Company background

The report includes the discussion majorly on the topic corporate communication and the identity audit of a large-sized company, based on Australia. There is a description of the company’s image and the perception of the stakeholders towards it. With the progression and growth of the electronics business of the company, Samsung is recognised globally as a leader in the industry in terms of technology, and ranked in the top ten global brand. There is a description of the company’s CSR policies and the factors, which influences the reputation followed by the corporate reputation theory. Therefore, the underlying principle of Samsung is “Create the Future”, which defines the vision for the future electronics (Bloomberg, 2018).

Samsung is a South Korean multinational company headquartered in the Samsung town, Seoul, founded in 1983 by Lee Byung-chull as a trading company. In the later years, the group diversified the operations into many areas, which consist of food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and the retail sector. Samsung Electronics Australia Pvt limited performs the operations of importing and selling the household electrical appliances and the information systems. The products in which the company deals include mobile phones, television, and audio-video products. In addition, the company carry out the operations worldwide in the household items that include washing machines, refrigerators cooking appliances and others (Academic scope, 2017).

Every organisation operates in an external environment, thus encounters societal impact on the working of the business. These factors affect the business and the image of the company among the various competitors in the industry. The factors include social, technological, political, legal, and certain environmental influences. In terms of the political factor, Samsung faces political pressures in African and Latin American countries. As these countries, face frequent changes in their governing structures leading to the unstable political environment (Shaw, 2011).

Social factors influencing the company states that ‘Samsung’ is a South Korean Chaebol, therefore it is a family-owned multinational. The company has to change the global operations according to the customer’s preferences and the local needs accordingly. Economic factors have a critical impact on the success of the operations of the company. The level of employment and the economic recession play major role in the functioning of the Samsung. The role of technology in the business of the Samsung is very big and the company makes huge investment in the digital technology for better customer service. Samsung has been a major manufacturer of electronic components; therefore, it is a part of the electronics industry, more specifically consumer electronic industry. They manufacture electronic components such as semi-conductors, flash memory, chips, and the hard drive devices for their clients (Chesnotes, 2018). 

Factors affecting working of Samsung

The company is the flagship of the Samsung Chaebol, and the structure in Samsung is centralized, as the lower-level employees do not have authority to take decisions. The company is a family owned multinational company in Korea. The key elements in the organisational structure are formalization, division of labour, span of control, centralization, and decentralization. As these elements play a key role in the effective functioning of the organisation. Samsung has a geographically dispersed structure but the decision-making authority lies with the top-management of the company. The other companies associated with the Samsung include Apple, Sony, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, these are the major clients of the company. In addition, the Samsung owns other companies such as Ad Gear, Nexus, Smart Things, YESCO, and others.

Stakeholders are the key persons in any organisation, whose interests have been influenced by the organisation and who affect the working of the organisation. Therefore, a basic understanding of the relationship between the stakeholders and the organisation is essential, that can be obtained by analysing the Stakeholder theory. The stakeholder theory is a business ethics and the organisational management theory that addresses the values and the morals for managing the organisation. It has been emphasised that in order to become sustainably competitive over time, the executive must focus on the interests and the needs of the suppliers, communities and the government.

(Source: Stakeholder theory, 2008)

Samsung follows a client-centred management approach, thereby meeting their requirements. In addition, the company engages in the activities through conducting shareholders meeting. These help in communicating the management status and issues on a regular basis. Despite the direct impact, the stakeholders hold an indirect impact on the organisation’s reputation. The stakeholder analysis of a company is associated with the long-term reputation and the growth in the future. There is a relationship between the stakeholders and the corporate reputation, as the reputation/image of any organisation is the result of the interaction between the stakeholders and the management (Matuleviciene & Stravinskiene, 2015).

It has been found that the stakeholders have impact on both the financial performance as well as the reputation of the company. Therefore, all the stakeholders in the organisations must be involved for the development of the corporate reputation. It is essential to include them because they can influence the company’s image, reputation and revenue through their decisions, tax and restricting the use of resources. Improved and healthy relations with the stakeholders lead to enhanced corporate reputation. Hence, gaining an understanding of the stakeholder theory contributes to the improved reputation of the company in the corporate world (Chenne, 2018).  

