Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / The oil industry has been a major contributor to economic development in many countries; providing jobs, revenue, infrastructure and businesses to third parties. However, this development has also come with adversity on the physical environment. The oil industry accounts for the highest Green House Gas (GHG) emissions in the world, making it the number one polluter. In addition, South Africa has been regarded as the biggest polluter in Africa, with fossil-based fuel cited as the major cause of environmental degradation. South Africa’s physical environment is also cited as having degraded more than most countries in Africa. This proposition requires players in the oil industry to urgently address this situation. As the future of economic development is likely to be spearheaded by the oil industry, concerns have been raised at the slow rate of addressing oil companies’ operations which causes the environment to be less sustainable. This study uses a qualitative content analysis to explore the oil companies’ actions towards addressing environmental adversity caused by their unsustainable operations. In order to be environmental sustainable, oil companies must; incorporate environmental sustainability into missions and visions, financial investment into sustainable initiatives, involve top management in environmental programs, engage stakeholder, comply and align organisational processes and operations with environmental legislations and introducing renewable energy.

Research (e.g., Strike, Gao, & Bansal, 2006) has pointed out that international firms diversifying geographically can be both socially responsible and socially irresponsible. However, the research has failed to provide a strong theoretical explanation based on a major theory. I propose to address this gap by testing two competing perspectives based on institutional theory, i.e., the institutional-transfer approach and the institutional-void approach. Based on relevant literature, I propose a contingency model predicting the different effects of geographic diversification (GD) on corporate social performance (CSP) by focusing on the institutional differences between developed and developing countries. Moreover, arguing that the institutional approaches should also consider the effects of internal firm resources, I also predict the moderating effects of firm slack resources (the slack) on the relationship between the diversification and CSP. Adopting the approach that considers the slack in a continuum of managerial discretion, i.e., low- and high-discretion slack resources (George, 2005), I argue that high-discretion slack can strengthen the relationship between GD and CSP while low-discretion slack can weaken this relationship. To test the above hypotheses, I analyze the data of multinational enterprises (MNEs) listed on the New York Stock Exchange from 2000 to 2015. The whole sample contains 477 MNEs or 1,560 firm/year observations. Through analyzing empirical data, I have obtained evidence that there is a positive relationship between GD and corporate social responsibility (CSR) when MNEs diversify into developed countries. On the other hand, the results show a negative relationship between GD and CSR and a positive relationship between GD and corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) when MNEs diversify into developing countries. Moreover, low-discretion slack can weaken the relationship between GD and CSR in developing countries. Theoretically, this thesis makes four contributions to the literature. First, it contributes to the GD literature by focusing on CSP. Second, it enriches institutional theory by testing the predictive validity of its two approaches (i.e., institutional-transfer approach and institutional-void approach) on the GD-CSP relationship. Third, it enriches the understanding of CSP research. Finally, it reveals that different types of slack resources could affect the GD-CSP relationship. In addition to the theoretical contributions, this thesis provides findings with practical implications for managers, governments, and stakeholders. First, managers should be aware of the institutional environments where their firms diversify. Second, managers should maintain an appropriate utility to different kinds of slack resources in their firms. Third, the government should reinforce its supervision on MNEs' diversification strategies, especially in developing countries. Fourth, stakeholders should stay alert that MNEs from developed countries can also perform CSIR behaviors.

