CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
TO THE STUDY
As
recent as a decade ago, many companies viewed business ethics only in terms of
administrative compliance with legal standards and adherence to internal rules
and regulations. Today the situation is different. Attention to business ethics
and social initiative are on increase across the world and many companies
realize that in order to succeed, they must earn the respect and confidence of
their customers and other stakeholders. Like never before, corporations are
being asked, encouraged and prodded to improve their business practices to
emphasize legal and ethical behaviour, through their employees. Companies,
Professional firms, government parastatals and individuals alike, are being
held increasingly accountable for their actions, as demand grows for higher
standards of Social Responsibility.
Social
Responsibility is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is
a Government Corporation, Organization or Individual is accountable to the
society. This responsibility can be 'negative' in that it is a responsibility
to refrain from acting (resistance stance) or it can be 'positive', meaning
there is a responsibility to act (proactive stance). While primarily associated
with business and governmental practices, activist groups and local communities
can also be associated with social responsibility, not only business entities.
Nevertheless,
the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will be the focus of this
study and its effect on organizational effectiveness will be thoroughly examined.
Corporate social responsibility simply means eliminating corrupt, irresponsible
or unethical behaviour that might bring harm to the business or company, its
people and most especially, the environment before the behaviour is being
portrayed.
The
following are some simple definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Ø It
is the responsibility to profitably serve employees and customers in an ethical
and lawful manner.
Ø It
is an organization’s obligation to maximize its positive impact and minimize
its negative impact on society.
Ø It
is the concern for the consequences of an institution's or a person's act as
its might affect the interests of others including the environment and
involuntary customers.
Ø Also,
it is a concept that businesses should be actively concerned with the welfare
of society at large.
Ø It
is a business's collective code of ethical behaviour towards the environment,
its customers, its employees and its investors.
Ø It
is the responsibility of a responsible agent who chooses to participate in a
society and acquire the benefits thereof.
According
to International Standardization for Organisation (ISO), "CSR is the
action of an organization to take responsibility for the impacts of its
activities on the society and the environment, where this action; is consistent
with the interests of the society and its sustainable development; is based on
ethical behaviour, compliance with applicable law and inter-governmental
instruments and; is integrated into the ongoing activities of the organization"
(Drafted definition of Social Responsibility of ISO 26000).
In
principle, the term CSR refers to the obligations of companies to society; more
specifically, it refers to a company's stakeholder and those affected by
corporate policies and practices. Although, there is a CSR dichotomy between
the "right thing to do" (normative case) and an "enlightened
self-interest" (the business case), executives and companies' reasoning as
they relate to engaging in CSR will likely reflect a mixture of these (Smith
2003: 52-76). Also, CSR principle is concerned with the societal obligations of
business which many organizations agree, but, the nature and scope of these
obligations has been a subject of debate.
In
today's society, a business must maintain ethical principles in order to be
successful. According to Kaliski (2001), businesses can use ethical decision
making to strengthen their business in two (2) main ways. The first way is to
use their ethical decision making to increase productivity by embarking on programs
that employees feel directly enhances their benefits, like, better health care,
better pension program and effective career management among others. So, one
thing that all companies must keep in mind is that employees are stakeholders
in the business, that is, they have a vested interest in what the company does
and how it is being run, since, most employees will be proud to be identified
with an organization that is socially responsible and have favourable
reputation.
The
second way that business can use ethical decision making to strengthen their
business is by making decisions that affect its health as seen by the
stakeholders outside the business environment, that is, customers, suppliers,
citizens and so on. If we were to look at company like Academy Press Pic, their
strong sense of responsibility to the public is well known to be a training
ground. As the company attract student on Industrial attachment and a lot of
citizens in their neighborhood under its apprenticeship training scheme. Not only
does the company train the above mentioned, rather, allowances and other
welfare packages were paid. The company does this as its own C5R initiative by
bearing the training cost and brought itself to people's minds as a training
ground. Hence, it enjoys additional effort these trainees put into its overall
productivity and performance.
