Reputation and Responsibility – The Case of African Peer Review Mechanism

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Question

Assignment Brief

Select a theme or issue directly impacting upon current or future strategic management of reputation and/or corporate responsibility as it applies in your own organisation, or alternatively, as it applies within another organisation to which you have agreed access to appropriate research information and/or data necessary to the satisfactory completion of the assignment. Please note that you can select a theme or issue that equally relates to the management of reputation and the management of corporate responsibility. You can also select a theme or issue that mainly focuses on one of these subjects, either reputation or corporate responsibility, but it is expected that you provide some context and discuss some implications from your investigation for the subject you have focused less on. As explicitly discussed in the study materials, it is useful, for the purpose of exploring issues relevant to the understanding and management of both reputation and corporate responsibility, to investigate the nature of stakeholder–organisation relationships, i.e. experiences, observations, attitudes, perceptions and behaviours from actors in ongoing organisational exchanges.

In addressing your chosen theme or issue, you are therefore encouraged to:

identify, engage with and research relevant stakeholder groups
explore perceptions of key stakeholders and identify key drivers and outcomes in relationships between the organisation and its stakeholders (i.e. experiences and behaviours)
reflect on reputation models and theories and how they can be usefully applied to your chosen theme or issue
engage in current debate on corporate responsibility and reflect on how your chosen theme or issue relates to this debate as well as stakeholder perceptions of the corporate responsibility of the organisation
integrate ideas and approaches leading to a strategic set of actions
explain the rationale for the proposed way forward

Solution

Introduction

Here has been an exponential growth in the importance and significance of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Organisations are actively engaged in the effort to define and integrate CSR into all their operation. CSR is considered as the responsibility of an organisation towards its impact on society. An organisation should have a process to define the integration of societal, environmental and ethical aspects of operations in association with its core strategy and collaboration with its stakeholders. The various dimension of responsibility includes stakeholder, social, economic, voluntariness and environmental dimensions (Gazzola 2014). A responsible operation is often associated with an organisation's reputation.

Though an intangible concept, having a good reputation benefits an organisation in different ways such as stakeholder preference, support for crisis management and the future value in the industry. According to management experts, the leading reputation measurement systems use the organisational components of ethics, work environment, financial performance, leadership, management practices, social responsibility, stakeholder focus, quality, reliability and emotional appeal. Some other components include value, differentiation, presence, and communication quality. The reputation of an organisation depends on factors such as delivering promises to stakeholders, transparency, trustworthiness and responsiveness. Hence, organisations need to be steadfast in maintaining goodwill to their stakeholders.

This report is based on the theme of issues that occur around the innovative processes of a not-for-profit organisation. The report analyses the case of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) surrounding its innovative peer-reviewed governance practices of member states in the African Union. The situation is mapped, followed by an exploration of the vision and values of the organisation. The level of stakeholder engagement is determined, and the models are used to measure and manage the reputation of APRM. Further, how CSR is embedded and the strategy to link reputation and responsibility are described. Recommendations for APRM to overcome responsibility related reputation risks are made, and a conclusion is derived from the discussions made.

Theme

The basic idea behind CSR is that organisations are social entities, and they have a significant role to play in resolving the social issues in which they operate. It is their obligations to society and has to devise measures to fulfil them. This report is based on the assumption that an organisation obliging to CSR has a better reputation and enjoys a competitive advantage over those with lower or inadequate reputations. In other words, the major advantages of achieving and being perceived to have achieved responsibility is a stronger organisation that is rewarded with reputation. This stronger reputation can lead to profits and defend the organisation in times of crisis and during public policy issue battles. Also, social responsibility, together with management quality and financial security, is determined as an essential attribute of reputation and it is found by experts to have a favourable association with firm's financial performance (Ni & Heath 2009).