The implementation of environmental management accounting (EMA) in Mittelstand companies is an uncharted area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the ways, benefits, and disadvantages of implementing EMA in such companies. The choice of the approach and method depended on the following reasons: As the observed phenomena took place inside a company and depended on the attitudes of its members, an interpretivist and qualitative research approach was used that regarded a company as a socially constructed entity. The research was executed with a top-down deductive method starting with a literary review (on Mittelstand-like companies using EMA), and leading to hypotheses concerning the research aim. These assumptions were tested in a qualitative case study using a German Mittelstand company from the printing industry. To this end, the study used the company’s files, personal notes from management meetings, and interviews with experts from the focal company offering the deepest insight in the focal company. The analysis found two different results. Mittelstand companies will have trouble with implementing EMA. However, after having done this, they will only experience benefits and no disadvantages. During the EMA implementation there will probably be delays due to lacking expertise, conservative attitudes, and disturbed channels of information among the staff. However, these obstacles can be overcome with external experts guiding the EMA implementation, and with financial resources to pay them. EMA will then enable a Mittelstand company to track the flows of hazardous and harmless physical entities alike and its associated environmental and conventional costs. With this information the strategic management accounting (SMA) will be able to reduce these costs, to develop eco-friendly products, and to increase its resource efficiency, profits and competitiveness. In a Mittelstand company EMA should therefore be placed at the interface of proper accounting and SMA. FCA, ABC, flow cost accounting, input/output analysis, and EBSC seem to be the optimal methods to track and analyse a company’s physical flows and its related conventional and environmental costs. The former cost type depends on the quantities of the resources, with the latter one depending on the production of waste, the excessive use of water, wood, fuel, electric energy, hazardous chemicals and the process they are used in. To capture these costs it is best to use a set of primary metrics (reflecting the quantities of the resources) and secondary metrics (focussing on the flows and dangers of these resources). Measuring environmental costs of hazardous substances is difficult, since the production processes they are used in depend on chancy circumstances like accidents. Instead, it is also possible to use an EMA that only calculates the amounts of wood, water, waste, fuel, and electric energy needed for the use of hazardous substances. After multiplying these costs with a numerical and empirically obtained factor, the related environmental costs can now be measured both accurately and easily. Such a simplified EMA seems to be a promising method for Mittelstand companies with low technical skills.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has had a devastating effect in the world, as it is now rated as the world’s greatest killer since its appearance in the mid 1980s. A UNICEF Report (2005) states that sub Saharan Africa is the hardest hit with countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique having an average of one in every five adults being infected. Sub Saharan Africa has less than 3 percent of the world’s population but it has an estimated 65 percent of the world’s population living with HIV/AIDS as it has 26 million of the 40 million infected people worldwide. In May 2003 the Government of Zimbabwe declared HIV/AIDS a national emergency a move that seems to have yielded results as the HIV prevalence rate has come down from 26.1 percent to 18.6 percent in 2005 and further to 15.6 percent in 2007. The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (2004) states that if the prevalence had continued at 26.1 percent, about two thirds of today’s 15- year-olds would die from this disease. The deterioration of the political, social and economic situation since 1999 and the withdrawal of donor development support due to policy differences require concerted efforts from all parties concerned, now, rather than later. More commitment must be shown by private and public sector organisations to active participation in the establishing of effective workplace programmes, to assist employees, for the pandemic has placed a heavy strain on the health delivery system, as AIDS patients occupy between 50 percent to 70 percent of all hospital beds. Furthermore, the pandemic is killing the youth at the prime of their working careers so the pandemic, while being a health problem also has a negative macro-economic impact which may lead to a developmental crisis. A study was conducted of six organisations, using two questionnaires, one for management and one for non-management level employees. The study investigates whether the organisations had HIV/AIDS programmes and whether such programmes were effective. The findings were that all six organisations had HIV/AIDS programmes in place. However, some of the programmes were not effective because the employees did not know of their existence. Furthermore, it was found that management initiated awareness programmes and made condoms available but the employees were not changing their risky behaviour.

Esta pesquisa tem como tema principal a responsabilidade social empresarial e sua relação com a ética, delimitada na dimensão interna das empresas. O principal referencial teórico é a obra do filósofo alemão Hans Jonas, intitulada O princípio responsabilidade: ensaio de uma ética para civilização tecnológica. O objetivo é analisar em que sentido a teoria de Hans Jonas pode contribuir para fundamentar o comportamento da gestão interna de empresas, com o intuito de abrir caminho para a sua legitimação como organizações socialmente responsáveis em prol do desenvolvimento sustentável. O estudo se dá a partir da análise da evolução conceitual do termo responsabilidade social empresarial; através da qual se tenta justificar por que a instituição empresa tornou-se objeto da responsabilidade social ao longo do tempo e por que a ética converteu-se em elemento fundamental à compreensão de um significado para o termo. A responsabilidade social empresarial é historicamente requerida artificialmente por meio de um contrato. Mas o contrato não tem dado conta de regular com eficácia o poder que emana dos avanços frenéticos da ciência e da tecnologia. Nesse sentido, a dimensão ética aparece como uma esperança na tentativa de colocar-se uma limitação ao uso desse poder, sob pena de a humanidade ser conduzida a um futuro trágico. Assim, é apresentada uma interpretação analítica do princípio responsabilidade de Hans Jonas, permitindo uma compreensão da sua ideia em relação ao conceito de responsabilidade e da razão de tê-la colocado no centro da ética. O princípio responsabilidade é formulado como um imperativo ético que visa o controle do poder tecnológico, a fim de evitar as previsíveis morte essencial humana e destruição física da humanidade. Trata-se de uma responsabilidade naturalmente assumida em respeito a um fim supremo: a preservação da vida e da essência humana. Antes de concluir, são elencados alguns pressupostos, para que a instituição empresa possa ser considerada socialmente responsável, dentre os quais, a dimensão econômica, vista como um meio e não como um fim. Ao final, analisa-se em que sentido o princípio responsabilidade pode ser interpretado como um referencial ético ao comportamento da gestão interna das empresas, para que essas possam vir a assumir sua verdadeira responsabilidade social a partir daí, com vistas ao desenvolvimento sustentável. