مطالعات مدیریت راهبردی (Dec 2021)
Designing and formulation Strategic action plan for development of corporate citizenship in producing unit in Iran
Abstract
Aim and introduction: The corporate citizenship theory focuses on protecting the rights and responsibilities vested for partnering with the company and proposes that business has a responsibility to uplift the local community while improving the livelihoods of the stakeholders partnering with the company. To become a good corporate citizen following over-regulated processes will hinder social benefits to the local community and therefore corporate citizenship projects should be carefully selected and should not be executed as a marketing tool. Establishing an effective communication channel, promoting health and nutrition among the community, effort of proving micro finances, creation of employment opportunities, educating technical and operational aspects of the entity were main corporate citizenship activities.Today, there are several manufacturing companies in the country, and by offering a wide range of their products to customers, they are only active in the direction of their economic interests. In this regard, paying attention to citizenship rights and observing citizenship duties is not the main priority and desire of companies. Therefore, we see that in the society, many companies are reprimanded and held accountable by support and monitoring organizations. Existence of numerous cases of violations of production units in cases such as the use of rotten raw materials in the production of products, marketing of outdated products, the use of packaging materials that are not easily decomposed in the environment and endanger the health of society , In penitentiary organizations is evidence of this claim. Therefore, requiring production units to observe citizenship rights and strengthen citizenship behaviors as a wise solution using scientific approaches is of particular importance. Accordingly, in the present study, while identifying the current situation of corporate citizenship among production units and comparing the characteristics of these units, we have obtained a roadmap according to which we can institutionalize citizenship among manufacturing companies as a principle and to reassure the community that companies are committed to respecting their rights and will consume products that are safe and reliable in every way.Methodology: The present study is a descriptive and correlation survey. Both library and field methods have been used to collect information. The field method has been used to collect the initial research data from the statistical sample using a questionnaire. In the present study, the standard questionnaire of Metren et al. (2010) was used. The questionnaire contains 20 questions that measure corporate citizenship in four dimensions: economic citizen, legal citizen, moral citizen and voluntary citizen. In the present study, questionnaires were sent to 200 board members and 169 questionnaires were returned. To determine the content validity of the questionnaire from the point of view of knowledgeable people and to determine the validity of the structure, Bartlett sphericity test was used using structural equations. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was also used to determine the reliability of the instrument.Finding: The research model was analyzed using Smart PLS software. What is shown in the model is the relationship between the research variables and the degree of correlation between these variables. The validity and reliability of the model have been fully verified based on the available indicators. The results show that all three categories of behavioral, structural and contextual factors affect the corporate citizenship of production units in the country and among them the share of structural factors is more than behavioral and contextual factors.Discussion and conclusion: The results of this study showed that the average status of economic, legal, moral and voluntary citizenship factors is lower than average. This means that due to the crises in the country, which are mainly caused by economic sanctions, the production units have not been able to achieve their economic goals and earn the expected profit. Accordingly, in order to survive in the market, they sometimes acted in a way that their behavior was not in accordance with the law and they acted against it. In some cases, they have had to ignore and abuse existing laws.The results of this study showed that behavioral factors affect the degree of corporate citizenship, so that the degree of poor commitment of companies to their social responsibilities to the community has caused their corporate citizenship is not in a good condition. In a way that lack of sense of responsibility to meet the needs of society, inconsistency between the goals of the company and society, lack of responsiveness to meet customer expectations, lack of attention to improving the welfare of society and lack of attention to the values of society have contributed to this. The predominance of mechanical structure, the prevailing market-oriented culture and low organizational capacity as the most important structural indicators have made these companies unable to fulfill their citizenship duties in relation to people in the community and have failed in this regard. Finally, the results of this study showed that underlying factors such as customers' poor attitude towards companies and the low social capital of companies in the community has caused customers to largely lose confidence in these companies. This attitude has led companies to have a low level of citizenship. Therefore, as stated, companies need to make fundamental changes in their goals, strategies and organizational structures in order to achieve corporate citizenship behavior and enjoy the benefits of such behaviors. In a way that institutionalizes social responsibility, social accountability and corporate governance as the most important strategies that the company can perform its citizenship duties with members of the community throughout the company and among its employees and as incentives and sometimes reprimands for adhering its members in departments. By strengthening its expert body and using appropriate equipment and information technology while governing the organic structure to increase organizational capacity by providing the necessary training and also replacing human-centered culture instead of market-oriented culture by emphasizing moral values and respect for human dignity Take care.
