دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی گزارش مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکت در بخش مخابرات در غنا - اشپرینگر 2018

Abstract

Many corporations today have come to the realization that there are enormous benefits to be derived from being socially responsible in the societies they operate. Today, the argument is no longer about being a good corporate citizen on the part of businesses but the ability of businesses to communicate their social contributions to stakeholders. A number of mediums can be employed by businesses to report on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to stakeholders: including annual reports; community reports; press releases among others. This study looked at CSR reporting in the telecommunications sector in Ghana, using websites as a disclosure medium. Drawing inspirations from prior studies, this study looked at corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) in five thematic perspectives: environment; human resource; product and customer; community and ethical aspects. Findings from this study indicate that the telecommunications companies in Ghana poorly articulate their CSR issues online. The community involvement category received much attention in their reportage, which supports earlier studies that most organizations are committed to corporate philanthropy. The findings also show that two telecommunications companies have dedicated department solely for CSR (MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana), known as CSR Foundation with separate vision statement, mission statement; objectives; aims as well as independent board different from the mother entities. The study makes relevant contribution in the area of CSRR in the context of Ghana, judging from the fact that the concepts CSR and CSRR are relatively new and also adds literature to a fairly growing area of CSR communications via websites which are fast becoming a medium of corporate communication for corporations in Ghana and beyond.

Conclusions and recommendations

From the forgoing discussions, it possible to argue that engaging in CSR is one thing and proactively communicating same online is another. In this regard, telecommunications companies must endeavor to exist in both “brick-and-mortar” format as well as online. The fact that some of these companies have won CSR awards and have not proactively communicated same could be reflection of what Hinson et al., 2010described as poor synchronization of their integrated marketing communication strategy offline and online. Even though, these companies have not well articulated their CSR issues online, they have not done badly as far as the community involvement theme is concerned, particularly with support for education and support for health. This is consistent with the reason put forward by (Zeghal & Ahmed, 1990), that because company’s websites are targeting many stakeholders including consumers, it is only reasonably plausible that they give much attention to community involvement than any other category. This has the potential of giving the telecommunications companies’ legitimacy in the eyes of the public. The dominant reportage on education and health by these telecommunications companies is only a reflection of the premium these companies place on education and health. This observation is consistent with the findings of Hinson and Kodua, 2012who in their study reported that issues of education and health are important. Furthermore, Hinson et al., 2010assert that the concentration on education and health could be an apparent reflection of what stakeholders perceive as corporate social responsibility. As this could be described as one of the ways of eliciting legitimacy from stakeholders. With the view to coordinating their social investment they embark on, the study revealed that two of these telecommunications companies, MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana have “Foundations” to promote their CSR contributions in the areas they operate. This is in concert with the studies of (Tang & Li, 2009; Hinson and Kodua, 2012; Dashwood & Pupulampu, 2010) who in their respective studies found that companies established “Foundations” to coordinate their social investment. The study observed that these Foundations have separate vision statement, mission statement; objectives; aims as well as independent board different from the mother entity. This is to give bite to the intention of these two companies to prosecute their social investment competently.