Introduction CSR
Introduction CSR
Introduction CSR
ASSIGNMENT 02:
Introduction
citizenship, social responsibility or responsible business; the CSR is one of the most
important business ethics qualities for an organization to become successful. The importance
of social responsibility as said by many business owner is that it can decrease any undesirable
characteristics towards an organization image. In the business ethics, there are four levels of
social responsibility which include- economics, legal, ethical and philanthropic. The
all about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive
impact on society; a voluntary approach that a business enterprise takes to meet stakeholder
expectations by integrating social, ethical, and environmental concerns together with the
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The CSR spells out organizations commitments towards society and is a measure of
the organizations social responsiveness. Social responsibility refers to the overall way in
which a business attempts to balance its commitments to relevant groups and individuals in
its social environment. Social responsibility is a related concept that addresses the overall
way in which a business attempts to balance its commitments to relevant groups and
individuals in its social environment. CSR refers to business practices involving initiatives
that benefit society. A business’s CSR can encompass a wide variety of tactics, from giving
awareness of issues and learn from experience, we need more international exchanges and
summarizing and dissemination of cases. We cannot solve all problems ourselves. But we can
open up the door and listen to experience from all other countries.
To enable the relationships between these variable and CSR to be analysed the study
used simple comparison techniques plotting the data on the different axis to graphically
represent the relationships. Too often, executives have viewed corporate social responsibility
as just another source of pressure or passing fact, but as customers, employees and suppliers
– and indeed, society more broadly-place increasing importance on CSR, some leaders have
while contributing to society at the same time. They view CSR as central to their overall
strategies, helping them to creatively address key business issues. According to Pohle and
Hittner (2008), “Corporate Social Responsibility is the way companies manage their
and social actions. Liz Maw, CEO of non-profit organization, “Net Impact” noted the CSRis
becoming more mainstream as forward- thinking companies embed sustainability into the
core of their business operations to create shared value for business and society.
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Sustainability isn’t just important for people and the planet, but also is vital for any business
success. Corporate social responsibility has attained a high profile in the academic world; it
has also achieved prominence in business debates due to the pressure groups and also the
“improving staff welfare and work environment, embracing transparency and accountability
responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities
in the environment, consumer, employees, community’s stakeholder and all the members of
the public sphere. For small businesses, ethical issues are questions of individual ethics, but
in questions of social responsibility, they must ask themselves if they can afford a social
agenda. Many businesses pursue corporate social responsibility activities that can best be
termed pet projects (is an individual or collaborated enterprise, possibly involving research or
design, that is carefully planned, usually by the project assigned team, to achieve a particular
aim), as they reflect the personal interest of individual senior executives. What impact has
the CSR had on society? It has taken a critical form on looking at its role on development in
the recent years. Well this is because of what has been seen to be a failure of our
effectively improving the lives of the poorest around the world. By engaging in CSR the
Kenya airline benefits through increased visibility thus enhancing its corporate image. It has
also gained a competitive edge in the turbulent environment, in which it operates and has led
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to gradual expansion and growth beyond Kenya over the years. With the expansion, the
customer base has increased tremendously, this being due to its ability to attract new
customers and retain the loyalty of their already existing customer list.
Around the world, there are various ways that organizations go about CSR with some
Through this model, companies are encouraged to contribute 1% of their product, 1% of their
equity, and 1% of their employee hours back to the communities in which they operate. But
the most common model in Kenya is the budget allocation in the Public Relations
Department. Corporate social responsibility therefore has become a “new” public relations
outlet that Kenyan companies are using to build stronger ties with the community where they
operate in as well as strengthening the ties with their partner organizations and other
stakeholders. In the case of my colleagues former work place, “being a good corporate
citizen” was a deliverable by the Public relations docket. The department was tasked with
finding, evaluating, managing end to end engagement and produce a report on the
organizations. A corporate social responsibility policy was developed by the department that
would focus on issues in the community where the organization can be able to leverage. The
cases and leverage revolved around; 1. Tech; the nurturing keynote speaker, internship,
and global money week. 4. Community; every community in the area doing business provide
the will to impact the community, be sustainable lasting footprint and were within the “tithe”.
The “tithe” was a unique concept to approach funding of the CSR projects, the communities
and the partner organizations to involve. The ‘tithe’ dictated that a percentage, 5%-10% of
every product/service sale was set aside by the organization to go back to the community
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where the organization the company that bought the product/service hails from, this would
not only strengthen the organization ties with the new partner but also introduce the
organization to the community as well as paint the partner in good light with the community.
With the Extent of CSR achieved in Kenya by the business community, Kivuitu and
Fox (2005) provide some insights into CSR in Kenya. Although the term is relatively new,
the notion that business that has responsibilities to society is well established in Kenyan
Society. Kivuitu and Fox assert that there already exist many initiatives that may be described
as Corporate Social Responsibility. The notion of CSR is most commonly associated with
justified by the belief that companies should ‘give something back’ to the societies in which
respectable means of buying off stakeholders to accept their operating practices” (Hopkins,
2007, p. 175). Corruption is a major obstacle to achieving CSR in Kenya. However, the
trajectory of CSR has been influenced by civil society organizations campaigning against
poor labour practices and environmentally damaging production processes in the export
sectors, such as cut flowers, horticulture and textiles (Dolan et al, 2005; Kivuitu and Fox,
limited.
