Responsible Element 1: Labor Practices
Discuss About The Corporate Social Responsibility And Ethics?
The reported study has been developed addressing the business issues associated with modern business practices. In this particular study, the management of labour practices and community engagement practices of Singapore Airlines Limited has been illustrated to identify the strengths and weaknesses within the approaches leading towards the corporate social responsibility of the organisation. Singapore Airlines has successfully supported towards the community to become one of the trendsetters in the target market of Singapore (Kannekanti, & Muddu, 2009). The study has linked the management practices of Singapore Airlines with the corporate social responsibility to evaluate how the organisation has efficiently managed the labour practices and community engagement in the dynamic business environment.
Precisely, labour practices can be termed as one of the most substantial aspects associated with the airlines business. Contemporary business organisations such as Singapore Airlines need to identify significant laws, regulatory directives, and social responsibilities to set the best approach. Similarly, community engagement is a considerable management practice that builds a strong relationship with the stakeholders associated with the business framework (Kang, 2012). Evidently, both the management practices have collectively benefited to the organisation as well as the community. At the end of the discussion, a set of recommendation has been included to improve the business practices for long-term business viability.
Singapore Airlines has certainly maintained significant status in managing the employees. As the aviation industry has been one of the leading job-creating sectors in Singapore, the airline’s company has taken a significant responsibility to offer jobs at different positions (Yasser, Al Mamun, & Ahmed, 2017). In order to maintain efficient industrial relations with the employees and other stakeholders, Singapore Airlines Staff Union has taken the initiatives. In the case of recruiting employees such as pilots, flight attendance, cabin crew, technical engineers, and other ground staff members, Singapore Airlines has followed the legislations and regulatory directives to ensure best human resource management practices (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster, 2009). Furthermore, the organisation has valued the employee bargaining agreements to maintain a healthy relationship with the subordinates. The airline company also dictates anti-corruption policy and terms for the suppliers to improve the labour practices (“Corporate Governance Policies”, 2017).
In the dynamic business environment, Singapore Airlines have supported the employees by providing training and development enhancing their career opportunities in the sector. In addition, the total reward system offered to the employees can be defined as the best in the entire industry (“Singapore Airlines”, 2017). Subsequently, the organisational management has protected the rights of the employees and prohibited any discrimination in management abiding by the laws. Meanwhile, individual cases have gone against the company. For instance, in 2004, Singapore Airlines had unlawfully thrown out a union activist based on a labour dispute.
- Corporate Culture: Singapore Airlines has improvised significant corporate culture to influence the labour management practices in the business environment. For instance, the reliability and innovativeness in the labour practices have drawn more talents towards the company (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster, 2009). Precisely, the anti-corruption policy and terms for the suppliers and partners have dictated corporate social responsibility in labour practice. Also, the corporate culture of the airlines business has played a major role in protecting the rights of the employees.
- Management Flexibility: The diversified management pool of Singapore Airlines has verified each aspect within the human resource management. For instance, employee relation has been governed efficiently to manage the disputes among the employees (Ramaswamy, 2012). Apart from that, flexible management of Singapore Airlines has acted as a motivational agent.
- Overloading of Staffs: In the broader business dimension, the management of Singapore Airlines needs to control massive workforce. As a result of the scenario, overloading of officials has become one of the considerable issues in HR management (Wirtz, 2008). Therefore, labour disputes and labour related concerns are increasing day by day in the business environment of the aviation business.
- Social Policy: The social policy of Singapore Airlines is another weakness in the management of labour practices. For instance, the company hires seasonal staffs and trainees to fulfil many job positions. Therefore, such social policy has negatively impacted on the activities of the business.
Strengths
The term community engagement is essential for any multinational business organisation such as Singapore Airlines Limited. Depending on the challenging market environment, Singapore Airlines has established substantial community engagement describing extensive range of communication (Thomas, 2011). By contributing towards education, consultation, career development, partnerships, and public participation, Singapore Airlines has connected the business with the local people according to their special interest. By shifting the business focus towards the collective social public, Singapore Airlines has influenced the social participation by providing jobs to the community. Alternatively, Singapore Airlines has related the business with the local government to make positive changes in the target location (Ramaswamy, 2012).