Organisation structure

Stakeholders of the company include media, consumers, government, employees, business partners, shareholders/investors, and the local communities. In an advanced manner, the stakeholders of the company are enlisted with the help of stakeholder mapping. Stakeholder mapping is a collective process to facilitate the research, debate and the discussion that draws multiple alternatives to list a number of stakeholders across the whole stakeholder spectrum. Mapping includes four phases or stages, Identifying, Analysing, Mapping, and Prioritizing.

(Source: BSR, 2011)

To identify the stakeholders primary to the success of the organisation, the company can use the stakeholder mapping process that will help in identifying the list of stakeholders, it is a visual exercise that helps an organisation to identify the stakeholders who are important to the organisation. This process enables to evaluate the potential of stakeholders to contribute towards the organisational goals.

Corporate Reputation theory states that an organisation’s past actions and the expected future performance collectively determines the corporate reputation. Corporate reputation affects organisational performance and vice-versa. Building an effective and positive business reputation requires every organisation to satisfy their customers and stakeholders. The corporate reputation acts like a magnet to an organisation which tends to attract the technical, financial, and human resources (Meaning cloud, 2018).

(Source: Meaning cloud, 2018)

Discussing the corporate repuattion of the organisation, Samsung is recognised as one of the leading brand in terms of reputation amongst top 10 companies. According to the statistical data of the Reputation Insititue survey (RI), Samsung has been ranked among the top three reputed companies in the US. Also, the company focusses towards improving the CSR policies, emphasising on the environment, social values, and philanthropy. The survey designated Samsung as the No. 1 company in the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) that aligns business with the investment values. Corporate reputation strategies of samsung brings about the effective position of the company amongst other companies. Samsung maintains healthy relations with the public and the media and the employee communication is effectively strategised by the company (Lloyd, 2011).

Samsung is one of the leading brands in the electronic industry, and judiciously manages the resources and activities to enhance the company reputation.The organisation manages employees by introducing the training programs, to increase their skills and abilities. Samsung has implemented effective CSR policies, with the vision statement of ‘Global Harmony with People, Society and Environment’, the company aims to create a positive change in the environment for the customers and the society. With the effort towards establishing sustainable development and better quality life (Samsung, 2018).

Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Reputation

In addition, the company initiates in some other programmes, such as education program. Samsung created the smart class program that supports education thorugh their technology and services.Samsung also focuses towards developing sustainable enterpreneurship which is supportive to corporate reputation of the busieness. The firm has adopted a global approach towards involving the stakeholders in the development products and services, thereby imprving corporate reputation (Bohatala, 2018).  

The building blocks of the reputation of the company refers to the internal influences, benchmarks or standards set and the percieved importance by the stakeholders, which constitutes effective corporate reputation of the Samsung.  Corporate reputation has been enhanced by engaging in maintaining high ethical principles. Following ethics and the government rules and regulations the organisation builds the brand image. Samsung involves in maintaing an effecttive flow of communication, to reduce the chaos and confusion regarding work (Samsung life, 2018). To foster better communication samsung uses several media such as print and media advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. Therefore, Samsung communicates to their customers, users and employees in an effective manner (Burton, 2018).

 Corporate reputation and the stakeholders perceptions are linked to each other. Every stakeholder in an organisation assess and interprets the company’s reputation in a different manner. In order to move ahead with confidence and succeed in the future, an organisation must know how it is percieved by the stakeholders.Managing the corporate reputation through the stakeholders is a difficult and challenging process. Stakeholders have huge impact on the reputation of the business, regardless of the extent of their involvement in the organisation. Therefore, different stakeholders of the organisation percieves the importance of reputation in a different manner (Leader, 2015). For the customers a company’s brand image will be effective if they are delivering valuable products and services. There are a number of factors that affect the reputation of the Samsung, internal as well as external factors, such as economic, political, legal, technolgical advanacements and the environmental changes. More importantly, the internal factors affect the company reputation, i.e. resources and the political affairs within organisation. An organisation’s reputation can be improved by improving the social engagement, fulfilling customer needs and the social responsibility (Samsung Newsroom, 2018).  

