Michaels Stores, Inc. Case Study

The last dimension discussed is the environment. The scores for environment are quite close and even exceed that of other sustainable businesses. Jury (2015) indicated that Michaels Stores Inc. is an arts and crafts store, most of their products are made from paper and there might be other products that contain substances that will be harmful to the people if not properly disposed. Therefore there is a facility where products from paper and cardboard are disposed of properly. Also there is a company that comes in to take away harmful chemicals and dispose of them accordingly.
First and foremost, it is important to note that Michaels Stores, Inc. does not measure or publish any CSR reports even at the corporate level, this therefore makes it

almost impossible for CSR to be implemented at the ground level. No firm whether big or small is likely to do anything about CSR except the board of directors, CEO, senior management or owners recognize that some sort of CSR-related problem, opportunity or challenge exists (Hohnen, 2007).

According to Chalmeta & Palomero (2010) if company wide standards are created at the corporate level and communicated across all levels, then the behaviour of management will change towards implementing this newly fostered attitude and guidelines into business operations, additionally there will be an increased awareness regarding CSR activities. As previously discussed, the main aim of the audit report is to identify areas of opportunities and improvement for the Michael Stores, Inc.

Time frame for the short-term strategy implementation is between 2-4 months.

In order to successfully implement CSR in the store, the following recommendations has to be taken into consideration:

An important factor for the successful development of a CSR framework at the corporate level is to ensure that the framework can be easily merged with the daily routines of the store. In the Siemens case that was studied in class, putting the company back in order had to start from the corporate level and with the individual in charge of corporation – the CEO. Therefore, in order to implement CSR at the store, the initiative has to come from the corporate level, however the store here in Nanaimo can assume a key role by developing and testing new CSR practices.

The store should also create a mission & vision statement within the next two months to show its CSR directions and what the store hopes to achieve over a certain period of time. The statement should be designed specifically to suit the features of the store & Michaels brand to ensure that it does not fade. It is also important that the mission & vision statement is communicated to the employees in the store and at the corporate level; this will create a certain level of buy-in and interest of other

stores.

The store should conduct a thorough CSR assessment of the firm’s core values and ethics and also gather relevant information about the firm and pressure points (key CSR issues that are affecting or could affect the firm) for CSR actions.

There should be a team of staff members spare heading the CSR activities in the store. Asking interested staff members to volunteer to be part of the team will encourage staff members to form the team willingly without any pressure whatsoever.