Corporate Social Responsibility Assignment: Innovative practices in TUI Plc
Question
Task: Prepare a corporate social responsibility assignment demonstrating an understanding of different types of innovation and technology within an organization and how they have impacted the economic progress of the country, with particular emphasis on business organizations.
Answer
Introduction
Business is an ever-growing process and it has been seen that with time creative thinking has helped the business to expand across the market. Innovation and implication of the technologies in the business work environment can affect the sales and profit of the company. This study will concentrate on the innovative practices in TUI Plc. which is one of the biggest tourism companies in the United Kingdom. The study will also discuss the new technology used by the company and its impact on the company's profitability. The second half of the study will concentrate on corporate social responsibility and its importance on TUI Plc.
Assessment Task One
1.1 Demonstration and Impact of Innovation and Technology
Definition of Innovation and Technology
In the era of advancement, technology and innovation in different sections have created a major positive improvement not only at the organizational level but also for the entire country. According to Yun, Jeong, Lee and Kim (2021), Innovation can be defined as a practical implementation of the thoughts that helps in forming positive results by introducing new goods and services or developing improvement in these sections.
Technological innovation is considered as an extended version of the innovation, where the different organization has used the technology as a source of innovation and used it for developing in increasing market competitiveness. Innovation and technology is a continuous process within an internal and external venture.
Practical Example of the contribution of Innovation and Technology in Economic Growth of a Country
Technology and Innovation are the two crucial factors that have been considered as the most important contributor to the economic growth of the United States of America. It has been seen that innovation leads the economic growth by developing the productivity level of the labourers as technological improvement allows workers to serve more and produce more. Technological improvement has helped the workers to produce more and it has been seen that the production rate has increased by 35% from the time of World War 2. Apart from that, it has been seen that the digital technology sector of the UK has shown acceleration faster than the other economy. The turnover rate of the digital technology increased by 4.5% in the financial year of 2016-17, whereas the UK GDP showed the growth rate of 1.7% on that same period of time(Tech Nation 2018 report: UK tech ahead of the rest of the economy, 2021). It indicated that technological advancement has helped the economy to grow 2.6 times faster rate. Moreover, it has been seen that the development of the gaming community with the innovation of gaming technologies have given Japan Softbank an improbable raising of 370 million euros of profit. This mega funding during the year was only possible by the acceptance of innovation in the country's economy.
Figure 1: Rise of Productivity in the US
(Source: Pozo, Akabane and Tachizava, 2019)
Use of Technologies by Business Organization
The main aim of the introduction of the technology in the business operation of an organization is to ensure that organizations are able to decrease the budget, advance the transport process, homogenize as well as develop excellence plus emphasis on customization, thereby generating value for customers. The improvement of the communication system inside the organization has helped the organization to increase production. The increased use of advanced technologies in communication as wireless communication technologies not only helps the employees to remain connected across the work time but also helps the customers to stay in touch with the company. The elevating improvement of the computer technologies has also aided the company in managing the projects as an advanced computing system is capable of monitoring the entire working process on daily basis. The technology is also used in saving times and money in the business organization as improvement of internet and telecommunication technologies has created an opportunity of web conferencing which has helped the company to conduct meetings with the stakeholders and other companies without investing any time by travelling different part of the country. The most crucial innovation has been seen in the automation process that is building of software are generally capable of taking orders from the customers which have helped the organization to advance the business level(Business operations: Using technology to improve operational processes - Fourth Source, 2021).
1.2 Practical Illustration of Innovation and Technology on TUI Plc.
Overview of the Company
TUI Plc. is a travel group of the TUI AG tourism division and it was formed with the merger of First Choice Holiday Plc. in the year 2007. In this merger, TUI AG has owned 56.4% of the share. The headquarters of the organization is situated at Crawley city of West Sussex in the United Kingdom. The company has dealt with the services of passenger transport, travel agency and accommodation. The company was enlisted to the London Stalk Exchange and become a constituent of Financial Time Stock Exchange 100. It has been seen that TUI Plc merged with the parent company that is the TUI group which is German originated in the year of 2014(TUI Group – The world’s number one tourism business, 2021).
The implication of New Technology on TUI Plc.
The most unique technology that is used by the TUI plc is a Facial Recognition machine which is capable of reading the subconscious mind of the customers and with the information gathering through the process, it is also capable of identifying the ideal holiday destination(Weekly, 2021). The technology is installed in a chair which is looked like the logo of the company, it has been revealed in the official re-branch in London. In this technology, the customer has to sit in the chair and the installed camera read their facial expression to measure the emotions and according to the emotional evaluation, it suggests destination planning.
Effects of the New Technology
The incorporation of the new technology has improved customer engagement with the company as it has created a huge change in the travel industry where the customers can be judged by the technology in order to choose the destination. It has been seen that the engagement of the customers has been increasing by 14 per cent as calculated in the year 2019. It suggests that the incorporation of the new technology has resulted in an increase of customer engagement in the company by 14% in one financial year.
Figure 2: Turnover Rate
(Source: Asim and Sorooshian, 2021)
From the above figure, it has been seen that the turnover rate has increased by 2.7% after the incorporation of the Destination U chair in the workplace. It has been seen that the sales and profit margin has increased from the previous year. Apart from that, the international market has also accepted the technology as it helps the company collect a greater amount of profit from the international market(Buijtendijk, van Heiningen and Duineveld, 2021).