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-02-05T16:20:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Fabio Andre Frizzo.pdf: 1458306 bytes, checksum: 93d5c61f2d2d7d4b48da2d91dcd438e2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-05T16:20:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Fabio Andre Frizzo.pdf: 1458306 bytes, checksum: 93d5c61f2d2d7d4b48da2d91dcd438e2 (MD5) / This research has as a main topic the corporate social responsibility and its relationship to ethic, delimited on the internal dimension of the companies. The principal theoretical reference is the work of the German philosopher Hans Jonas, entitled The Imperative of Responsibility: in search of an ethics for the technological age. The objective is to analyze in what sense the ethic theory of Hans Jonas can contribute to a foundation to the behavior of the internal management of companies, with the purpose is to open the way for his legitimation as a socially responsible organizations for sustainable development. The study starts from the analysis of the conceptual evolution of the term corporate social responsibility, whereby it tries to justify the reason that the company became the object of social responsibility over time and why ethic has become a fundamental element to understand a meaning for the term. The corporate social responsibility is historically artificially required by a contract. But the contract has not been able to regulate effectively the power that emanate from the frenetic advances in science and technology. In this sense, the ethical dimension appears as a hope in trying to put a limitation to the use of that power, under penalty that the humanity will be led to a tragic future. Then, is presented an analytical interpretation of Hans Jonas The Imperative of Responsibility, allowing an understanding of your idea relative to the responsibility and the reason that the author puts it the center of ethic. The responsibility principle is made as an ethical imperative which seeks the technology power in order to avoid the predictable human essential death and humanity physical destruction. It is a responsibility naturally assumed in respect to a supreme end: the preservation of life and the human essence. Before concluding, some assumptions are listed in order the company can be considered socially responsible, among which the economic dimension seen as a middle and not as an end. At the end, is analyzed in what sense the responsibility principle can be interpreted as a reference to the ethical behavior of the internal management of companies for what these ones might assume its real social responsibility from there, with a view to the sustainable development.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Public Relations Management in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / This study investigated how the KickStart project, a flagship project of Kgalagadi Breweries Limited (KBL), has contributed to KBL’s reputation. The research sought to understand the aims of the project and to examine whether KickStart’s objectives are aligned to KBL goals. It also discusses stakeholder engagement and youth perceptions about the project, paying attention to the ways these factors seamlessly contribute to KBL’s reputation. The study was framed around the epistemological assumption that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of major companies is essential for addressing social problems within local communities and for building mutual beneficial relationships. However, these companies often exclude communities in their CSR programmes, or the programmes fail to meet the needs and expectations of the communities. These factors often impact negatively on the image and reputation of the companies involved. This is a case-study of the KBL project-KickStart and uses a qualitative methodology to glean empirical data. The research methods include a questionnaire and interviews administered to 16 participants selected from KBL, Botswana National Youth Council, the Department of Youth, and youth who have received financial assistance from KickStart. A questionnaire were also administered to another youth group that received financial support under the Youth Development Fund, managed by the Department of Youth. An analysis of documents such as media reports and the Sechaba Breweries Holdings Limited past annual reports were made. Observations were also made during visits to youth businesses while the questionnaires. The literature on theories of CSR and the responsibilities of business provided the conceptual and theoretical framework for this research. This body of knowledge attempted to tease out the main responsibilities of business, namely economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities and bring them to bear on the main focus of the project. Stakeholder theory provided the main theoretical thrust for this study because it highlights the multiple relationships that a company has with business partners, employees, government, suppliers, consumers, and communities, and that they all have expectations in terms of how a company should behave, and dictate what acceptable behaviour is. The value of involving stakeholders in CSR programmes will enhance a company’s reputation if communities are happy with the programmes; they will buy the goods and services procured by the company and recommend the company to others, employees will be motivated, and the company’s productivity levels will increase thus increasing profit margins. Suppliers will be happy to do business with the company. Businesses, to fulfil their mandates, enter into several relationships with key stakeholders who are prioritised according to their power, legitimacy, and the urgency of the issues at hand. Key findings from the study are that the aim of the KickStart is to empower youth to manage sustainable projects and create employment to improve the well-being of communities. KickStart is a flagship CSR programme of KBL, opening opportunities for the youth through development of their entrepreneurship skills. Its objectives are to support the government to address unemployment among the youth and facilitate sustainable economic development. The youth perceive KickStart as a good project; it offers them financial support, business management training, and a year’s mentorship to sustain their businesses. They acknowledge the contribution KickStart makes to uplift their lives and identify with the KBL brand, which positively reflects KBL as a good company. Stakeholders are important; they must be involved in CSR programmes and their concerns and issues should be considered for the success of the programmes. KBL has limited its stakeholder engagement to internal stakeholders namely, the trustees and the project manager, and externally the media and judges. Collaboration with the youth organisations will give credibility to KickStart whose target audience is the youth. While acknowledging limited stakeholder engagement, the CSR implementation framework is recommended for KBL to streamline and prioritise key issues around the high unemployment among the youth, identify key players to be involved, and specify what their contributions should be in addressing the problem.

