TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Research Hypotheses
1.6 Research Methods
1.7 Scope and Limitation of the Study
1.8 Significance of the Study
1.9 Organisation of the Study
1.10 Definition of Terms
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Theoretical Framework
2.3 Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Image/Reputation
2.4 Impact of CSR in Community Development
2.5 Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Development
2.6 Economical, Social and
Environmental Factors Influencing Corporate Social Responsibility
(Corporate Social Responsibility) Adoption in Nigeria
2.7 Problems of Corporate Social Responsibility
2.8 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) In Nigeria
References
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Population of the Study
3.4 Sample Size and Sampling Technique
3.5 Data Collection Method
3.6 Data Analysis Method
3.7 Limitations
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Presentation and Analysis of Questionnaire
4.3 Test of Hypotheses
4.4 Discussion of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS OF FINDING, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Summary
5.3 Implication of the Study
5.4 Conclusion
5.5 Recommendations
5.6 Suggestions for Further Studies
Bibliography
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Academics and practitioners have been
striving to establish and agreed upon definitions of the concept of
corporate social responsibility for over 30 years. Davis (1960)
suggested that social responsibility refers to businesses’ “decisions
and actions taken for reasons at least partially beyond the firm’s
direct economic or technical interest.”
Eells and Walton (1961) also argued that
corporate social responsibility refers to the “problems that arise when
corporate enterprise casts its shadow on the social scene, and the
ethical principles that ought to govern the relationship between the
corporation and the society” (p.5).
Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR), a concept that has been around for well over 50
years, has become prominent again recently. Peter Utting (2005) notes
that an increasing number of transactional corporations (TNCs) and large
domestic companies, supported by business and community associations,
are adopting a variety of so-called voluntary CSR initiatives that
incorporate, for example, ‘codes of conduct; measures to improve
environmental management systems and occupational health and safety;
company ‘triple bottom line’ reporting on financial, social, and
environmental aspects; participation in certification and labelling
schemes; dialogue with stakeholders and partnerships with NGOs and UN
agencies; and increased support for community development projects and
programmes’.
Corporate social and environmental
performance have recently been placed under scrutiny by firm
stakeholders; thus, CSR has become a widely-applied concept and is an
increasingly central concern in business decision-making. CSR can be
defined as “situations where the firm 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”. The academic
construct of CSR was first developed in the 1950s, but came to
prominence in the 1970s and 1980s in conjunction with increased public
scrutiny and focus upon the image of the corporation. Increased scrutiny
has also resulted in rapid growth of the number of instruments used to
manage, measure, communicate, and reward corporate social
responsibility.
The scope of activities
included in CSR programmes is wide and subject to debate; however, most
definitions include three key pillars of economic growth, ecological
balance, and social progress. Elements within the framework of CSR
include the adaptation of products and public sector processes to
address social values (such as eliminating excess packaging), valuing
human resources (such as personal development training and Occupational
Health & Safety programmes), improving environmental performance
through recycling and pollution abatement (such as emission reductions),
and supporting community organisations (such as by sponsoring a local
sporting club).
The impact and validity
of CSR has been the subject of ongoing discourse and development. While
most theories focus upon economics, politics, social integration, or
ethics, the perspectives within these areas vary widely. These
perspectives include:
Ø solely focusing on
profit-making, because “few trends could so thoroughly undermine the
very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate
officials of social responsibility other than to make as much money for
their stockholders as possible”
Ø going beyond profit making by examining the impact of business activities upon the social system
Ø going beyond economic
and legal requirements, resulting in an early conceptualisation of
business ethics and corporate citizenship
Ø voluntary activities,
where the marginal return on business expenditure on CSR is less than
the returns available from alternative expenditure
Ø economic, legal, and voluntary activities
Ø concern for the broader social system and
Ø giving way to social
responsiveness, the adaptation of corporate behaviour to social needs,
and corporate behaviour in congruence with prevailing social norms,
values, and expectations of performance.
Some critics according to Carpenter, et al.
