NIKE Women: Future is Women

Introduction 

Civic engagement is a collective action that is specifically meant to identify and manage the problems of greater public concerns. Further, it can be considered as the citizens working as a group with an aim to bring about a strategic transformation within the entire society. In most instances, it entails members of the communities working together within the political activities in addition to various sectors of non-political functions (Pava & Krausz, 2013). The other primary objective of civic engagement is to promote the overall society’s quality. The concept of civic engagement has recently assumed an increasing significance as a way to reverse the balkanization of people’s interest in addition to the massive disintegration of the communal life. In the contemporary world, civic engagement has been widely applied in various contexts ranging from the community to business development. 

A. Efforts: 

The most suitable cultural awareness and civic engagement efforts in which Nike will be involved in is “NIKE Women: Future is women.” It is considered as a unique slogan that the company has had while at the same time reemerged as an empowering statement defining the direction of Nike. It is evident that this will help clarify the position and role of women in the society who have for many years been facing criticism and attacked in the male-dominated society. According to Christens (2012), rigid and obligatory sexual and gender binaries have been adopted for a long time to repress and deny women their human rights and humanity. Others believe in an all-encompassing, extended in addition to the fluid impression of gender idiom, identity, and feminism. Using this cultural awareness and civic engagement, Nike will support efforts at liberating women and fighting against, domination, oppression and violence (Christens, Peterson, & Speer, 2011). The organization will emphasize on the concept that “The Future is Women” should be the past, the present and the future of Nokia Company. One of the major strength for Nike is that is it is one of the competitive global companies with a slogan approach of “Just Do It.” The slogan will create an epitomized brand hence winning customer’s loyalty and attitude. First, it is important to note that Nike was established specifically to produce shoes for all people who can walk or run hence this can be considered as the company’s guiding principle which will significantly help influence the company’s decision to focus on the effort of future of women. 

With increased women participation in civic engagement, Nike will help foster an environment that will significantly foster a political atmosphere that has effectively sustained peace through community outreach and grassroots mobilization. According to Christens (2012), women will be empowered through increasing their self-confidence; widen their professional and social networks in addition to the understanding of the structural challenges that currently faces the society. Examples of primary skills that women will be able to acquire through civic engagement include the following: consensus building, grassroots organization, advocacy, constituency outreach, networking in addition to coalition building. In ensuring that all women from various socio-economic backgrounds are in a position to significantly contribute to the betterment of the society, it is important that the organization put measures in place that will help to address various economic and social barriers that have historically been preventing women from actively participating in the most important political activities. 

There is also the need to support different mechanisms that are believed to be critical in encouraging women inclusion in the political activities including food and water, child care, transportation to and from their meeting location. Therefore, it can be argued that civic participation will present women with greater opportunities to transform the society significantly. Through such an engagement, women can actively take part in the community, identify critical challenges and address them quickly. According to Christens (2012), civic-minded individuals often see themselves as members of the larger society’s fabric and enhance their collective responsibility to shape the society for the better. Studies have shown that through engagement process, people are in a better position to see themselves as an important part of the larger community where there is an enhanced civic judgment. Further, it implies the attainment of the democratic values of responsiveness and democratic values with the process of policy formulation. 

B. Alignment: 

The cultural awareness and civic engagement, “NIKE Women: Future is women” clearly will be aligned to the company’s values, mission, and vision. It is evident that Nike’s mission has been evolving w over time and today, it accurately represents the situation of the firm. Studies have pointed that Nike’s vision statement also has remained as a matter of assumption taking into consideration the data’s paucity from the company with regards to its corporate vision. According to Christens (2012), factoring in the proposed civic engagement, the mission statement will state the general course of action that will facilitate achievement of the efforts. 

The vision statement will give a clear depiction of the prospective stipulation of this effort to empower women and encourage their participation in various matters in the community. It is critical that the entire workforce is subjected into a pro- civic engagement argument which is precisely based on the organization’s culture, beliefs and core values. In motivating the employees to embrace civic engagement program, the company management must be able to critically think about ways civic engagement actions to foster women acknowledgment and ensure that it dovetail mission, vision, and values (Christens, Peterson, & Speer, 2011). 

Nike has not openly published any official vision statement, but in its place, the firm vision statement for corporate social responsibility is considered as an excellent approximation. Therefore, the CSR vision statement for Nike, Inc. is as follows, “to help Nike, Inc. and our consumers thrive in a sustainable economy where people, profit, and planet are in the balance.” Based on this vision, the concept that aims at creating a sustainable economy applies to the effort towards the future of women. According to Christens (2012), through empowering women in the society, the company would help improve sustainability. Through integrating critical information from all the company’s stakeholders, rethink the mistakes and processes will enable the company to successfully continue implementing the sustainable principles that will facilitate building on the future of women efforts. Such information will greatly help the firm to adopt vital changes in their industry and within the company to ensure that they adopt and implement this effort. 

Nike’s mission statement is as indicated: “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” The mission statement also aligns to the effort focusing on the future of the women where it will promote women inspiration and innovation by encouraging them to take part in various activities that would improve their position in the society. Nike’s mission further asserts that each including the women is an athlete. The firm holds onto the notion that provided one has a body, and then he or she is an athlete. The mission clearly defines the innovation, inspiration that will help determine the position of women in the community. The company will greatly inspire women to effectively adopt a winner mindset as outlined in the enterprise’s mission. 

