CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL IMAGE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The purposes of any establishment are profit maximization increase in productivity as well as individual image protection through effective management of material executive. This made the executive began to question their views about business success and administrative difficulties. Corporate Social responsibility (CSR, also called Corporate Conscience, Corporate Citizenship, or Responsible Business) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Corporate social responsibility policy functions as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures is active compliance with spirit of the law, ethical standards and international norms. Corporate social responsibility goes beyond compliances and engages in “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interest of the firm and that which is required by law”. Corporate social responsibility aims to embrace responsibility for corporate actions and to encourage a positive impact on the environment and stakeholders including consumers, employees, investors, communities and others. The term “Corporate Social Responsibility” became popular in the 1960s and has remained a term used indiscriminately my many to cover legal and moral responsibility more narrowly construed.  A more common approach to corporate social responsibility is corporate philanthropy. This includes monetary donations and aid given to non-profit organizations and communities. Donations are male in areas such as the arts, education, housing, health, social welfare and the environment among others, but excluding political contributions and commercial event sponsorship. Another approach to corporate social responsibility is to incorporate the corporate social responsibility strategy directly into operations. Procurement of fair trade tea and coffee.

In the Nigeria Society corporate social responsibility has been a highly contemporary and contextual Issue to all stakeholders including the government, the corporate organization itself and the general public. The public contended that the payment of taxes and the fulfillments of other civic rights are enough grounds to have the liberty to take back from the society were fragrant pollution of the air, of the water and of the environment. Most corporate organizations are concerned about what they can take out of the society and de-emphasized the need to give back to the society (their host community). Generally speaking, corporate social responsibility, whether in the banking sector or otherwise refers to a collection of policies and practices linked to relationship with key stakeholder’s values, compliance with legal requirements and respect for people, communities and the environment. According to the European Commission, CSR involves companies integrating “social and environmental concerns into business operations and in their interaction with stakeholders on a voluntary basis”. The key to this definition lies in the word “voluntary”.

According to Nigeria social enterprise Report Vol.2, corporate social responsibility is generally understood to be the way a company achieved a balance or integration of economic, environmental and social imperative while at the same time addressing shareholders and stakeholders expectations.  It went further to say that corporate social responsibility is generally seen as the contribution of business to sustainable development which has been defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”. In Nigeria, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) (2008) approved the development of a CSR policy for the country, to instill ethical behaviour in Nigeria businesses. The minister of National Planning Commission, Dr. Sanusi Doggesh, who gave details of the memorandum, said it referred to the adoption of responsible business practices by organizations to improve the society at large. He said the policy would include beyond law commitment and activities that would necessitate an expectation to give back to the society. He reiterated that the policy would ensure corporate governance and ethics, health and safety, human rights, human resource management, anti-bribery and anti-corruption measures. One reckons that the policy formulations will take note of similar global policies that might point Nigeria in the direction of developing a viable CSR policy. Freidman stated that “companies should not take on any additional responsibilities since that will diminish the profit making focus and maybe most importantly. Companies lack both the democratic and legal base to pursue such societal activities (Andriot and McLntosh, 2001:15). Others argue that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a “fashionable nonsense” (Over all, 2002:2). However, corporate social responsibility programme has brought development that benefits many local communities  in the Niger Delta, corporate social responsibility has the potential of both positive and negative impacts Yuodolo, 2009:536) that is, most of the benefit local communities enjoy from the corporate responsibility programmes  of shell come at a cost to the local communities.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Like many of management and social science concepts, corporate responsibility and organizational image is fraught with definitional problems which makes it difficult for a uniform platform to assess firm’s responsibilities to it. Musa (2008:540) conceives a firm as nothing other than an instrument for achieving economic efficiency cost reduction, and this wealth maximization, which is the view of the classical economists.

Since a lot of companies see corporate social responsibility as a financial burden. This study investigated the benefit accruable from the adoption of corporate social responsibility strategy by companies using Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Uyo as a case study. The basic questions had been what relationship exists between corporate social responsibility and organizational image. In which key areas of operations should the organization formulate corporate social responsibility strategy? What specific ways has the organization adopted in integrating the corporate social responsibility strategy with its operations? And how can the corporate social responsibility strategy improved upon in other to improve the organizational image and performance. Investment on corporate social responsibility and organizational image are wise investments, yet, there are many organizations in this country which regard corporate social responsibility as expensive ventures and avoid them like the plaque to this other opposes this practice, and they see corporate social responsibility as a widely accepted problem solving.