Thesis (MTech (Sport Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / This research investigated the relationship between Social Capital created by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and organisational performance at Ajax Cape Town FC a professional football club in the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL). A mixed methods approach was selected for data collection and interviews, questionnaires and content analysis were the tools used to collect data.The data collected suggested that Ajax Cape Town FC employed CSR initiatives that successfully created social capital, and consequently enjoyed various benefits from these activities. The CSR activities facilitated access to the club’s target market, developed and improved mutually beneficial relations with the community and subsequently Ajax Cape Town FC experienced increased trust, a positive brand image and stronger loyalty from their fans and the broader community. The outcomes of this study provided an insight into a South African professional football club and demonstrate how CSR initiatives can be used to successfully improve organisational performance.

Esta pesquisa tem como tema principal a responsabilidade social empresarial e sua relação com a ética, delimitada na dimensão interna das empresas. O principal referencial teórico é a obra do filósofo alemão Hans Jonas, intitulada O princípio responsabilidade: ensaio de uma ética para civilização tecnológica. O objetivo é analisar em que sentido a teoria de Hans Jonas pode contribuir para fundamentar o comportamento da gestão interna de empresas, com o intuito de abrir caminho para a sua legitimação como organizações socialmente responsáveis em prol do desenvolvimento sustentável. O estudo se dá a partir da análise da evolução conceitual do termo responsabilidade social empresarial; através da qual se tenta justificar por que a instituição empresa tornou-se objeto da responsabilidade social ao longo do tempo e por que a ética converteu-se em elemento fundamental à compreensão de um significado para o termo. A responsabilidade social empresarial é historicamente requerida artificialmente por meio de um contrato. Mas o contrato não tem dado conta de regular com eficácia o poder que emana dos avanços frenéticos da ciência e da tecnologia. Nesse sentido, a dimensão ética aparece como uma esperança na tentativa de colocar-se uma limitação ao uso desse poder, sob pena de a humanidade ser conduzida a um futuro trágico. Assim, é apresentada uma interpretação analítica do princípio responsabilidade de Hans Jonas, permitindo uma compreensão da sua ideia em relação ao conceito de responsabilidade e da razão de tê-la colocado no centro da ética. O princípio responsabilidade é formulado como um imperativo ético que visa o controle do poder tecnológico, a fim de evitar as previsíveis morte essencial humana e destruição física da humanidade. Trata-se de uma responsabilidade naturalmente assumida em respeito a um fim supremo: a preservação da vida e da essência humana. Antes de concluir, são elencados alguns pressupostos, para que a instituição empresa possa ser considerada socialmente responsável, dentre os quais, a dimensão econômica, vista como um meio e não como um fim. Ao final, analisa-se em que sentido o princípio responsabilidade pode ser interpretado como um referencial ético ao comportamento da gestão interna das empresas, para que essas possam vir a assumir sua verdadeira responsabilidade social a partir daí, com vistas ao desenvolvimento sustentável. / This research has as a main topic the corporate social responsibility and its relationship to ethic, delimited on the internal dimension of the companies. The principal theoretical reference is the work of the German philosopher Hans Jonas, entitled The Imperative of Responsibility: in search of an ethics for the technological age. The objective is to analyze in what sense the ethic theory of Hans Jonas can contribute to a foundation to the behavior of the internal management of companies, with the purpose is to open the way for his legitimation as a socially responsible organizations for sustainable development. The study starts from the analysis of the conceptual evolution of the term corporate social responsibility, whereby it tries to justify the reason that the company became the object of social responsibility over time and why ethic has become a fundamental element to understand a meaning for the term. The corporate social responsibility is historically artificially required by a contract. But the contract has not been able to regulate effectively the power that emanate from the frenetic advances in science and technology. In this sense, the ethical dimension appears as a hope in trying to put a limitation to the use of that power, under penalty that the humanity will be led to a tragic future. Then, is presented an analytical interpretation of Hans Jonas The Imperative of Responsibility, allowing an understanding of your idea relative to the responsibility and the reason that the author puts it the center of ethic. The responsibility principle is made as an ethical imperative which seeks the technology power in order to avoid the predictable human essential death and humanity physical destruction. It is a responsibility naturally assumed in respect to a supreme end: the preservation of life and the human essence. Before concluding, some assumptions are listed in order the company can be considered socially responsible, among which the economic dimension seen as a middle and not as an end. At the end, is analyzed in what sense the responsibility principle can be interpreted as a reference to the ethical behavior of the internal management of companies for what these ones might assume its real social responsibility from there, with a view to the sustainable development.

