furthermore stated that in this way, Kraft breaches the rule 19.1 of the Takeover Code. In addition to that, Tsagas (2012) portrayed that according to take over rule, the taking over company, must have to consider the companys long-term interests and the long-term implications of the acquisition company. Cadbury being the most ethical organization, emphasized on innovation and formulating new ways that can enhance the brand recognition. Moreover, apart from innovation, stakeholder friendliness is also a building block of CSR. Kruschwitz (2012) mentioned that an ideal example of stakeholder friendliness was the acquisition of Green Blacks to Cadbury. Cadbury values their fair-trading capacities and align their CSR with them for ethical business proceedings. However, Tsagas (2012) additionally added that after Cadburys acquisitions to Kraft, Green Blacks struggled to maintain its fundamental CSR and hence formulate a proposal for a management buyout to save their CSR-friendly business. Kraft rejected the proposal for a management buyout and declared to keep Green Black s in their group. This approach can also be seen as green washing. Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that Kraft is a perfect illustration of green washing and it is true that most of the organization are not so ethical that they claim to represent in their CSR report. Kraft did not follow the ethical approach that Cadbury and Green--Black were following and they close the Cadburys Somerdale factory. This resulted in their poor reputation in the UKs society, as 400 of the Cadburys employee had to lose their job with this decision. Reference List Amponsah-Tawiah, K. and Dartey-Baah, K., 2016. Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana: A Sectoral Analysis. InCorporate Social Responsibility in Sub-Saharan Africa(pp. 189-216). Springer International Publishing. Justmeans.com., 2016.Bittersweet: How Kraft's Acquisition of Cadbury Ended the Dynasty of a CSR Luminary | Justmeans. [online] Available at: https://www.justmeans.com/blogs/bittersweet-how-krafts-acquisition-of-cadbury-ended-the-dynasty-of-a-csr-luminary [Accessed 26 Dec. 2016]. Kruschwitz, N., 2012. Why Kraft Foods cares about fair trade chocolate.MIT Sloan Management Review,54(1), p.1. Moeller, S., 2012. Case study: Kraft's takeover of Cadbury.Financial Times, Jan,10(2012), pp.23-24. Tsagas, G., 2012. 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