However,
these are the two ways in which management of any company can use ethical
behaviour or decision making to strengthen their business and they serve as the
scope to cover when embarking on the implementation of C5R initiative.
The
Importance of CSR to Human Resources Management
CRS
needs to embedded in an organization’s culture to effect a change to action,
attitude and gain the support of the top level communication and implementation
of ideas and policies in order to enhance behavioral changes towards the ethics
and culture of both the organization and society at large. It is the role of HR
Manager to influence attitudes and link line managers with the top level
management which mean that it is ideally placed to play the same role with CSR.
HR
is also responsible for the key systems and processes assisting effective
delivery. Through HR, CSR can be given credibility and aligned with how
businesses are run. CSR could be integrated into HR process through employer
brand, recruitment, appraisal, retention, motivation, reward, internal
communications, diversity, coaching and training.
HR
has a key role in making CSR work. CSR without HR runs the risk of being
dismissed as PR or mere "window dressing". Hence, effective CSR
initiative gives HR Practitioner better opportunity of having good strategic
focus and act as a business partner.
The
way a company treat its employees contribute directly to its being seen as
willing to accept wider responsibilities, build credibility and having trust in
them. This is increasingly seen as important by employees, especially when they
choose who they want to work for. People, especially younger generation, don't
want to work where there is a clash with their personal values. Present and
future employees are placing increasing value on the credibility of an organization’s
brand. Employers are using the positive aspects of their brand in recruiting,
motivating and retaining highly-skilled people.
Finally,
companies need to co-ordinate their CSR activities and demonstrate their
commitment to it. Effective CSR depends on being seen as important throughout
service delivery and not rhetoric, which is required by the stakeholders in
developing trust in organization.
The Risk of HR's
Involvement in Implementing CSR Initiative
As
good as it is necessary that the HR department in an organization should be
involved in implementing CSR initiative, an extensive caution should be ensure
as a result of the risk involved in the process.
The
trust built through successful CSR is hard to regain if lost. HR needs to
ensure that their organization’s social responsibility can stand up to the
inevitable scrutiny by stakeholders, and that Training and Effective·
Communication
with regards to the best ethical behaviours expected, are embedded in the organization’s
culture.
HR
needs to be an active business partner working with other functions, for
example, finance, sales & marketing
and so on. It will need to look beyond the boundaries of usual practice and
arguably work on its own PRO CSR is a strategic opportunity which is market-led
and is restrained by bureaucracy. It must be dynamic, creative, and imaginative
and even create better opportunity.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF PROBLEM
Corporate
social responsibility has become a subject of debate in virtually all organizations
among members of management. While, some view it as a cost and a diversion from
the corporate goals, others view it as a tool to organizational effectiveness
and corporate survival.
As a
result, two schools of thought with divergent views of social responsibility of
management have emerged. They are the Classical and the Socio-economic school
of thoughts.
The
Classical school of thought is of the view that the only social responsibility
of Management is to maximize profit since the only concern of owners is the
financial return. Milton Friedman is an advocate of this school of thought. The
believe of the advocate of this school of thought is that they see Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) as a cost which could hinder the accomplishment of
any organization’s main objective - Profit Maximization. Thus, the proponent of
this school of thought against investment in CSR.
The
Socio-economic school of thought is of the opinion that the responsibility of
Management is both to make profits and to protect and improve the welfare of
the society. Although, this school also agrees that there are some cost
associated with CSR, hence, the proponent of this school are of the view that
management must accept not only some social obligations, but also, the cost
that goes with them so as to maximize their financial returns in the long run.
It
is in the light of the aforementioned problem drawn from an extensive study and
in an effort towards achieving organization effectiveness, in terms of
increasing productivity and corporate survival, through CSR that this research
will be undertaken.
The
Research tries to investigate if CSR could really serve as a tool of achieving
organizational effectiveness, using Academy Press Pic as a case study.
