Stakeholders

Stakeholders form a link between the aims of Gulf bank and the immediate society. The bank’s management being the main primary stakeholder will ensure that everything runs smoothly. They will provide the technical knowhow in different fields and finances where applicable. The management is central in the connection between the internal and external environment (Burnes 2009). The marketers will be present to sell the carnival tickets and generally portray the banks’ positive image. They will also encourage people to open accounts in their bank. This may however, have a negative impact especially if the marketers are too focussed on selling the bank than the tickets.

The logistics department is a primary stakeholder, and their role is to ensure that the supply chain runs smoothly (Burnes 2009). They will ensure all the relevant equipment and materials are available even if it means importing them. The human resource will definitely play a role in assigning groups with tasks and ensuring that they have supervision through to the completion of the task.

The society is a secondary stakeholder in CSR activities and they play the role of being humanitarian and offer help to the special needs people. They will donate some of the funds meant to help such people. In some cases, voluntary actions will be provided by the society (Blaikie 2010). People with special needs and organisations dealing with the same will be included in the project. These organisations will be the central point of this activity. They will act as the connection of the bank to such an event. They will attend the event which is prepared for them.

Project Schedule. Human resource is the main developer of any corporate social responsibility exercise. The steps to be taken are dependent on human resource planning and can be looked at as a general organisational change process. This change may be difficult but can be enhanced by the realisation that this is an evolutionary activity that will change the internal working environment of the organisation. I would suggest a cyclical process while emphasizing the social risks associated with each procedure.

The first step would be to raise awareness in the organisation as a way of being empathetic to the employees needs (Crane & Matten 2009). Market drivers and value based drivers are to be used in this process. An organisation is an entity with its own values which are mainly economic but the employee also has his own values. Both of these values are to be integrated in a harmonious way, and this is the main purpose of this procedure.

The second step is to assess the role of Gulf bank in the society. These include the processes followed by the bank and its day to day activities in the realisation of its missions. This realisation will help anticipate the effects in corporate social responsibility. Corporate values will be embedded in management practices, which will strengthen the bank’s values. Generally, this is the alignment of overall goals and CSR goals without any clashes. The interests of stakeholders are considered in the process.

Thirdly, the bank has to define a common meaning of corporate social responsibility. This ensures that all stakeholders work in unison (Crane & Matten 2009). The stakeholders’ values are given utmost importance both in the previous and current steps. The top management is responsible for this task, and this is communicated through official documents (Agle, Mitchell & Sonnenfeld 2009) . This is a very crucial step as both stakeholders and managers can use the documents developed at this step to criticise and analyse the whole process of corporate social responsibility (Crane & Matten 2009).

The next step is to assess the current status of CSR where existing documents on the same is reviewed. Focus is placed on existing statements and missions, consulting key managers and industry experts on the same (Burnes 2009). This will help in identifying key aspects of CSR and also in benchmarking competitors to gain advantage over them.

A CSR integrated plan is then prepared by drawing up short and long term strategies. Missions and values are translated, and goals set altogether. Responsibilities are defined, and if recruitment is necessary, then it is done at this stage (Crane & Matten 2009). The next step is to implement the plan. Different roles are put into effect, supervised and controlled effectively. Employees are engaged in the whole process, and training is offered where needed.

Information has to run smoothly and thus communication and feedback is important (Bamford & Forrester 2009). The seventh step involves developing a communication plan is paramount. The management gets to know the progress and employees can ascertain their input. After this step is complete, evaluation of CSR integrated strategies to ensure that all is working well. A regular review is important as it gives transparency of activities and stakeholders can use this to verify the whole process.

In order to maintain momentum institutionalisation of CSR will ensure that the activity is continuous. This can be done through communication with stakeholders and continuous constructive dialogue. Basically, these are the tasks of CSR.

Gantt chart Showing CSR Tasks

Risks Identified

There is always the risk of the corporation’s intentions being misunderstood. In the process of conducting CSR, the Gulf bank has the intention of marketing itself and attracting more customers. This may be viewed as a way of maximising profits and not providing to the community as a whole (Bamford & Forrester 2009). Corporations are generally seen as being interested in the consumers rather than the society as a whole. This misguided notion may send a very negative message and may affect the operations of the business probably even costing a few customers.

Another high risk identified is the fact that being the first time undertaking CSR activities, inexperience may lead to failure. In integrating CSR into the daily running of the business, it is possible to have a misconception that may lead to failure of the whole process. A typical example in this case is focussing too much on marketing and forgetting about helping the needy and in the end failure of the whole process.

Competition is a minor risk likely to be faced by the company (Bamford & Forrester 2009). It is likely that the competitors would hold their CSR activities at the same time as that of the Gulf bank. This may affect attendance of the event, and this is tantamount to failure. If people decide to attend the other event, then the CSR activities of the Gulf bank will be a total failure. The competitors are also better versed in CSR as they have held the activity before. This then means that the Gulf bank has a lot to catch up on if they mean to overtake their competitors.

Disability is a very sensitive topic especially where most families are affected by such an issue like in Kuwait. Social welfare contributes majorly to the able-bodied people (Burnes 2009) . To make disability part of the CSR program, the Gulf bank would need to create employment slots for some of the disabled people in the society. This will only act in ensuring that both the society and stakeholders see how far the Gulf bank would go as far as helping the special needs people is concerned. The minor risk in this case is finding employment slots for those people. Would they be enough? Would they be good enough to convince the society?

Risk Management Analysis and Plans. Basically, the major risks for this project include the misunderstanding of intentions and the occurrence of failure due to lack of experience. The minor risks are; including the disabled in the employees and competition. The one that should be given the highest priority is the event that there is a failure. The one with the medium priority is competition.

The risk management plan includes outsourcing and training, avoidance, hiring the locals and effective communication (Gray, Owen, and Adams 2009). Due to Gulf bank lacking experience, it is useful to outsource some of its activities to experienced people in the field. A typical example would be to hire a manager who has dealt with successful CSR activities before. Experience is always the best teacher, and in this case it would be felt to a great extent.

Another way would be to pre-train the staff on carrying out activities related to CSR. During the training, simulations of the real situation can be used to infuse knowledge on how to deal with the situation in the field. Training has more advantage over outsourcing as the knowledge remains in the organisations long after the activity has been done. Both outsourcing and training are very effective when dealing with failure and sometimes competition.

Communication is most effective and best way of dealing with misunderstandings (Blaikie 2010). This is aimed at focussing efforts towards a unified goal both inside and outside the organisation. Gulf bank can decide to make posters and use electronic messages to communicate clearly the message about the intention of CSR and why Gulf bank intends on doing it. This will also ensure that every member of the organisation is updated on the progress of the CSR activities. The right campaign for the carnival is one way for achieving this (Gray, Owen, and Adams 2009).

The management can also use avoidance to deal with some risks (Blaikie 2010). Where the risks are too high, it would be advisable to apply avoidance technique. For instance; if their competitor will be performing their activities on the same day, the Gulf bank can reschedule their activities for another day. Using all the money acquired for charity will also reduce some risks (Burnes 2009). This will impress external stakeholders and thus increasing returns. Hiring some of the locals will attract people to attend the event and portray a positive image.