Samsung is a South Korean multinational, which is situated in Seoul. Therefore,  and the President of Samsung Australia Mr. Harry Lee, is the member of the Korean Association , therefore there is a connection or the relationship between the Australian company and the Korean headquarters (Samsung, 2018).

Analysing the Samsung CSR policies and the stakeholder management, it can be stated the company has a well establiashed management policies, but faced problems in their latest released smartphones. The major implications were related to the better advancement of technology. Although the company effectively communicates the plans and strategies to the employees and reach out the customers well, but there is a room for improvement for the organisation’s long term success. A huge communication failure was noticed in the company regarding the recall of Note 7. Therefore, the company has been is advised to become more open and transparent that would further lead to enhanced reputation and goodwill.

Conclusion

To conclude the above discussion, the company Samsung has been considered as one of the leading brand amongst other companies in the industry. The company has a well maintained organisation structure catering to the needs of the various customers and the stakeholders. Despite the problems, in the technology and the other areas, company has been growing consistently. With the well established CSR policies and the customer satisfaction, there is a wide acceptance of their products and services. This helps in developing and sustaining a better corporate image or reputation ensuring long term survival and success.

References

Academic scope. (2017). Samsung: Background, PEST Analysis, Recommendation. Retrieved from: https://www.academicscope.com/samsung-background-pest-analysis-recommendation/

Bloomberg. (2018) Company Overview of Samsung Electronics Australia Pvt Limited. Retrieved from: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=28384046

Bohatala. (2018). Samsung Strategic Brand Reputation Analysis Report. Retrieved from:  https://bohatala.com/samsung-strategic-brand-reputation-analysis-report/

BSR. (2011). Stakeholder Mapping. Retrieved from: https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Stakeholder_Engagement_Stakeholder_Mapping.final.pdf

Burton, J. (2018). Samsung’s Communication Strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2016/10/197_216407.html

Chenne, S. D. (2018) Reputation management: what is the stakeholder’s role? Retreived from: https://www.businesslive.co.za/redzone/news-insights/2018-01-16-reputation-management-what-is-the-stakeholders-role/  

Chesnotes. (2018). Samsung Pestle Analysis. Retrieved from: https://www.cheshnotes.com/2017/10/samsung-pestel-analysis/

Leader. (2015). 5 Key factors to improve your corporate reputation. Retrieved from: https://www.leader.co.za/article.aspx?s=6&f=1&a=5871

Lloyd, S. (2011). Triangulation Research to inform Corporate Reputation Theory and Practice. Corporate Reputation Review, 14(3) 221-233.

Matuleviciene, M. & Stravinskiene, J. (2015) The Importance of Stakeholders for Corporate Reputation. Inzinerine Ekonomika-Engineering Economics, 26(1), 75–83.

Meaning cloud. (2018). Corporate Reputation. Retrieved from: https://www.meaningcloud.com/products/corporate-reputation

Samsung life. (2018). Stakeholder communication. Retrieved from: https://www.samsunglife.com/companyeng/pdf/2010_SR_eng_stakeholder_communication.pdf

Samsung Newsroom. (2018). Samsung Catapults into the top 10 Reputable Companies in the U.S. Retrieved from: https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-top-10-reputable-companies/

Samsung. (2018). Executives in Australia. Retrieved from: https://www.samsung.com/au/aboutsamsung/company/executives/executive-team/

Samsung. (2018). Vision 2020: “Inspire the World, Create the Future”. Retrieved from: https://www.samsung.com/au/aboutsamsung/vision/vision2020/

Shaw, A. (2011). The Key forces that impact on a Company’s Reputation. Retrieved from: https://www.strategic-planet.com/2011/03/the-key-forces-that-impact-on-a-company%E2%80%99s-reputation/