This Chapter introduces the book. The study on which this book is based was carried out to explore the nature and extent of business-society relations in Botswana. The following general questions guided the study;

· How do business corporations in Botswana define roles in society?

· What are the social issues that business corporations in Botswana are involved in?

· What is the nature and extent of business social involvement?

· What processes are employed by business in their involvement in social issues?

The chapter begins with a discussion of theories relating to the relationship between business and society as a way of contextualizing the case studies. It begins with the classical theories of Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and Theodore Leveitt up to the Edward Freeman’s stakeholder theory. Authors also use different theoretical frameworks and model particular to their disciplines to analyse their findings. The chapter also discusses the key the concepts that have been used to describe the relationship between business and society such as corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, corporate social investment and business ethics.

Before narrowing down to the specific case of Botswana, Chapter One contextualizes the book to the African context. It therefore presents a brief discussion on corporate social responsibility in Africa. Nine countries, namely Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are examples of African countries that are used to provide a comparative perspective. The general picture emerging from the review of literature on corporate social responsibility in Africa is that it is not widely practiced, mainly because of weak legislation.

The Chapter then focuses on Botswana, providing the rationale for Botswana being the focus. This because the economic growth that Botswana has been experiencing since its independence in 1966 not led to meaningful improvement in the wellbeing of the poor. While it is widely acclaimed as Africa’s economic “miracle” it is at the same time, high levels of poverty, inequality, unemployment and high rates of HIV/AIDS prevalence. This necessitates a discussion on the role of business in society to which this book seeks to contribute.

The uniqueness and strength of this book are that it is a product of a multidisciplinary team consisting of members with varied backgrounds including sociology, human resource management, criminology, archaeology and engineering. The contributors employed various research methodologies spanning the qualitative-quantitative divide. Both the composition of the research team and the methods used reflect the complexity of the relationship between business and society.

Chapter Two: Corporate Social responsibility and Strategic Business Planning in Botswana - France Maphosa

Dispite its impressive economic performance, Botswana still faces a number of problems including poverty, high levels of unemployment, inequality and high HIV prevalence. This contradiction demonstrates that the assumption that promoting the development of the private sector will lead to the improvement of the social conditions of the poor is flawed. Although businesses in Botswana generally regard CSR/CC favourably, most of them do not consider it as a strategic business concern. This is evidenced by, among other things, the absence of CSR/CC policies in many companies, general lack of systematic budgeting for CSR/CC and weak integration of CSR/CC into company organizational structures. This shows that voluntary CSR/CC will not bring about real development to society especially to the poor. Given that maximing profit remains the undisputed reason for the existence of any business concern voluntary CSR/CC initiatives will remain just symbolic. Studies have shown that, the world over, social responsible corporate conduct can only be guaranteed by making CSR/CC mandatory through the development and enforcement of CSR/CC regulations by the state. Data for this chapter was obtained from questionnares distributed to a sample of 87 companies drwan from the companies listed on the Botswana Stock Exchage and Business Botswana. The respondents were company representatives. The analysis used the stakeholder approach.

Chapter Three: Corporate Citizenship and Workplace Democracy in Botswana: Rhetoric or Reality? – Langtone Maunganidze

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the contribution of corporate citizenship discourse to labour relations by attempting to reveal the ‘blind spots’ or intended symbolism that exists between workplace democracy and corporate citizenship. The author argues that the distinction between citizenship rights, human rights and labour rights is not clear. There is still a gap between the coverage of labour rights and the much broader coverage of citizenship and human rights. He uses Derrida’s deconstruction theory to point the tensions existing between the rhetoric of corporate social responsibility and reality. One of the major findings of this chapter is the dissonance between the firms’ corporate citizenship behaviours towards communities and the failure to promote workplace democracy. The portrayed images of the firms conceal prevailing inequalities and labour rights abuses in most of these firms. The projected faces of most firms did not match what employees experienced although most firms’ initiatives showed that they recognised people or employees as a key business sustainability pillar. The author asserts that the concept of corporate citizenship is a double-edged sword which can either reinforce or undermine workplace democracy. If businesses are to act in a socially responsible way they must appear to be equally promoting ‘stakeholder’ democracy particularly in the workplace. He argues that despite the growing popularity of social responsibility, corporate citizenship and related concepts, their application has generally left out one of the most important stakeholders of business – the workers. Instead corporate social involvement has tended to target the needy in communities in which firms operate. Data collection was guided by an exploratory sequential ‘mixed’ methods research design. Firstly, qualitative data was gathered through documentary survey of self-reported information as presented through ‘official’ websites, newsletters, and media reports for each of selected firms. Secondly, a cross-sectional survey was conducted as a build-up to the qualitative data. Using stratified random sampling, five managerial and five non-managerial employees or their representatives were targeted for each of the 8 firms from which documentary evidence was available.

Chapter Four: Corporate Citizenship Through Ergonomics: The Case of Diamond Cutting and Polishing in Botswana – Jester O Sealetsa

The author begins by making an observation that many industries in Botswana are increasingly embracing the concept of corporate citizenship, primarily because of the goodwill that they derive mostly from local communities, regulatory agencies and the society in general when corporate citizenship is practiced. Sealetsa however, points out that while the most important asset of any organization is its people many companies tend to devote less attention to the health and safety of their employees. This is because companies are more preoccupied with profit than the welfare of their employees including ergonomics. In the process of making profit, a company should not neglect its responsibility of preventing injuries sustained as a result of the work process. He points out that interest in corporate citizenship in Botswana seems to converge on issues related to business ethics, HIV and AIDS, economic and philanthropic outlooks of the company than on occupational health and safety, particularly ergonomics. Focusing on a case study of a diamond cutting company and using the Corlett Body Map and the Rapid Body Assessment (REBA) tools, Sealetsa found a high prevalence of ergonomic industries such as musculoskeletal disorders including upper back pain, shoulder pain and lower back pain.

