Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Community Development
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The broad objective of this study is to examine the problems and prospects of corporate social responsibility in Local Government area. Specifically, the study is designed to:
- Investigate how corporate social responsibility (corporate social responsibility) influences community reputation in the Nigerian public sector.
- Cross-examine the difference between level of perceived staffs patronage and brand loyalty among companies that practices corporate social responsibility and organizations that do not practice corporate social responsibility in the Nigerian public sector.
- Analyse how corporate social responsibility adoption influences community development and profitability.
- Assess the economic, social and environmental factors influencing corporate social responsibility (corporate social responsibility) adoption among public sector in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
For many years, community development goals were philanthropic activities that were seen as separate from business objectives. “Doing good” and “Doing well” were seen as separate pursuits. But today, that view has changed. Modern organizations are learning that cutting-edge innovations and competitive advantages can be gained from weaving social and environmental considerations into business strategy. In that process, development of new ideas and the opening of new markets for the next generation will take place. Corporate social responsibility deals with social and environmental issues while business strategy looks at profitability and the survival of the enterprise. There is, however, less clarity about what ‘corporate social responsibility’ actually means. Apart from the novelty of CSR, one of the key problems is the plethora and heterogeneity of actors in the CSR world. The corporate world is not the sole context in which CSR is addressed with different approaches and strategies. CSR also provides an arena for political actors and key players in civil society. It is also top on the agenda of many high-profile political platforms such as the World Economic Forum and other similar international bodies. Furthermore, the burgeoning jungle of consultants on CSR issues, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), various foundations and other activists groups is proof of the topic’s growing profile. And last but not the least, this CSR concern has been pushed further by a growing number of academic institutions around the globe. They have not only produced more literature and carried out more research on CSR but have also contributed in making CSR a central focus in today’s business education agenda (Hennigfeld, 2006).
UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
As one of the ‘new’ key elements to business strategy, and a duty as expected by society in this ever competitive market, Corporate Social Responsibility has several times been discussed by many scholars and practitioners. Many definitions have been given, and some are as follow: Corporate Social Responsibility sees to those management philosophies, policies, procedures and actions that have the advancements of society’s welfare as one of their primary objectives (Boone and Kurtz, 1987). Corporate Social Responsibility is the obligation of decision makers to take actions which protect and improve the welfare of society as a whole along with their own interest (Davis and Blomstrom, 1975). In a seminal article, Carroll (1979, p. 500) presented corporate social responsibility as a construct that ‘‘…encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organisations at a given point in time.’’ In his definition, Carroll argued that these responsibilities are not only performed for the firm’s sake but also for the sake of society at large. This means that organisations by their very existence can be viewed as entering into a social contract that obligates the corporation to take the interests of society into consideration when making decisions (Andreasen and Drumwright, 2001). The construct CSR has four intimately related facets: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic -with organizations striving to achieve all four at all times. Based on these components, a socially responsible firm ‘‘should strive to make a profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a good corporate citizen’’ (Carroll, 1991, p. 43). Conceptualization of CSR (Carroll, 1999) ranges from a wide view of CSR ‘‘as actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law’’ (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001, p. 117) to one that is narrowly focused on maximizing shareholder wealth (Goodpaster, 1991). These conceptual variations reflect different degrees of responsibility ascribed to a firm beyond its role as an economic institution (Hemphill, 1997). For the purpose of this project, the wider societal perspective is adopted, defining CSR as the company’s ‘‘status and activities’’ regarding its responsiveness to its perceived societal obligations (Brown and Dacin, 1997, p. 68) as they also apply to all company stakeholders. Under this definition, a company is obligated to take action to ‘‘protect and improve both the welfare of the society as a whole and the interest of organisations’’ (Davis and Blomstrom, 1975, p. 6)
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to the impact of corporate social responsibility on community performance.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on the impact of corporate social responsibility on community development. 200 staff of Access bank in Kaduna state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the impact of corporate social responsibility on community development
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of the corporate social responsibility on community development.
Summary
CSR has become very complicated and multifaceted. Links between CSR and cost, profit, longrange survival, etc. are not clear. Firms are driven into CSR practices to meet stakeholders, ethical, legitimacy, shareholders and information asymmetry/agency expectations, and in turn gain image/reputation, profit, recognition, risk management and loyalty benefits. To achieve organizational aims and objectives in the short and long run and also to achieve maximum organization performance and effectiveness requires giving full attention to CSR practices. From the foregoing, it is obvious that a lot of studies need to be conducted in African countries on CSR.
Conclusion
In this paper, the author examined corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and the various definitions and perspectives from which individuals and organizations look at corporate giving. The author also shed light on the arguments in favour and against corporate social responsibility activities. On the positive side, people are of the opinion that being socially responsible is good for both the society and the organization executing the social projects and programmes. On the negative side, the most prominent argument against CSR practice is that it is an act of theft from shareholders wealth. Nigerian companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of CSR and the advantages of being a corporate citizen. Companies, such as, Mobil Oil |Company, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Zain/Celtel Company have undertaken various corporate social responsibility projects and programmes in Nigeria.
RECOMMENDATION
The following recommendations are offered to improve the social responsibility performance of organizations operating in Nigeria:
- Corporate firms in Nigeria should make effort to increase their commitment to social responsibility activities such as community projects and environmental protection in order to enhance peaceful and cordial relationship with the inhabitants.
- Management of companies in Nigeria should try as much as possible to be proactive in their approach to social responsibility issues rather than being reactive in order to avoid business distraction from their host communities.
- The management should create a unit or department within their firms that will be responsible for their social responsibility programmes which should ensure that their social responsibility policies are adequately implemented.
- Nigerian firms should try as much as possible to comply with government laws regarding business regulation in the country.
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