(2010) have argued that corporate social responsibility as implemented
by some organisations is mere facade. It is widely believed by many that
corporate social responsibility efforts are mere campaigns by
organisations to promote corporate brands. Many Nigerians are ignorant
of corporate social responsibility; hence, whenever an organisation does
something ‘supposedly big’ for the society, such a company and its
management are eulogized for being caring and philanthropic. Public
sector in Nigeria are expected to manage the impacts of their operations
by adopting corporate social responsibility (corporate social
responsibility) programme. Onwuegbuchi (2009) in his studies on
corporate social responsibility among public sector firms reported that
most public sector in Nigeria embarked on corporate social
responsibility programme for the purpose philanthropic gesture and for
government and public appraisal. He further stated that some public
sector applied environmental and labour standards that suit them to
satisfy basic requirements of the laws of the country.
The Nigerian government should ensure
that public sector’ corporate social responsibility policy entails
self-regulation, adherence to rules and regulations, ethical standards,
environmental responsibility and sustainability, consumers’
satisfaction, employee welfare, communities and stakeholders benefits.
The problems of the environment in which
an organisation operates cannot be ignored. Therefore, there is a need
to examine the problems and prospects of corporate social responsibility
in Nigeria. In its stronger form, the concept of Corporate Social
Responsibility (corporate social responsibility) asserts that
corporations have an obligation to consider the interests of customers,
employees, shareholders, communities, as well as the ecological
”footprint” in all aspects of their operations.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Despite the huge attention recently
given to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria, an area of
concern still remain organisations in the public sector. Most public
sector organisations still do not see any reason for corporate social
responsibility policy acceptability. Companies that reluctantly accepted
and adopted the corporate social responsibility policy, do so for
profit-making purpose.
Another lacking area on corporate social
responsibility is that most of the studies on corporate social
responsibility were conducted on nations with developed economies and
their findings were found out not to be applicable to some developing
nation’s economy like the Nigeria. Therefore, this study will examine
the problems and prospects of corporate social responsibilities in
Nigeria using the public sector as a case study. It is ironic that these
organisations take resources from the external environment and it is
only natural to give back what has been exploited. Unfortunately, this
anomaly is a norm in this part of the globe and this cankerworm can only
be ameliorated through research thesis such as this, publication, media
publicity, campaigns and awareness emphasising the importance of
corporate social responsibility in our society.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The broad objective of this study is to
examine the problems and prospects of corporate social responsibility in
Local Government area. Specifically, the study is designed to:
- Investigate how corporate social responsibility (corporate social
responsibility) influences community reputation in the Nigerian public
sector.
- Cross-examine the difference between level of perceived staffs
patronage and brand loyalty among companies that practices corporate
social responsibility and organisations that do not practice corporate
social responsibility in the Nigerian public sector.
- Analyse how corporate social responsibility adoption influences community development and profitability.
- Assess the economic, social and environmental factors influencing
corporate social responsibility (corporate social responsibility)
adoption among public sector in Nigeria.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The public sector plays a significant
role in the growth and development of the Nigerian economy, and
corporate social responsibility ought to be a voluntary act by the
public sector. It should not have to be forced on organisations by the
law, government, and civil rights groups or by the communities. Social
responsibility should be a deliberate inclusion of public interest into
corporate decision-making and the honouring of a triple bottom line of
people and profit making.
In this dissertation there are four
specific research questions coined after the statement of the problem
and they are listed below.
- Are there differences between level of perceived staffs patronage
and loyalty among companies that practices corporate social
responsibility and those that do not practice corporate social
responsibility in the Nigerian public sector
- What extent would corporate social responsibility adoption influence community development?
- What are the economic, social and environmental factors responsible
for the poor performance of corporate social responsibility (corporate
social responsibility) adoption among public sector in Nigeria?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
To provide empirical answers to the
research questions above, the following research hypothesis were
developed. They are as stated below;
Hypothesis I
H0: Corporate social
responsibility (corporate social responsibility) does not influence
community reputation in the Nigerian public sector.
H1: Corporate social
responsibility (corporate social responsibility) influences community
reputation in the Nigerian public sector.
Hypothesis II
H0: There is no
significant difference between level of perceived staffs patronage and
loyalty among companies that practices corporate social responsibility
and those that doesn’t in the Nigerian public sector.
H1: There is a
significant difference between level of perceived staffs patronage and
loyalty among companies that practices corporate social responsibility
and those that doesn’t in the Nigerian public sector.
Hypothesis III
H0: Corporate social responsibility adoption does not influence community development.
H1: Corporate social responsibility adoption influences community development.
Hypothesis IV
H0: Economical, social and environmental factors do not influence the performance of corporate social responsibility.
