Lessons Learnt from Corporate Social Investment at PetroSA

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the concept of corporate social responsibility by defining the terms corporate citizens, Socio-economic development, sustainable development, corporate social strategy. Furthermore, it also provides a thorough description about the corporate social investments and analyses the corporate social activities carried out by PetroSA and identifies the gap of communication to the major reason for the inefficient project deliveries.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW1

Background of Corporate social Responsibility1

Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility1

Corporate Citizen3

Sustainable Development6

Triple Bottom Line7

Socio Economic Development7

Sociology and Socio-Economic Development8

Political Science and Socio-Economic Development8

Geography and Socio-Economic Development9

Corporate Social Investment9

Framework for Selection and Implementation of Social Projects11

Community as Stakeholder (Expectations)11

Corporate Social Strategy13

Legal framework14

Socio Labor Plan14

Minerals and Petroleum Act15

Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment BBBEE act15

PetroSA corporate social strategy16

Critic17

PetroSA corporate social policy, procedure and process17

Corporate Policies - pros and cons17

Critic18

Understanding the community18

Conclusion18

REFERENCES20

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Background of Corporate social Responsibility

The idea that business firms should contribute to solve social problems has been around for a long time in many areas of the world, and its acceptance has increased in the last 30 years. During the 1960s and 1970s, the United States experienced many important and radical social changes. Several authors have shown that at that time there was an increased interest of society in topics such as civil rights of minorities, women rights, environmental protection, workers' health and safety, consumer rights, pacifism, etc., and the role of business firms with respect to them. These interests mobilized business people, scholars, governments, civil organizations, etc., in an unprecedented fashion (Freeman & Gilbert, 2004, 111). The CSR movement gained momentum in the United States, and other countries soon followed. This era is usually acknowledged in the literature as the origin of CSR.

Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility

The concept of CSR was criticized by Frederick in an extensively cited 1978 working paper that was finally published in 1994. He argues that the operational meaning of corporate social responsibility (which he calls CSR1) is very vague, difficult to be made to work, without criteria to solve trade-offs between the different responsibilities, and with moral basis that are neither clear nor agreed upon. Instead, Feinberg (2008) proposes the concept of corporate social responsiveness (CSR2), which refers to "the capacity of a corporation to respond to social pressures" (p. 99). This action-oriented approach focuses on the ability to manage the company's relations with various social groups. However, despite its pragmatic orientation, the CSR2 model still fails to guide firms on which problems to address and which priorities to follow (Feinberg, 2008, ...