Corporate Social Responsibility

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• Corporate Social Responsibility
  • The need for CSR in South Africa
    • Unemployment
    • Poverty
    • Lack of basic needs
    • Education
    • HIV and AIDS
    • Lack of housing
    • Crime
    • Heathcare
    • Environmental concerns
    • Inequality
  • Levels of responsibility in a a business
    • Discretionary
      • The business can implement CSR at their own will
    • Ethical
      • The business needs to be ethical in the decisions it, as a whole, makes.
    • Legal
      • The business needs to abide by the law
    • Economic
      • The business needs to make a profit
  • Pros and Cons of CSR
    • Arguments for CSR
      • Problems in communities - they will leave
        • A business needs to act on problems in the communities they are based in.
          • If not, a community might have a crime problem which will lead to people avoiding the area and less money spent on the business
      • Support from communities
        • A business will receive greater support from the communities they help
      • Future generations - resources
        • Businesses that do CSR ensure that future generations will have the resources to prosper as well
      • JSE
        • It allows for businesses to be listed on the JSE
      • King Code
        • It avoids the policing of the King Code
      • Creativity -> New sources of income
        • Business that have the creativity for CSR projects often have the ability to source different avenues of income
      • Community has more money
        • A business that helps a community will give it a higher level of disposable income
          • This is more potential money spent on the business
      • Seen as ethical
        • A business that does CSR is seen to be ethical to its stakeholders 
      • Help workforce
        • A business that already has programs implemented can expand the programs to help within their workforce
    • Arguments against CSR
      • Greenwashing
        • CSR often leads to the concealing of environmental practices to stakeholders. 
          • This is called greenwashing
      • Less money in the bag
        • Shareholders see CSR as an invalid expense and less money in their pockets
      • Wastage of resources for hit and run projects
        • CSR can be seen to be unsustainable and a business is wasting resources on projects that are just “hit-and-run”
      • Can’t measure whether it works
        • It is difficult to measure whether CSR is actually benefitting the business
      • Lift responsibility from the Government
        • CSR is often said to lift responsibility from governments
      • Adds pressure from communities
        • CSR adds pressure from communities to business for CSR projects to be implemented
      • Detraction
        • CSR detracts from core business activities
  • Definition
    • CSR is about the relationship between the corporate and society and the degree to which the business impacts society
      • The idea is that the business should not just focus on its own profits, but that is has a responsibility towards the people and the environment as well
  • Sustainability
    • A business needs to:
      • Influence suppliers
        • It makes no help for a part of the business to be sustainable whilst the rest is unsustainable
      • Make society sustainable
        • A business needs to give back to the community
      • Make its own operations socially sustainable
        • BEE
        • Empowerment of workers
        • HIV and AIDS
        • Occupational health and safety
        • Trade union involvement
      • Make its own operations environmentally sustainable
        • A business needs to take the concern of the environment into consideration
  • Stakeholders
    • Definition of a stakeholder
      • Someone who has an interest in the business
    • Priority
      • HIGH:
        • If the stakeholder has a high interest and the business has a high influence
          • Employees
          • Shareholders
          • Clients
          • Suppliers
      • LOW:
        • Low influence from the business and low interest from the stakeholder
          • Trade Unions
          • Media
          • Government
  • Designing a CSR project
    • Management must communicate the need for CSR across the business
      • Management needs to create a CSR policy 
        • Management needs to communicate the CSR policy throughout the business to ensure buy-in
          • Management needs to link CSR to business success factors
            • Employees should think and brainstorm ideas for CSR initiatives
              • Inventory and resource list drawn up
                • Implementation of the program
                  • Monitor the projects
                    • Make changes where necessary
  • 7 Principles
    • Idea of corporate citizenship
      • What is a good corporate citizen in the business’s eyes
    • Strategic intent
      • What does the business want to achieve
    • Leadership
      • Offensive CSR
      • Defensive CSR
      • How does the business implement the strategy into everyday business
    • Structure
      • Resources
    • Management
      • Management needs to ensure the resources are there
    • Stakeholder relationships
      • Maintain internal and external relationships
    • Transparency
      • Everything needs to be communicated to stakeholders, even if it is bad news