The
study shall deal extensively in validating whether CSR is a cost or benefit to
an organization.
1.3 PURPOSE
OF STUDY
The
main purpose of this study is to determine if an organization’s Social
Responsibility initiative could serve as a tool to achieve organizational
effectiveness. However, the following could also serve as the purpose of this
study, viz;
i.
To examine the benefits derivable from
investing in CSR.
ii.
To examine if the fair treatment of
stakeholders in organization is compatible with increasing productivity and
corporate survival.
iii.
To examine if CSR serves as a proactive
strategy to societal demands or complaints.
iv.
To make appropriate recommendations.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The
research study shall provide answer to the following questions;
i.
Is Social responsibility a tool for Organizational
effectiveness?
ii.
Can CSR give any long-run benefit to an organization?
iii.
Is CSR capable of keeping an organization
on-going?
iv.
Can CSR help an organization to attract and
retain competent staff?
v.
Can CSR help an organization to improve its
productivity level?
1.5 RESEARCH
HYPOTHESES
The
hypotheses to be tested in this study are;
Ho: There is no relationship
between social responsibility and Corporate Survival
Hi: There is relationship
between Social responsibility and Corporate Survival
Ho: There is no relationship
between Social Responsibility and Workers' Commitment in an organization
Hi: There is relationship
between Social Responsibility and Workers' Commitment in an organization
Ho: There is no inverse
relationship between CSR and the Hostility of the people.
Hi: There is inverse
relationship between CSR and the Hostility of the people.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
This
research work will be beneficial in many respects to all organizations -
Academy Press Pic in particular. It will help the organization to know that,
embarking on Social responsibility initiative among other factors will enhance organizational
effectiveness, corporate survival and reduce the rate at which stakeholders
become hostile to an Organization.
The
study will also gear up the HRM department of the need to advise Management
accordingly on the issue of social responsibility and to whom Management should
be socially responsible to. Also, it will enhance other researchers in similar
field.
1.7 SCOPE
AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This
study is about the effect of
Corporate Social Responsibility on organizational effectiveness. It thus,
focuses on the importance of ethical behaviour, if imbibed in them, which often
times brings about employees' commitment, reduces stakeholders' hostility,
develop best social initiative and finally enhance organizational survival.
The
limitation of this research study will be subjected to financial constraint,
time insufficiency, inaccessibility to foreign materials among others.
Also,
the extent to which the organization in which reference will be made in this
study is secretive and the numerous numbers of people the research study will
cover, in terms of organization’s stakeholders, serve as limitations of the
study.
1.8 ORGANISATION
OF THE STUDY
The
study begins from chapter one in which the background to the topic in question
is being dealt with states clearly some of the objectives, significance purpose
and likely problem of the study and the rest of this study proceeds as follows;
chapter two briefly reviews the pertinent Literature and Theoretical framework
for this study; chapter three encompasses the Methodology of the study, while
chapter four is the Data Analysis using Chi-square. Finally, in chapter five,
the Summary of the Findings as well as Recommendation for further research and
conclusion will be examined.
1.9 DEFINITION
OF TERMS
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: - It is a social obligation beyond legal and
economic obligation, for an organization to pursue long-term goals that are for
the benefit of the society. It is an obligation put up by organization in order
to give back to the society from which it sources its inputs.
SOCIAL OBLIGATION: - This is the
obligation of management directed to meet its economic and legal responsibility.
ORGANISATION EFFECTIVENESS: - This
as to do with harnessing the available resources to achieve the best result
which leads to increased productivity, faster decision making, less internal
conflict.
ORGANISATION PERFORMANCE: - This
refers to the effectiveness of the organization in fulfilling its purpose.
CORPORATE SURVIVAL: - This is a process of
coping with the strength and exploiting the opportunities open to an organization
by defining its vision and mission and devising strategies towards their
accomplishment.
PR: - This simply means Public Relations as
used in the context of this research work.
HR:
- As
used in this research work, it means Human Resources Management as a
profession.
Login To Comment