Orientador: Suzy Maria Lagazzi / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T14:27:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_MairaLacerdae_M.pdf: 1129079 bytes, checksum: 8c6a5cc19084cae1851ae67bf46ebf25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o discurso da e sobre a responsabilidade social corporativa, tendo como base a perspectiva materialista. Esta análise levará em conta o fato de que, dentro da sociedade neoliberal contemporânea, pautada por uma organização socioeconômica de competição, recentemente globalizada, os sujeitos são interpelados, constantemente, por determinados padrões de comportamento que justificam, mantêm e representam a ideologia capitalista dominante. Esses padrões de comportamento se manifestam no discurso midiático e propagandístico que se origina em instituições governamentais e privadas, sendo a responsabilidade social uma constante nesses discursos. O estudo observou os sentidos que a expressão 'responsabilidade social corporativa' produz, nos diferentes materiais e situações discursivas em que circula, apontando especialmente para questões relativas a mudanças nas condições de produção e da formação social capitalista, para os lugares sociais dos sujeitos e instituições que falam de responsabilidade social corporativa e ao funcionamento da ideologia nesses mesmos discursos. Todas as definições dadas à expressão reafirmam alguns pontos bastante significativos, que dizem respeito às políticas sociais do Estado neoliberal e ao papel que esse Estado deve desempenhar na sociedade, assim como ao papel social das grandes corporações comerciais e à sua natureza. No que concerne aos sentidos da responsabilidade social corporativa na ordem neoliberal, o estudo leva à compreensão de que eles se ancoram em uma forma de relação entre as instituições governamentais, comerciais e as pessoas que não se explica apenas por relações jurídicas / Abstract: This study's aim is to analyze the discourse of corporate social responsibility, from the materialist perspective. The analysis will take into account the fact that in the recently globalised, contemporary neoliberal society, which is guided by a socioeconomic organization of competition, subjects are constantly faced with certain patterns of behavior, which justify, sustain and represent the dominant capitalist ideology. Such patterns of behavior are manifested in the midiatic and propaganda discourse, which has its origins in governmental and private institutions, having social responsibility as a constant. The study observes the meanings produced by the expression "corporate social responsibility? in the various materials and discursive situations in which it circulates. It focuses on issues regarding changes in production conditions and in the capitalist social formation; it also focuses on the social position of subjects and institutions that refer to corporate social responsibility, and on the functioning of the ideology behind such discourses. All definitions given to the expression reaffirm certain significant points, which are related to social policies of the neoliberal State, and the role of the State in society, as well as the role of large commercial corporations and their nature. In regard to the meanings associated with corporate social responsibility in a neoliberal order, the study concludes that they are anchored in a relationship between people, governmental and commercial institutions, which are not explained by juridical relations alone / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestre em Linguística

M.Com. (Financial Management) / Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its effective reporting are becoming increasingly important. Evidence suggests that there is a growing trend towards investment in companies which are social and environmental conscious. The mining sector in South Africa (SA) is characterised by labour disputes, environmental concerns and seemingly negative impact on local communities. Public opinion and the media commonly perceive the sector to be unwilling to improve on its CSR activities and performance. The goal of the study was to determine whether SA mining companies have adequately integrated CSR into their reporting and whether the extent and depth of CSR reporting is sufficient for the companies to be classified as a CSR conscious investment. To achieve this goal a content analysis was conducted on the official reports of the five largest (measured by market capitalisation) South African mining companies. Each company‟s CSR was analysed by determining trends, the extent and the depth of reporting in the CSR categories; community, diversity, employee relations, environment and human rights. The results indicated that there is a positive trend towards the sample of mining companies becoming socially responsible. The results, however, also indicate that there is a large degree of variation between the sampled companies and that the extent and depth of human rights reporting is a general concern which needs to be addressed.