H1: Economical, social and environmental factors influence the performance of corporate social responsibility.
1.6 RESEARCH METHODS
This study adopts descriptive survey
method. Therefore, a cross-sectional research design is used to design
the methodology. The premise for this research method is because data
are collected from the population for intensive study and analysis.
More often than not, the research cannot
possibly study all subjects or items in the population. Hence, a
selective random sample from or a subset of, the population was taken.
The reasons for random sampling are;
- Among the elements (public sector in Lagos state) that make up the
population of study there are similarities and therefore a study of few
of these elements will give the researcher sufficient knowledge of what
is obtainable in the entire population study.
- It is cheaper to engage in the random study
- It allowed for quicker results and more thorough research conduct.
- It is practically impossible to consider all elements in this research considering the limited time frame.
The target population for this study
arethe public sector in Lagos State, but due to large number of public
sector located in the State, some selected organisations will be
considered for this study. Primary data will be gathered through
questionnaire administered among randomly selected employees of the
selected companies. The data will be analysed using frequency and
percentage tables and a descriptive analysis will be carried out using a
software package for statistical analysistool.
1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The focus of this research would
encompass the problems and problems of corporate social responsibility
and its impacts. The impacts of social services by corporation shall be
examined in relations to financial performance, employee commitment, and
community development. The study shall focus on the Nigerian public
sector. The perceptions of some key players of the community shall be
sought for the purpose of this research work.
Due to limited time of the study and the
choice of using questionnaire method, this research does not include an
extensive benchmark of corporate social responsibility practices in the
Nigerian public sector, but is restricted to a few organisations
situated in Lagos, Nigeria. Though the study uses vital insider
information from these organisations, confidentiality of names, data,
facts and figures were treated with utmost secrecy and with a caveat.
The reliability and validity of the data can also be verified and contested, but of course that will not be necessary.
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The importance of this dissertation is
not just to analyse the practice of corporate social responsibility but
to understand the current practice, the level of understanding of
corporate social responsibility by public sector organisations in Lagos
state in relation to how it should be. It will explain how corporate
social responsibilities affect the performance of these firms.
The research would also help to explore
the impact of corporate social responsibility on employees’ commitment
to the organisation.What part does the employee play in corporate social
responsibility? Can he influence the decision making process? What is
their level of understanding of the concept?
1.9 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY
Chapter one of the study provides
background of the study, stating the problem of the study and the
research questions and hypotheses to be tested in the study. It also
highlights the significance of the study and scope of the study.
Chapter two reviews related literature
on problems and prospects of corporate social responsibility of Nigerian
public sector. It looks at different authors’ definitions of corporate
social responsibility and its activities affects organizations’
reputation, staffs patronage and brand loyalty. Chapter two examines
corporate social responsibility adoption influences community
development and profitability. How economic, social and environmental
factors are responsible for the poor performance of corporate social
responsibility (corporate social responsibility) adoption will also be
extensively reviewed.
Chapter three discussed the research
methods to be used in designing the study which will include research
design, population, sample size and sampling technique, data collection
and data analysis methods.
Chapter four presents the data gathered
in frequency and percentage tables. The data will also be analysed and
research hypotheses will be tested with chi-square statistical test.
Chapter five summarises the outcome of
the study, draw conclusions based on the findings of the study and make
necessary recommendations.
1.10 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Commitment: Commitment
as defined in this study means when an employee pledges his loyalty to
an organisation. It is an application, dedication or pledge to an
engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action.
Community: Community as
used in this study means a group of people who live in an area where an
organisation operates. They are a group of people having a religion,
race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common.
Social Responsibility: Social
responsibility as described in this study is a demonstration of certain
responsible behaviour on the part of public and the private (government
and business) sectors toward society and the environment.
Performance: Performance is the manner in which an organisation functions, operates, or behaves in the society.
Stakeholder: This study
describes a stakeholder as a person or group with a direct interest,
involvement, or investment in a business organisation e.g. the
employees, stockholders, and customers of a business organisation.
Hypothesis:A hypothesis
is a tentative statement about relationships that exist between two or
among many variables. It is a conjectural statement about relationships
and need to be tested and subsequently accepted or rejected.
Theories and laws: A
hypothesis, if it is true, state a law. Therefore, the hypothesis is a
law like statement. Law is defined as a statement of invariant
relationship among observable or measurable properties.