Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility on organizational performance. Over the years the corporate social responsibility has not being fully integrated by organization. The research carried helps us to see how this can be better managed. Primary data is used which is being collected from surveys and questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis is done using the statistical package for social science and MS Excel. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. 86.79% of the respondents do support that philanthropic activities has a role on organization performance.83.0.2% of the respondents do support that economic activities has a role on organization performance, 89.68% of the respondents strongly agreed that legal responsibilities has constructive effects on organization performance. It can be concluded that corporate social responsibility activities in firms cannot operate in isolation from other elements of the business. It is important that all the functional area strategies and capabilities, including full support from management in order to be consistent with the business unit goals and strategies.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Since the middle of the twentieth century, the concept of corporate social responsibility has become very paramount to the development of world economy. This evolution of corporate social responsibility has helped business organisations to change their ideology from profit maximization only to social problems that bother on the environment of operation. Although, there may be a lot of questions as to why businesses do exist some could say that businesses were formed for profit maximization, while some others could say for profit making as well as contributing to the host community (Secchi, 2007; Lee, 2008). With this development, it has become imperative for both service and manufacturing companies like MTN to chart a new course of action.

By so doing, overcome the challenges that lie in allocating a corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach that meets government and social standards and to achieve compliance with informal CSR guidelines related to social economic and environmental responsibilities (Ms, 2013). It is important to note that the CSR approach cannot be complete without recognizing responsibilities it has to employees’ performance, customer satisfaction, tax payment to government and services rendered to the host community. These obligations show that the MTN and NB Plc have complied with legislation and voluntarily taken initiatives to improve the well-being of their employees and their families as well as that of the host community and society at large (Maimunah, 2009). However, the integration of these corporate social responsibility elements (employees’ performance, customer satisfaction, payment of taxes and host community well-being) can help to influence company’s profit, increase sales, returns on investment and savings in a positive note. If this goal has to be realized, then much needs to be done to make both service and manufacturing firms in Cameroon aware of social responsibility as an integral part of their business activity. To this end, firms should deal with the challenges and issues that affect them and other stakeholders by setting clear objectives, incorporating corporate social responsibility into their activities, as this could help to build long-term benefits to the firm in a particular environment and country in general.

In general, it is said that a company needs to be responsible for all the action they do, ethically and socially. It is necessary to check the effect of the organisation on the social welfare and environment. Corporate social responsibility can also be defined as the sense of responsibility of the organisation towards social environment and community.  It helps to understand that what actually company is doing with their profits and how they are affecting the society. As with the growing factor in the economy and advancement in business strategies the organisations are not only accountable to share holder but also to the stake holders such as supplier consumer employees and community, etc. It is basically a partnership between the business corporations and socially active groups for the purpose of society development and community growth. The emerging perspective on corporate social responsibility is not to emphasis on shareholder perspective by maximization of profit but is to focus on stake holders view point (employees, customer, supplier, management and community) and for their welfare.

In real sense the corporate socially responsibility is the coalition of business operation with social standards. Nowadays the business corporations and organisations are more interactive with the societies than ever before. Corporate social responsibility is an integral part of the business corporations as it not only provides support to beat the business competitor but also provide help to grow the business in the society. So by focusing on the financial success and community growth, the company can increase it performance rapidly as compare to their competitors.  According to researchers and authors, talking about ethics is a crucial to the development of business success so now a day ethics got huge attention and numbers of books published in last 2 decades. Individual efforts and government efforts are not enough to bring change in the Society. But with the increasing esteem and popularity of CSR more and more companies are playing an important role in growing societal values and community development regarding environmental policies, human rights and business ethics.

Now companies are paying equal attention on the social and environmental focus as well as financial performance. Some companies are operating CSR much more than their lots of business opponents. As the companies practicing CSR, build good reputation in the market and attract more job seekers and costumers, which lead to increase in organisational performance (Viswesvaran et al., 1998). On the other side then, by practicing CSR, the company get successful in increasing the customer loyalty, job satisfaction and business performance.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Over the years, the concept of corporate social responsibility has not been fully integrated by the firms in both the service and manufacturing sector. The argument is that there exists a systematic approach in allocating costs, whether for investment or societal well-being (Kanwalet al, 2013). They rather see their involvement in corporate social responsibility as the function of the culture of the firm, size and stakeholders demand (Kanwalet al, 2013). It is pertinent to note that in developing countries like Cameroon where consumer education awareness is low, with little or no organized pressure group put in place, there is difficulty in the demand of full implementation of the concept of corporate social responsibility by society or institutions. A good number of managers of these firms in Cameroon, including MTN, tend to demonstrate poor attitude towards corporate social responsibilities. There is every possibility that corporate social responsibility when measured, the bottom line is a problem as social and environmental programs are hard to account for with regard to information gained. Thus, little empirical studies have been carried out in this area of service and manufacturing firms in Cameroon. This study, therefore, is aimed at examining the effect of corporate social responsibility on organisational performance.

1.3 Research Questions

The main research question is what the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on organisational performance?

The specific research questions are as follow;

1. What are the effects of donation activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon?
2. What are the effects of norms and behaviour activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon?
3. What are the effects of investment activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon?
4. What the effects of consumer protection rights activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The main objective is to analyse the effect of corporate social responsibility on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon

The Specific objectives are as follows;

1. To examine the effects of donation activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon
2. To evaluate the effects of norms and behaviour activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon
3. To analyse the effects of investment activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon
4. To examine the effects of consumer protection rights activities on organisational performance of MTN Cameroon

1.5 Hypotheses of the Study

H1: Donation activities significantly affect organisational performance of MTN Cameroon

H2: Norms and behaviour activities significantly affect the performance of MTN Cameroon

H3: investment activities significantly affects organisational performance of MTN Cameroon

H4: consumer protection rights activities significantly affects organisational performance of MTN Cameroon