Summary in English and Afrikaans / CSR has become a priority for many key businesses, particularly in light of codes of practice such as the 2009, The King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa 2009 (often referred to as King III Report). Effective CSR is dependent on efficient communication between and with stakeholders and businesses, yet the quality of these communications is seldom evaluated. While the literature emphasises the importance of stakeholder engagement, little attention is given to the communication processes used during stakeholder engagement. This study asserts that Integrated Communication (IC) offers a multi-pronged approach for engaging with an organisations’ diverse stakeholders and, when incorporated holistically, aligns CSR throughout an organisation. This study uses a framework drawn from IC theory as a means of analysing the efficiency of stakeholder engagement within Anglo American South Africa (AASA), a company explicitly dedicated to CSR. A single embedded case study research design is employed, including a review of main CSR documents used by AASA, interviews with key communications staff, as well as a focus group on site with key staff members. The research revealed that although AASA is in many ways doing a laudable job in terms of stakeholder engagement, there are key points at which their efforts break down. This is due, in most part; firstly to a lack of integrated awareness throughout the broader business of what constitutes its stated CSR agenda; and secondly to a lack of executive power within the communications department of the business. It is suggested that by following the proposed IC framework, and investing key communications personnel with executive power rather than merely supportive responsibility, the effectiveness of AASA’s stakeholder engagement would be improved. This would improve the likelihood of an effective strategic CSR’s success, and be of value to the organisation. / Korporatiewe Maatskaplike Verantwoordelikheid (KMV) het 'n prioriteit geword vir baie belangrike besighede, veral in die lig van gedragskodes soos die 2009 derde King verslag oor korporatiewe bestuur. Effektiewe KMV is afhanklik van doeltreffende kommunikasie tussen en met belanghebbendes en besighede, maar die gehalte van hierdie kommunikasie is selde geëvalueer. Terwyl die literatuur beklemtoon die belangrikheid van die betrokkenheid van belanghebbendes, is min aandag gegee aan die kommunikasie- prosesse wat gebruik word tydens die betrokkenheid van belanghebbendes. Hierdie studie voer aan dat Geïntegreerde Kommunikasie (GK) 'n multi-ledige benadering bied vir die aangaan met organisasies se diverse belanghebbendes en, wanneer holisties opgeneem, lyn 'n organisasie deurgaans in met KMV. Hierdie studie maak gebruik van 'n raamwerk wat uit GK teorie as 'n middel van die ontleding van die doeltreffendheid wat met belanghebbendes binne Anglo American Suid-Afrika (AASA) uitvloei, 'n maatskappy uitdruklik gewy aan KMV. 'n Enkele navorste gevallestudie is gebruik, insluitend 'n oorsig van die belangrikste KMV dokumente, onderhoude met sleutel kommunikasie personeel sowel as 'n fokusgroep met belangrike personeel op die terrein. Die navorsing toon dat alhoewel AASA is in baie maniere om 'n lofwaardige werk in terme van die betrokkenheid van belanghebbendes handhaaf, is daar belangrike punte waarop hul pogings kort kom. Dit is te danke oorsaaklik; eerstens 'n gebrek aan geïntegreerde bewustheid regdeur die breër organisasie wat sy verklaarde KMV agenda uitmaak, en tweedens 'n gebrek van die uitvoerende gesag in die kommunikasie-afdeling van die besigheid. Daar word voorgestel dat die voorgestelde GK raamwerk kruis organisatoriese bewustheid van AASA se KMV agenda sou bevorder, en die organisasie dwing om belangrike kommunikasie personeel te belê met uitvoerende gesag eerder as bloot ondersteunende verantwoordelikheid. Dit sal op sy beurt die doeltreffendheid van AASA se betrokkenheid verseker. Die waarskynlikheid van strategiese KMV se sukses te verbeter, en van waarde wees vir die organisasie as geheel. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