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The broad objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between corporate social responsibility and organizational image in companies in Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Uyo and using it to draw a relationship between corporate social responsibility and the growth and development of companies. Derived from the above broad objectives are the following specific objectives.

1.       To identify the relationship between corporate social responsibility and organizational image.

2.       To identify the key areas in which Julius Berger Nigeria Plc formulate their corporate social responsibility strategy.

3.       To examine ways Julius Berger Nigeria Plc integrated corporate social responsibility strategy with the organization operation.

4.       To identify how corporate social responsibility strategy can be improved upon in order to improve organizational image.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In an attempt to achieve the objectives states above, the following questions were formulated.

1)      To what extent has the corporate social responsibility and organizational image as strongly influenced the performance of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc positively?

2)      In which key areas of operation have Julius Berger Nigeria Plc formulated it corporate social responsibility strategy?

3)      What methods have Julius Berger Nigeria Plc adopted in integrating the corporate social responsibility strategy with its operations?

4)      How can Julius Berger Nigeria Plc improve its corporate social responsibility and organizational image in order to improve its performance?

1.5     RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

An hypothesis in research may be said to be statement of fact needed to be proved or tested in research however, our concern is to find out whether there is relationship between the independent variable and dependent variables. Thus the relevant null hypothesis (Ho) couple with the alternative hypothesis (Hi).

Ho1:  There is no significant impact on corporate social responsibility on the growth of organization.

Ho2:  There is significant impact on corporate social responsibility on the growth of organization.

1.6     SCOPE OR LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study focuses on corporate social responsibility and organizational image in Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. It addressed the effect of corporate social responsibility has in the performance of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. The researcher investigates the key areas in which Julius Berger Nigeria Plc formulates its corporate social responsibility strategy, ways in which the strategy could be integrated with organization’s operation and how the  corporate social responsibility could be improved upon, believing that its findings could also be applied to other organizations.

However, the researcher was constrained by a number of limited factors such as;

Finance: As a result of the limited financial resources at the disposal of the researcher, the research study was limited to only members and the staff of the organization in Uyo branch; likewise, this is quite noticeable in the number of questionnaires administered.

Co-operation: Lack of cooperation by respondent also constitutes the major impediment of the research study. Most of the data needed for the research work were not made available and as a result of findings or this research report was limited to only the data made available to the researcher.

Limited Time: The period require for the completion of this academic exercise is rather too short to carry out a more encompassing research study, particularly in big organization like Julius Berger Nigeria Plc.

Facilities: Lack of adequate facilities may delay the researcher to carry out a research, these may longer the fastest stead in an organization that means without appropriate facilities the organization may not be going well.

1.7     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Corporate social responsibility is a fundamental issue that needs to be addressed in order to ensure any organizations long term success. This study will be of immense benefit to students, privately owned businesses and public corporations. Specifically, this study will be of great significance to directors, managers and executive officers in all business organizations. The study will also be beneficial to government agencies and research fellows.

For directors, managers and executives officers in business organizations, the study will help them to discover the true essence of corporate social responsibility, its working principles and how it can be used to enhance organizational image both on short and long term basis. The study will help them determine how to work in harmony and to operate their businesses within ethical standards. For policies relating to corporate social responsibility and organizational activities, thereby determining areas requiring improvement. Finally, students, including research fellows will find the study very beneficial in the area of future studies and referral reports. Moreover, the study will also attempt to draw attention of other oncoming researches to the problems of corporate social responsibility.

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

Corporate Social Responsibility: Is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workplace and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

Organizational Image: Is the perception that different people hold of an organization. Such perception can have different sources depending on how well people know the organization. Some perception derives from individual experiences and impressions of the organization and others are influenced by the marketing and communication activities seeking to influence the image of the organization.

Image is important in an organization; it has the ability to attract and retain relationships with it various internal and external constituencies. Organizational image is used differently in marketing and organization studies, although image in general concerns perception held by multiple external “others” about the organization within marketing, image has been used to analyze how consumers perceive the organization and its product.

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