Rather, CSR-related organizations including Ufadhili and the Sisa Center for
Corporate Partnership are raising the profile of CSR at the national level. Multilateral and
bilateral development agencies are also leading CSR initiatives. For instance, Kenya has been
selected for the UN Global Compact/UNDP ‘Growing Sustainable Business for Poverty
Reduction’ initiative (Kivuitu and Fox, 2005) and more than thirty national companies have
joined the Global Compact Kenya network (UNDP, 2007). In addition, Kenya is attracting
foreign investors who have already established CSR practices. The CSR initiatives of these
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companies provide a benchmark against which companies in Kenya develop and measure
their CSR. CSR in Kenya may therefore be homogenous with Western notions of CSR.
Kivuitu and Fox (2005) highlight the need to localize the CSR agenda, and for there to be a
Kenyan CSR.
Businesses increase their operations in Africa which has its own challenges in
development, it needs to be in a sustainable way that both brings long term profitability and
sustainable development
Most banks of today, have manage to impact the different communities, for example
at National Bank they understand that they have a responsibility to their society and have
made a CSR an integral part of their business a culture. To underline their deep commitment
of making a difference in people’s lives, they are guided by an existing policy and the Bank
commits a substantial budgetary allocation each year to CSR initiatives. The Bank’s CSR
efforts focus on a few key areas. Environments, the Bank rolled out a campaign across the
bank’s branch network with a target to plant and sustain over two million trees all over Kenya
by 2017. This was a part of their contribution to national development and improving the
wellbeing of communities where they do business. Their efforts aim to increase Kenya’s
forest cover to the desirable standards and protect the environment from present and future
generation. Health; National Bank has been keen to the efforts to reach out to the sick and
unfortunate members of the society and so they are working to complement the efforts of the
governments in provision of better healthcare. The Bank offers long term solutions to health
care all over the country through the construction of health facilities, donation of machines
and equipment’s for government hospitals. Education; everyone knows that education is the
backbone of development in a country and therefore the Bank has been a key player in
support of educational initiatives that raise the standards of education. The bank has aided
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schools in the construction of classrooms, laboratories, sanitation facilities and provision of
Provision of text books to Milimani Secondary school and Friends Secondary School in
Mugomari and chairs and lockers to Awendo Primary School and Kamagambo Day
Secondary School. Construction of a sanitary block and a water tank in Thindigua Primary
School, Kiambu and donating water tanks to Makunga and St. Phillip Yago mixed secondary
schools. We have also donated computers to various schools across the country in order to
improve computer literacy in schools. Finally, the bank has continued with the school’s
trophy programme to reward performance in academic and sports in various schools and
institutions of higher learning. To reach the less fortunate members of our society, the bank
undertakes a number of initiatives aimed at improving the living standards of these members.
In 2012/13, the bank donated basic amenities like food stuff, double decker beds and
beddings to Bishop Luigi Locati Children’s home and Joy-Land Special Secondary school.
During the Christmas Festive season the bank donated gifts to the Soweto Good Samaritan
Orphans and Destitute Children’s Centre and the Mama Fatuma Goodwill Children’s Homes.
Organizations with a reputation for corporate social responsibility take advantage of their
their value proposition for potential candidates. It is also found that when employees view
their organization`s commitment to socially responsible behaviour more favourably, they also
tend to have positive attitudes in other areas that collate with better performance. They
believe their organizations recognizes and rewards great customer service, act quickly to
address and resolve customer concerns, and are led by people in senior management who act
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in the best interest of customers. To share the negative consequences as a result of
business and behaving more ethically because it’d be “unfair” to agitate the community they
are in.
Through CSR the existence of corporations in the social system is felt beyond a perception
that corporation is a place just to get employment and producers of goods and services.
Organizations with a great CSR reputation can take advantage of their status and strengthen
their appeal as an attractive employer by making their commitment part of their value
International organizations participating in CSR in Kenya help communities gain when they
train their people and or bring technologically advanced solutions to problems in the
the flow of human resources; the flow of public-sector technology support; and the flow of
private technology.
benefit to society and community in preserving the latter’s rights towards reaping healthy
environment; a social capital that is beneficial to the organization and the community.
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f. CSR for human rights
The United Nations have launched the “Global Compact” – an initiative to convince
of human rights (UN Global Compact, 2009). Being the world's largest voluntary corporate
responsibility initiative, the UN Global Compact is also seen a strategic policy for businesses
that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies within the areas of human
The close link between a corporation and community is another aspect of CSR role in the
An organization can for example sponsor a program that trains, equips and educates
An organization can sponsor the erecting and installation of light towers or police posts in
slum areas and other areas with a high crime rate and it’ll not only benefit the police force but
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In conclusion corporate social responsibility is about business, government civil
society collaboration with bottom line is the achievement of a win-win situation among the
three payments. The roles of corporate social responsibility refer to the ways the responsible
behaviour is perceived by the community of stakeholders and how impacts are felt by them. It
is also concluded that the skills needed by corporate social responsibility managers do vary
due to the diverse disciplines involved and also the complexity of the roles and
qualifications required for this field. Because field is new, transferrable skills and knowledge
transfer of technology, human resource management and community development are valued.
In short, the skills required by managers are classified as business skills, people skills and
technical skills; and the specific skills required are further determined by the mission and
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Reference
DEVELOPMENT
http://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/cilt2/sayi9pdf/ismail_maimunah.pdf
http://www.safaricom.co.ke/annual_report_2010/pdf/csr.pdf
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National Bank of Kenya Corporate Social Responsibility
http://nationalbank.co.ke/corporate-social-responsibility-csr/
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/csr-in-kenya-factors-that-affect-
business-community-business-essay.php
http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/making-the-most-of-
corporate-social-responsibility
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-
responsibility.html#sthash.kEU6mnS9.dpuf
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