Although conscious consumers flock to sustainability-branded restaurants and grocery stores to "vote with their forks" for environmental sustainability and vibrant local economies, workers in these industries face the same poverty wages, discrimination, and exploitative labor practices that plague the food service and retail industries at large. Despite rapid growth and labor degradation, low-wage workers in these industries have largely been left behind by the mainstream labor movement and the alternative food movement. Whereas in the past, progressive social movements worked to alter power relations between labor and capital through collective action, today's mainstream labor movement focuses on servicing its dwindling membership and winning minimum wage increases through local ballot box measures and legislation. For its part, the alternative food movement focuses narrowly on achieving environmental sustainability through market-based mechanisms and consumption politics that do not adequately attend to the struggles of food chain workers. Through research conducted in partnership with the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) and the Industrial Workers of the World, I investigate three empirical research questions: 1) How do sustainability-branded institutions deploy values-based discourse and how does this relate to labor practices?, 2) How do worker-organizers understand and expose the contradictions of sustainability branding?, and 3) How do worker-organizers engage with social reproduction as a terrain of political struggle, and to what ends? I attend to these questions through activist scholarship aimed at informing my broad theoretical question: How might social reproduction "as discourse and practice" be marshaled to generate more inclusive organizing strategies, forge more just conceptions of sustainability, and build worker power? Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, content analysis, and interviews with 48 worker-organizers involved in four labor organizing campaigns, I examine their efforts to build worker power through mutual aid programs, political education, and coalition politics. My analysis reveals that these strategies embody an inclusionary intersectional politics that prioritizes the needs of women, parents, and people of color, but that worker-organizers also face significant challenges. I demonstrate that organizing against neoliberal policies and practices requires moving beyond consumption politics and single-issue campaigns and deploying what I term (re)production politics which are fundamentally about how work is organized and how we care for society and the planet. Politicizing the labor, locations, and practices of social reproduction as landscapes of struggle, I conclude, offers an opportunity to build a broad class consciousness across interconnected issues and envision more liberatory ways of organizing social reproduction based on solidarity, mutuality, and interdependence.

M. Tech. (Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become as an important topic as it has ramifications for practitioners. Corporate social responsibility can change employees’ approaches, demands and behaviours. Organisations can build a sound relation with its employees by promoting CSR in the organisation and inspiring employees to partake in these activities. The primary objective of the study is to explore the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction as well as explore the relationship between job satisfaction and CSR among employees in a financial institution in Gauteng. A quantitative research approach method was used to achieve the primary objective. A structured questionnaire was issued to 250 respondents. Furthermore, composite means and factor analysis were performed to determine the level of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and corporate social responsibility of employees and to establish the underlying factors of the constructs respectively. Additionally, correlation analysis was conducted to establish the strength and direction of the relationship between the factors. Finally, a regression analysis was performed to confirm the predictive relationship between the study constructs. The findings of this study showed a positive correlation between affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment and JS, and also showed a positive correlation between JS and CSR. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the more committed the financial institution employees, the more they are satisfied with their job in the institution. Furthermore, JS contributed positively to CSR, which implied that the more satisfied the employees of the financial institution, the more they feel being part of the CSR activities of the financial institution.

PhD. (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The world over the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gradually evolved from a theoretical concept to a managerial tool used to shape organisational competitiveness. Thus, this study sought to establish the influence of CSR on reputation and performance in the mining sector in Zimbabwe, given the limited evidence of such studies in the body of knowledge. The framework for data collection, presentation, analysis and interpretation was guided by the positivist paradigm, quantitative approach, and descriptive survey design. With the questionnaire being utilised to collect data from 330 respondents who were purposively and conveniently sampled from the targeted mines. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was employed to test for the validity and reliability of the designed instrument. In addition, the Pearson’s correlation was used to determine relationships between constructs, while regression analysis was used to predict the reputation value based on causality. In addition, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed to determine the factor structure of the data collected based on the relationship of constructs and items. The analysed data revealed that most respondents, through descriptive statistics, agreed with the construct items except political corporate social responsibility (PCSR), which had the least mean score of (4.7311). This implied that the respondents somewhat agreed PCSR was being observed though at marginal levels. The other constructs stakeholder corporate social responsibility (SCSR), environment corporate social responsibility (ENCSR), ethical corporate social responsibility (ETCSR), and social corporate responsibility (SOCSR) had mean scores above 4, indicating that respondents agreed that CSR was being observed to retain a reputable image. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed that four of the stated hypotheses supported the assumption on SCSR, ETCSR, operational performance (OP), and social performance (SP). Furthermore, the results revealed that PCSR, ENCSR, SOCSR, and economic performance (EP) could not be used to support reputation. The results on the hypotheses statements confirmed the empirical literature assumptions. Thus, partnerships, trust, honesty, disclosure, competitive advantage, operational efficiency, values based on morality, and transparency were confirmed to be by-products of CSR practices. Based on this, it can be argued that mining firms in Zimbabwe could employ CSR as a strategic tool to handle stakeholders’ concerns. In this regard, a theoretical model was crafted for the mining sector in Zimbabwe, which reduced independent variables to two, namely the SCSR and ETCSR. Hence the results established a strong positive association between PSCR, SCSR, SOCSR, ENCSR, ETCSR, and corporate reputation (CR). In addition, corporate performance was seen to have a positive impact on OP and SP. Based on the above results, it is recommended that mining companies in Zimbabwe fully embrace CSR as a vehicle for engaging with stakeholders. More so, CSR programmes should be done in consultation with stakeholders, especially surrounding communities that host or provide an operating environment. Furthermore, mining companies should be wary of the cultural effects of their operations through the crafting and implementation of ethical policies. This can further be enhanced through CSR reporting on CSR initiatives and programmes.

