Abstract

Public Relations (PR) has brought in a new form, Corporate Social Responsibility which is a belief held stating that modern businesses have a responsibility to society to as far as development is concerned.

Even though more spread in Europe and America, Corporate Social Responsibility is quickly evolving in Africa as more countries are beginning to know of its existence and practice it more. Even though the aim of CSR is to help in development, most businesses and institutions use it as a method to boost their sales and create awareness about their existence.

My essay focuses on how MTN uses CSR for sustainable development and if the use of Corporate Social Responsibility affects and influences the public in anyway.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background To The Study

The growth of Corporate Social Responsibility has caused a rebirth in the Agenda setting theory. Scholars are as the days go by interested in finding out those most exposed and those who benefit the most from Corporate Social Responsibility and why this method is used to help the public. Many studies have been carried out on the benefits of Corporate Social Communication to both an organisation and its publics.

Corporate Social Responsibility evolved from Public Relations (P.R).P.R is a set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating favourable point-of-view among Stakeholders on which the company depends(Riel andFombrun,2007).It is the messages issued by a corporate organization, body, or institute to its audiences, such as employees, media, channel partners and the general public.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business/ Responsible Business) is the general belief held by growing numbers of citizens that modern businesses have responsibilities to society that extend beyond their obligations to the stockholders and investors in the firm (Carroll, 2007). In some models, a firm’s implementation of CSR goes beyond compliance and engages in “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law” (McWilliams, Abigail; Siegel, Donald; Wright,Patrick, 2006)(Mc Williams Abigail; Siegel, Donald 2001).

In short, CR prompts a corporation to look beyond its traditional bottom line, to the social implications of its business (Argenti, P.A.2009). CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere that may also be considered as stakeholders.

To better understand the concept of CSR, the three words making up this process should be understood;

Corporate implies that this is about business.

-It not only describes that we are busy with a discipline involving business but goes deeper.

-It is about profits – how we make them and how we can make more of them today and tomorrow.

-It is not about charity.

-It is about building a sustainable business model that will continue to deliver business results for stakeholders – especially shareholders.

Social tells us this is about society.

It is about the impact business has on society and how we can manage this impact to ensure both business and societal benefit. Even the environmental part of CSR is about society – how we can minimize environmental impact to benefit society in the end of the day.

The new developments in CSR – sustainability – further continue to prove that CSR is about a mutually beneficial relationship between product and service development, and societal value chains.

Responsibility reveals that business does carry a responsibility in this world – to do business in a way that benefits both business and society. Further, this responsibility givesbusiness the opportunity to create new solutions to the needs of society. I would even argue that it is their responsibility to develop these new solutions and benefit by capturing new avenues of sustainable profit.

All three concepts—Corporate, Social and Responsibility—tell us exactly what we do today. CSR is also the perfect reminder of the relationship between business and society, and the responsibility they have towards each other. In some cases, CSR is a result of a variety of social, environmental and economic pressures while some other cases many large corporations, it is primarily a strategy to divert attention away from the negative social and environmental impacts of their lives.

It enables the company to leverage its products, employee strength, networks and profits and up to some extent to create a sustainable change for marginalized communities. Despite certain criticisms on the CSR activities, more and more companies in the world are inclined towards corporate social responsibility.

The various practices followed by the corporate in different parts of the world differ significantly. In the developed nations, the basic needs of the population do not need so much support as in the under-developed nations. The demographics, literacy rate, poverty ratio and GDP of the country have significant role in determining the directions of CSR initiatives of an organization.

In the Asian context, CSR mostly involves activities like adopting villages for holistic development, in which they provide medical and sanitation facilities, build schools and houses, and helping villages become self-reliant by teaching them vocational and business skills. This Conference is designed to understand and deal with the unprecedented impacts of CSR on the working population, society and environment and therefore to elaborate the various frameworks for it with a view towards developing its practice in an evolutionary way.

Thus, the meaning of CSR is twofold. On one hand, it exhibits the ethical behaviourthat an organization exhibits towards its internal and external stakeholders (customers as well as employees). On the other hand, it denotes the responsibility of an organization towards the environment and society in which it operates (Naukrihub, 2009).

Much of the early interest in CSR was generated in the United States. Although not much has been written about Africa and CSR, Visser (2008) claims western civilization’s concept of CSR draws inspiration from the deep-rooted indigenous cultural traditions of philanthropy, business ethics and community embedded in Africa.

Unlike the West where CSR is well entrenched, in Africa, the practice of CSR by corporations is still a novel concept and the practice e of CSR is often only attempted by high standing national corporations who possess an established international reputation or who are in the process of building a global identity for themselves (Visser, 2008).

Developing countries as a whole lag behind in CSR research and literature and this shortage is particularly marked in Sub-Saharan Africa.

As said by Peter Duker “The 21st century will be the century of the social sector organization. The more economy, money, and information become global, the more community will matter.” (Corporate watch report, 2006).

In the 1800s, the government in the primary establishment of corporate legislation could take away a firm’s license if it acted socially irresponsible. This was due to corporations being viewed as “creatures of the state” under the law.

The latest evolution of CSR, or sustainability, has taken this concept of business benefit even further and started looking into the future of business and society—the heart of CSR. Sustainability today looks at finding mutually-beneficial solutions to the challenges we face as society as well as future challenges.

Sustainability educator Michael Thomas Needham referred to ‘Sustainable Development’ “as the ability to meet the needs of the present while contributing to the future generations’ needs.”(Snell and Tim, 2005).

Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social and economic challenges faced by humanity. As early as the 1970s, ‘sustainability’ was employed to describe an economy “in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems.” Ainoa, Kaskela, Lahti, Saarikoski, Sivunen, Storgårds, & Zhang, H. (2009). Scientists in many fields have highlighted The Limits to Growth, (Winter, Mick,2007).

The concept of sustainable development has in the past most often been broken out into three constituent domains: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability. However, many other possible ways to delineate the concept have been suggested. For example, distinguishing the four domains of economic, ecological, political and cultural sustainability. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2007).

CSR is a global method of carrying out development .This concretely means that instead of the organisation or institution benefiting from CSR, the community also benefits and so a form of camaraderie or familiarity is established leading to mutual understanding, an aim of P.R.

Recently, 15 European Union countries have actively engaged in CSR regulation and public policy development (Wood, 1991).

Recognizably, the CSR efforts and policies are vastly different amongst countries resultant to the complexity and diversity of governments’, corporations’, and civil societies’ roles. Scholars have analyzed each body that promotes CSR based policies and programs concluding that the role and effectiveness of these actors are case-specific (Knopf, Jutta 2013). Global issues so broadly defined such as CSR generate numerous relationships between the different socio-geographic players.

1.2 Statement of the problem

In light with CSRs vast potential and expectations as an innovative and developmental tool that will replace conventional forms of development, there is a greater possibility of social benefits thereby improving social and economic facilities.  As said by Peter Duker “The 21st century will be the century of the social sector.

As of now, the reality of CSR is no longer a novelty in most countries in the world and Africa. This growth of CSR in Africa and Cameroon in particular is not a mystery to the entire public. Therefor the problem addressed in this research work is to look at to how CSR aids in the development of the society.

1.3 Objectives of the study

1.3.1 General objectives

• To investigate the use of Corporate Social Responsibility by MTN.
• To find out the relationship between MTN and its publics when they carry out Corporate Social Responsibility.

1.3.2 Specific objectives

1. To identify the use of Corporate Social Responsibility to beneficiaries.
2. To know how Corporate Social Responsibility can be improved

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