Comments on Finding
From the history of the Travel and tourism companies, it has been seen that the companies generally provide the tourism options for the customers and help them in booking hotels and transports. However, the introduction of the Destination U chair in their companies has helped the company in building more profits with customer engagement. The basic explanation of the scenario is the use of innovation and technology in the workplace, which helps in making the attractiveness of the services of the company. The Destination U chair is an advanced AI technology that is capable of providing ideas of destination planning by evaluating the emotional level of the customers. It not only builds the advancement of the company services but also aids the customers in finding the correct decision in a limited time period. These kinds of services have helped the company to gain a profit growth of 2.7% through the turnover rate (Guda, T?nase and Purc?rea, 2017).
Assessment Task Two
2.1 Evaluation of the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on TUI Plc.
Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
As per the view of Kong et al.(2021), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a type of management concept which helps organizations to integrate the social as well as environmental apprehensions in the selected business process. It is also helpful for the companies to interact with the stakeholders. The main aim of CSR is to take part in philanthropic causes, give back to the community and provide social values in a positive way. It has been seen that most of the business is turning to CSR for creating difference and constructing brand values around the business. On the other hand, corporate governance is a set of rules and regulations that operates and control businesses.
History of Corporate Governance in the UK
Corporate governance is comprised of different sort of rules, laws and practices and in the case of the United Kingdom, there is no difference. This set of rules is enforced on the business practices for measuring accountability of the actions. The principle statute to the corporate governance of the UK lies in The Companies Act 2006(Hassan, Adhikariparajuli, Fletcher and Elamer, 2019). The incorporation of the act dismisses some law duties of the director and the main sources of the corporate governance are mentioned below.
- Section 171: to act according to the company’s constitution.
- Section 172: To promote the success path for the organization.
- Section 173: to practice the judgement in an independent way.
- Section 174: to practice skills enhancement, diligence and reasonable care.
- Section 175: to bypass the conflicts related to the common interest.
It has been seen that these statutory duties must be followed by the businesses of the UK and the application method has been written in section 170(4) of CA 2006. However, as the duties of the directors are not mentioned in the CA 2006, it is regulated by common law rules and relevant laws.
Importance of CSR on TUI Plc.
CSR is essential for understanding the corporate and social contribution that is required for building the reputation of the company among the customers. It has been seen that well-managed CSR is one of the key programs that help the company to increase brand equity and awareness with strong values. TUI Plc is one of the greatest companies in this tourism industry as they provide advanced services for the people. This also helps the company to become more responsible towards the service providence as it has been seen that 88% of the people buy the products and services from the responsible companies(Hammer and Pivo, 2016). In the case of TUI Plc, the company is well-known for its innovation and technological improvements and these kinds of activities make the company more responsible towards the customers. On the other hand, the Triple Bottom Line Theory has suggested that bottom-line results are the key for developing the growth of the company as TUI Plc not only concentrates on the final economic terms but also concentrate on the social realm and its perspective towards the environment. It concentrates on the sustainability of the economy, social and environmental factors. These factors increase the overall sustainability level which resulted in increasing employee retention and increase in sales.
Figure 3: Triple Bottle Line Theory of CSR
(Source: Liang, Zhao, Wang and Li, 2021)
2.2 Explanations of Archie Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR
The CSR Pyramid discovered by Archie Carroll is considered as a simple framework that is developed for the identification of the responsibilities for a business. According to the theory, it has been seen that a business have to be responsible for fulfilling the four levels of responsibilities such as economic, legal, ethical as well as philanthropic and these are controlled by the economy's corporate governance.
Figure 4: Archie Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR
(Source: Brin and Nehme, 2019)
Economic responsibilities:
This particular responsibility stays base level of the pyramid and it takes most of the areas. This denotes that the profit level and suggested that the business must be profitable which make the company capable of providing assistance to the customers and employees. The profit margin is the key to the growth of the business and it also helps in starting the CSR activity. For being profitable, TUI Plc has incorporated advanced technologies like Destination U chair, which make the company working process more advance from the other competitors and the advanced level AI has helped the company in attracting customers as well. These are some of the greatest demands for the customers to get assisted by the company in their destination selection without any kinds of mistakes(Aguinis and Glavas, 2017).
Legal responsibilities:
The legal obligation to obey the law is the second tier of the pyramid and it is one of the important genera for the company to obey. It is considered as the most important responsibility for the company as it highlights the ways of conduction of business in a market place along with t its obedience to the country business law. TUI Plc has followed the CA 2006 for employment purposes and compete with the competitors staying in the legal web. It has been seen that the company concentrates on the health and safety of the employees apart from the incorporation of technological advancement.
Ethical responsibilities:
The principled coating of the pyramid is labeled as undertaking the accurate entity, being impartial in all circumstances as well as also circumventing damage. A business should not only be conforming to the commandment, but it should also perform the practices of the business in an ethical manner. Despite the first two levels, this is something that a company is not obligated to do. With the application of this stage, TUI Plc is not only bringing comfort to the stakeholders but also creates more opportunity for the customers to engage with the company in a free mindset(Asmussen and Fosfuri, 2019).
Philanthropic responsibilities:
Philanthropic responsibilities are taking the smallest amount of space in the pyramid and take the top place of it. This stage has suggested the company give back some of the takings from the environment. It is the top palace of the pyramid but it has a greater impact on the business. In the case of TUI Plc, it is used to find the right ways that can create more involvement towards the company's value increment. According to Carroll, the responsible business can be identified by the availability of these level of the pyramid.
Conclusion
By analyzing the entire study, it can be concluded that innovation and technology are some of the prime aspects for the business in order to take advantage of the competitive market. Apart from that with the example of TUI Plc, it has been seen that innovation and technology not only bring profit for the company but also helps the company to be more engaged with the marketplace. Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility is another important key for business management and it has a great impact on the business environment.
Reference List
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