In this dissertation, I examine the role of private sector engagement in environmental governance. The relationship between mainstream environmentalism and the private sector has moved from one of general hostility to one of constructive engagement in recent times. As a result, the traditional distinctions between environmental non-governmental organizations and private corporations have become blurred, making way for public-private hybrids, facilitated by frameworks of philanthropy, sponsorship, and corporate social responsibility. Connected to these broader reconfigurations in environmental governance are simultaneous alterations in the normative framework of mainstream environmentalism. Ideologically, environmental policy and neoliberalism are now intertwined, entangling assumptions about nature and culture, and reflected in the popularization of environmental protection mechanisms that are deeply embedded in the values of the market economy. Analyzing particular examples of such engagements, and informed by Gramscian theory, I analyze the connections between rising corporate presence in mainstream environmentalism and broader normative and practical change, focusing, in particular, on the frameworks of ecomodernism and the Green Economy. I argue that contemporary private sector engagement in environmentalism leads to the support, production and construction of powerful environmentalisms: environmental ideologies and practices that gain power from, not in spite of, prevailing dominant interests. As such, these powerful environmentalisms tend to produce and reproduce elite processes of capitalist production and prioritize instrumental norms of human-nature relations, while marginalizing others. I conclude by outlining suggestions in support of a democratic environmental politics that represents and recognizes a more diverse array of actors, human-nature relationships, and frameworks of environmental care.

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.

This work addresses to what extent businesses in the United States and the European Union have a moral obligation to participate in social integration processes in areas where they operate with the use of migrant laborers. It begins with the presupposition that a common framework as to what constitutes ethical behavior in business is needed and beneficial. It argues that the very industry that creates a need for migrant labor ought to also be involved in merging this labor successfully into the existing community and specifies that a discourse on business ethics and migration is gravely needed. This must be one that considers how businesses can become more engaged in resolving the social issues that arise both for the migrants and for the local community in which the businesses operate. The purpose would be to fill a social and humanitarian need that government alone cannot. More importantly, it will be to exercise beneficence and display responsible and sincere corporate citizenship. It is claimed that businesses that fail to encourage and participate in integration processes display a moral flaw. Cosmopolitan business ethics are proposed as a way to look at ethical business conduct and it is claimed that businesses that act as cosmopolitan citizens are morally praiseworthy.