The company’s values are formulated by the strategy teams whose focus is to ensure that work repeatedly on every part of the vision, environment, culture and community to ensure that they keep Nike in line towards attaining the goal of the company (Uslaner & Brown, 2005). It is evident that the business value will be strategically aligned to the future of women where they emphasize on the culture and community, and this will be extended towards defining the women’s position in the organization and the society. 

C. Impact: 

When the organization achieves a strategic alignment of the cultural awareness and civic engagement efforts with corporate mission, vision, and values there are higher chances that this will significantly influence corporate exposure and profits. Evidently, women working within the company will feel fully engaged, and this will profoundly affect their willingness to learn and perform better. Studies have shown that cultural awareness has the potential to bring about a positive impact on the organization’s bottom line. According to Christens (2012), through cultural awareness and civic engagement, individual within the company will be willing to volunteer in various ways to improve the organization’s performance which will also be felt in the lives of other people both locally or internationally. Based on a report by the UN, ordinary citizens are often shown to volunteer their time, skills and energy with an aim to improve the manner they are governed and at the same time engaged at the global, national and even at the local levels. Good governance at all levels both locally and nationally is one of the pre-requisite for company growth and development (Christens, Peterson, & Speer, 2011). 

Civic engagement will result in successful operation of Nike Company. It is evident that it will also lead to a responsible organization’s reputation, which will evidently position the company in a strategic position to compete effectively with other giant companies. Nike will be in a position to achieve the competitive advantage within the industry which will be reflected regarding their return on investment (Uslaner & Brown, 2005). In most instances, employees and consumers often prefer working and dealing with organizations that take into consideration issues affecting the community which in this case is women position. As a responsible company, Nike will experience increased sales volume which will further translate into increased profits and revenues. 

Further, civic engagement will help to reduce costs of operation of Nike regarding reducing the cost of retaining employing and retaining competent and skilled employees. Nike will thus be able to attract and hire the qualified and competent workforce. Besides attracting top qualified employees, the company will also retain these employees hence cutting the cost of recruiting and training the new labor force. According to Christens (2012), when working with a responsible company like Nike, employees will get motivated, and this will influence their concentration, interest, and productivity leading to increased profitability. The organization will be able to engage their employees concerning employee volunteerism successfully. Nike will also sponsor and facilitate opportunities for the female employees to work within their communities as proud representatives of the employers and do great works that they feel excited about, create highly tangible impact and at the same time wear the organization’s brand. Studies have further established that strategic employee volunteer programs are vital to the success of the company where they play a critical role regarding satisfying the corporate goals, the needs of the community and overall employee interests all at ago. 

According to Christens (2012), corporate volunteerism opportunities meant to create an environment that defines the future of women at Nike is important to the workers particularly in the millennial generation which has turned out to be one of the most significant elements of the employees. Studies have established that approximately 79 percent of the millennial have been reported to be more willing to work for an organization that will care for the women since this will positively contribute towards the society. The majority of the employees who are given the opportunity to choose between two job offers are likely to choose the employer that will encourage civic engagement. 

Alignment of the cultural awareness and civic engagement efforts with corporate mission, vision, and values will help to develop better and highly creative ideas and solutions that will benefit Nike and position them strategically in the global market as an organization that takes into consideration community problems. They provide greater creative ideas and solutions that have will continuously affect the operation and presence of Nike. According to Christens (2012), in the process the leaders who are in charge listen to the citizens, then there is a higher chance that they will be equipped with critical knowledge and informed on the community’s needs and this will facilitate better decision making. It is essential that the officials who are elected by the community to communicate with the citizens to have a better understanding and failure to attain this, there might emerge increased level of suspicion, turmoil and even reduction of the public trust (Uslaner & Brown, 2005). The aspect of one volunteering his or her time to various community’s’ projects is considered as the major factor that helps to support the growth of the entire community, and this will create a positive image for the company. Further, it has been shown that civic engagement helps to increase the social capital which entails the resources that people or a group of individuals derive from a given relation of the mutual acquaintance, cooperation, and recognition. 

Civic engagement will enable Nike to develop a highly and positive relationship with members of the community and their authorities which will result to smooth business operations will be achieved. Implementation of civic engagement will ensure Nike remains highly competitive and minimize potential risks of the organization’s reputation damage. This effort will contribute towards improving the society both for social benefits and for the company to earn efficient gains. When the company adequately addresses women social issues in their production, then their productivity will improve which will in turn increase profitability (Christens, Peterson, & Speer, 2011). 

Conclusion 

The essay has analyzed cultural awareness and civic engagement efforts at Nike Company and its critical significance to the operation and success of the company. From the above analysis, it is evident that civic engagement plays a critical function in the community in many ways and this case, it helped defines the women position in the society. Based on this analysis, it has been shown that civic engagements assist in the achievement of better decision making, influence the organization return on investment, sustainability, and the community served by the business. 

References 

Christens, B. D. (2012). Targeting empowerment in community development: A community psychology approach to enhancing local power and well-being. Community Development Journal , bss031. 

Christens, B. D., Peterson, N. A., & Speer, P. W. (2011). Community participation and psychological empowerment: Testing reciprocal causality using a cross-lagged panel design and latent constructs. Health Education & Behavior , 38 (4), 339- 347. 

Pava, M. L., & Krausz, J. (2013). The Association between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: The Paradox of Social Cost. In Citation Classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 579-623). Springer Netherlands. 

Uslaner, E. M., & Brown, M. (2005). Inequality, trust, and civic engagement. American politics research , 33 (6), 868-894.