In the 1970s, three enterprising men founded new businesses in the village of Esh Winning in County Durham. In the mid-1990s, the businesses were merged to create what has become ‘the largest indigenous construction company operating in the North East of England' - the Esh Group. Although not explicitly a corporate mission, ‘Leading the Way in Constructing the Region' is at the heart of the Esh culture. It is a statement repeated in various forms of corporate communications and features prominently and prevalently on the website. The Esh vision statement echoes the same message of responsibility and commitment and identifies their key stakeholder priorities: We see construction as dynamic, exciting and rewarding. We are passionate about continuing to progress and develop; delivering satisfaction and reward to our clients, our people, the public we serve and the region in which we live, work and play.

Esh Group is now one of the largest construction groups operating in the North East of England. Strongly committed to the local economy and the community which provides its direct workforce, ‘modern-day' Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity has been on the company's agenda since its inception over three decades ago. The company has always had an active policy of procurement in the North East and adjacent regions, recognising the impact this has on the local economy, the natural environment and its own bottom line. With increased interest and awareness in corporate responsibility and citizenship from a variety of stakeholder groups, ‘Esh Added Value', the Group's collection of varied and innovative community schemes, have gained notoriety and strategic importance.

The North-East of England is noted for the richness of its natural beauty, which includes National Parks and coastline, as well as its historic importance and two World Heritage Sites. With a regional economy of £38.8bn, the North-East has the lowest GDP/capita in England. With a per capita GDP at 80 per cent of the EU average, the North East of England is particularly challenged by the decline of traditional industries and a weak enterprise base.

Esh has started their sponsorship of Esh Winning Football Club, as a means of maintaining commercial and social links with their home village of Esh Winning for the five years since the move. Esh's first non-philanthropic CSR initiative, ‘Fit for Employment', was launched in 2004. It is a work-related learning programme for young people about to leave school. The scheme was launched at a local school. The programme provides meaningful work experience to Year 10 and 11 students and is designed to get them ‘work ready'. To date, since its inception, 70 young people have been employed on a full-time basis by Esh Group and over 600 students have participated in the intensive work experience programmes. Also, Esh Group has started another similar programme in conjunction with a regional college. This programme launched with over 40 participants - ex offenders, ex-drug users, long-term unemployed and those with a combination of these and other personal issues in order to get them ‘work ready', that is, qualified, trained and motivated. By Esh standards of delivering tangible results, this programme was another success story. The project aimed to give service users real work experience and a life changing opportunity. The skills developed by the participants proved to be the key to a new life and helped them to ‘get back on track' by giving them a sense of pride, raised self-esteem and a realistic chance of future employment.

Task:

Read the above case study and write an essay on corporate social responsibility of the company following the guidelines below.

Discuss key topics and theroies including Approaches to Governance, Accountability & Responsibility, Socially Responsible Investment, Caux Round Table (CRT) , utilitarianism, categorical imperative, Drucker, or organisational behaviour and provide:

• A description of the organisation culture and a definition of the company framework and its objectives.
• The definition of the key theoretical and philosophical ideas and tasks which should be measured, with priorities.
• An analysis of current trends and objectives in the literature.
• A proposal for the business in the case study based on the strategic framework.
• Strategic recommendations to the business for improving its culture and structure.
• A rationale for your decisions using academic research.
• Identification of key current business issues that can be monitored and addressed with a clear rationale for why this should be undertaken.