Thesis (M. Tech. (Business administration)) - Central University of technology, Free State, 2012 / Research evidence suggests that South African small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) are not making the desired impact on their societies because they are unable to create jobs. The normative assertion is that by engaging in socially responsible activities, SMMEs will be able to enhance their impact on society. Much “noise”, effort and resources are being made available to South African SMMEs to encourage them to embrace this concept of social responsibility as it is also touted to result in business benefits. Socially responsible behaviour by SMMEs has therefore become an important national issue in South Africa. However, in spite of this realisation, very little is known about how seriously the South African SMMEs really consider and approach the whole issue of business social responsibility (BSR) precisely because of the dearth of empirical research on the subject. Without empirical evidence from systematic research, it becomes extremely difficult to tell for sure what these SMMEs think of and are really doing in terms of BSR; what obstacles they face in their BSR endeavours; what support they need; among others. Without such information, policy makers cannot reasonably be expected to formulate appropriate support mechanisms to enhance the BSR efforts of these SMMEs. In the end, communities like Botshabelo (in the Free State Province of South Africa) might lose out on the benefits that are usually associated with BSR performance of SMMEs. The purpose of this study was to provide such information. Specifically, the research investigated the following issues: SMMEs understanding of BSR; BSR as a sound business philosophy/practice for SMMEs; Why SMMEs undertake BSR; SMMEs’ attitude towards BSR; Barriers to SMMEs’ BSR engagement; and main BSR activities of SMMEs. In this study, research was conducted on the SMMEs of the Botshabelo industrial estate. After a thorough literature review, data were collected from 170 respondents on 137 out of the 150 SMMEs operating in Botshabelo. The results of the data analysis suggest that the SMMEs investigated have a good understanding of the concept and its value. However, the SMMEs focus mainly on employee and customer issues while showing less concern for community and environmental issues. The SMMEs also encounter barriers to BSR engagement which mostly have to do with lack of time. Based on these findings, recommendations are made regarding policy and further research.

For many sets of reasons, including the unequal power relationship between them and most underdeveloped states, and probably more in Africa than anywhere else in the world, non-state actors (NSAs) like states are involved in the violation of human rights. With the phenomenon of globalization, their role has become even more pronounced with some of the traditional functions of the state being performed by them, with implications for human rights, especially socioeconomic rights. Unfortunately, state-centred traditional international law has proved to be ill-equipped to hold NSAs directly accountable and liable for their violations of human rights. NSAs are only expected to adhere to non-binding voluntary standards, such as codes of conduct. Yet, if properly interpreted and enforced, the African Charter for Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) can be relied upon to hold them accountable. Against this backdrop, the study interrogates the existing universal and regional human rights laws and systems with the view to identifying any rules, principles, case law or literature that can help hold NSAs directly accountable for human rights violations. For better advocacy and protection of human rights on the African continent, it makes a case for a paradigm shift away from a state centred to a holistic approach that would include NSAs and ensure that they are also bound to protect human rights and become accountable for their violations. / Private Law / LL.M.

Social responsibility (SR) is a business management concept that originated in the early 1930s after the Wall Street crash of 1929 exposed corporate irresponsibility in large organizations. Whilst the initial interpretation of SR has been modified and refined since it was first used, the significance of this multidimensional concept for the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector has continued to be overshadowed by its application to large and multinational organizations. The knowledge of social activities in the SME sector, particularly in South Africa, has remained unexplored due to relatively little attention being given until recent years. In cognizance of the above mentioned, this study wishes to expand the body of knowledge in respect of the social responsibility of small businesses. This study presented a qualitative content analysis of annual reports from 2008 to 2012 of companies listed on the JSE ALT exchange to explore small business social responsibility practices using NVIVO to analyze data. Findings from this study support the view that small businesses are not always profit driven and that they are therefore fundamentally distinct from large organizations. South African small businesses are however not yet strategic about SR. Creating and maintaining their reputation as good corporate citizens through relationships with stakeholders is their primary motivation for participating in social activities. The study results show that SR in small businesses is still evolving and that year after year there is an increase in involvement and interest in SR issues. The findings of this study, and confirmation of the new knowledge gained will assist policy makers and practitioners in designing plans and policies that will increase socially responsible behaviour of small businesses and develop a comprehensive theory of SR in small businesses in South Africa. This can potentially enhance inclusive economic growth while simultaneously dealing with the country’s socio economic problems. Future studies can be extended to include other SMEs in South Africa, specifically micro enterprises and comparisons formed by a larger population may demonstrate and explain trends more clearly. The results of this study can also be compared with large companies listed on the JSE and to other African economies. A longitudinal study investigating SMEs’ participation in SR in different economic conditions could test the fact that a change has occurred in the attitudes of small businesses from 2008 to 2012 towards social responsibility / Business Management / D.B.L