Chapter Five: Cultural Heritage Management as Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case of a Mining Company in Botswana – Olivia Nthoi

Chapter Five is based on a case study of a diamond mining company. The author begins by recognizing that historically the mining industry has received a lot of criticism for its poor social and environmental performance and its failure to benefit the communities in which it operates. She asserts that the mining industry has been negligent of the impacts of its activities. However, recently the mining industry has been implementing initiatives meant to address its social and environmental impacts. One instrument used by the mining industry to address its social and environmental impacts is corporate social investments (CSI). While studies show that the impact of mining could be mitigated through, among other things, corporate social investment (CSI), this is rarely addressed in developing countries like Botswana that depend on mining for economic development. The author therefore explores the possible contribution of CSI to cultural heritage resource management (CHRM) in Botswana. She argues that a company’s CSI programme could lead to sustainable cultural heritage management if it empowers of communities for self-sustenance and efficient use of heritage resources. She also highlights that the company’s CSI initiatives are not aligned to government plans but that they can be effective if not only well planned but also aligned to government plans.

Chapter Six: Business Involvement in Crime prevention in Botswana: A Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective – Mecca Gaborone

There is growing global awareness and interest in involving the private sector in the fight against crime. The business sector is increasingly seen as potential partners in crime prevention. Not only does the private sector have the resources but it also benefits from a stable, safe and secure operating environment. Crime is a cost to business as it contributes directly and indirectly to the cost of doing business. Despite this growing realization of the potential contribution of the private sector in the fight against crime there is not much information on how the business sectors can contribute to this effort. Using data from a sample of 28 companies obtained from the membership list of Business Botswana, Gaborone concludes that examines the contribution of the business sector in crime prevention in Botswana as part of its social responsibility. Crime prevention has become multilateralised, meaning that no single agency can deal with the complex issues of community safety. Despite this acknowledgement of their potential to contribute to community crime prevention, the responses of many businesses are haphazard and consist mainly of financial charitable donations. These donations help in the provision of health, education and other social amenities. This has been referred to as a developmental approach to crime prevention. As noted by the UNODC these corporate social commitments promote the well-being of people and encourage corporate pro-social behaviour. Indirectly, the commitments reduce the opportunities for crime and the business sector is better placed than anyone to implement such initiatives. In fact it is their responsibility as corporate citizens. There is therefore considerable scope for rethinking CSR to integrate crime prevention where it has been neglected.

Chapter Seven: Diamond Mining and Corporate Social Responsibiliy in Botswana – Nonofo Mokwakwa

Nonofo Mokwakwa’s study was motivated by his realization of the great pressures emanating internally and externally, on the mining industry to good corporate citizens. The study was a case study of a diamond mining company’s corporate social investment programme. Using document review of publications, company documents and website the author concludes that the diamond mining industry in Botswana has taken a deliberate position to prepare for the future of Botswana and its communities. He argues, however that although the diamond industry has done well in some areas, there are a number of issues that have lagged behind including the sector’s investment in innovation. Most of the technologies being used are considered the best in the world. However it is technology that was developed by utilizing skills and innovations from other countries that cannot be credited to Botswana. The current situation makes Botswana a consumer of innovation, and does very little to improve its prospects as a global leader in developing innovative solutions for prospecting, mining, sorting, cutting and jewelry making. Beyond corporate social responsibilities by individual entities, it is also up to the government to provide the right incentive so that the mining sector finds it beneficial to invest more in research and development locally. It is only this way that mining will leave a long last legacy beyond the direct exploitation of the minerals for Batswana.

Chapter Eight: Rethinking Business-Society Relations in Botswana – Langtone Maunganidze and France Maphosa

The major conclusion of this volume is that there is a clear dissonance between the issues companies emphasize in CSR reports and evidence gathered through survey questionnaires and interviews. Corporations enhance their reputation through favourable CSP, but may also enhance their reputation through CSR reporting. The challenge arises when the projected/perceived corporate identity contradicts with what the stakeholders particularly workers and consumers are experiencing. This results in firms pushing for CSR or CSP initiatives as a way of bringing identity/strategy discrepancy back into alignment whilst preserving the corporate identity. Neither self-legitimising nor adjusting the organizational identity to suit strategy is easy

France Maphosa is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Botswana. His research interests include migration and transnationalism, the sociology of entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, urban and rural livelihoods, labour studies and alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Langtone Maunganidze is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. His research interests include industrial sociology, business and society, rural livelihoods and sustainable development, and entrepreneurship.

This book discusses corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility and business ethics across Africa generally, and Botswana specifically. It begins by contextualizing Botswana within the broader context of Africa, using nine other countries – Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe – to provide a comparative perspective, examining the common factor: that weak legalization makes it challenging for corporate social responsibility to be actualized.

From this background, the book then discusses Botswana as a key study. Botswana has been described as ‘Africa’s economic miracle’ due to its growing economy since independence This puts it in a unique position for the implementation and study of corporate social responsibility. The interdisciplinary team of authors employ various research methods to examine the complex relationship between business, society, corporations and social justice issues.

This book will be valuable reading for any academic working on corporate social responsibility in Africa, and will present an interesting insight to an often neglected area of study.

Krainaksiazek.pl w programie rzetelna firma

Krainaksiaze.pl - płatności przez paypal

Czytaj nas na:

Zobacz:

1997-2024 DolnySlask.com Agencja Internetowa