Through the identification of corporate social responsibility of the business, Singapore Airlines has been engaged in dedicated air transportation service influencing the lifestyle of the community. At the same time, Singapore Airlines has provided significant return to the investors by maximising the profits in the challenging business environment. In the every aspect of the aviation business of Singapore Airlines, the company has successfully met the requirement of the stakeholders (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster, 2009). In addition, the community engagement of the business has increased the income status of the public on a various note. Precisely, directly or indirectly, Singapore Airlines has contributed towards the success of the community and the social public associated with the business framework.
- Community engagement activities: Singapore Airlines conducts different community engagement activities such as collecting feedbacks from the employees, customers and other stakeholders regarding the operations of the firm (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster, 2009). On the other hand, the company also conducts educational campaign for the suppliers to motivate them to implement corporate social responsibility policy and act for the betterment of the society, environment and the economy.
- Level of community engagement: The level of community engagement is a primary strength of Singapore Airlines. The management and employees of the company participates in different community development events such as fund raising for the education of the poor children and helps people facing problems through natural calamities (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster, 2009).
- Lack of flexibility in working arrangement: The HR management policy of the firm lacks flexible working arrangement for the workers due to high pressure of work. On the other hand, the high pressure of work and increasing challenges in the market leads to employee burnout (May, Cheney, & Roper, 2017). Hence, a lack of community engagement can be evident in terms of workload among the current workforce of the firm.
- Biasness in recruitment: The Company does not have any separate policy to hire the people from the minority groups. On the other hand, Singapore Airlines focuses on hiring experienced people in the industry (May, Cheney, & Roper, 2017). Hence, the biasness in the recruitment acts as a weakness for active community engagement.
In order to make improvement of the existing business approaches in the labour practices and community engagement, a few of recommendation has been listed in the underlying section:
- Increase Management Cooperation: Through substantial business audits, the management cooperation standards should be increased so that the HR practices and labour disputes can be dealt with utter priority and efficiency (Trong Tuan, 2012). In this way, the managers can effectively identify the leading issues affecting the labour practices. Also, the internal issues in the labour practices can be managed substantially if cooperation standards can be enhanced among the workers and management employees.
- Improve Employment Condition: Singapore Airlines management must continuously develop the infrastructure so that labour practices such as hiring, training development, compensation, and other approaches can be managed efficiently (King, & Cruickshank, 2010). Thus, improved employment condition can automatically work in favour of the management. Decisively, suitable employment condition will encourage the workforce to be engaged with the organisation.
- Implement flexible working arrangement: Singapore Airlines must implement flexible working arrangement in order to motivate the employees. A flexible working arrangement will reduce the pressure over the employees and motivate them to enhance their performance (Trong Tuan, 2012). The flexible working arrangement will increase the loyalty of the workforce and increase employee engagement.
- Mitigate biasness in recruitment: The Company needs to make changes in its recruitment policy to mitigate the issues of biasness in recruitment (Watson, 2017). For example, the management of Singapore Airlines can develop policy to hire employees from the minority groups to enhance the strength of the workforce and increase community engagement.
Conclusion
By considering the above analysis, Singapore Airlines have effectively implemented CSR policies to improve labour practices and increase community engagement. The company implements modern HR policy to maintain a corporate culture at workplace. On the other hand, the activity participation of the management in community activities enhances the reputation of the firm. Meanwhile, the company lacks flexible working arrangement and faces the issue of biasness in the recruitment process. Additionally, the social policy and overloading of staffs lead to several challenges in the labour practices. Hence, the management of Singapore Airlines needs to make changes in its community engagement and labour practice approaches to improve its corporate social responsibility.
References
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