M.Comm. / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a tool that promotes, besides profit making, empowerment of members of the community as a way of giving back to them. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the Further Education and Training (FET) sector are facing increased competition to project a positive image to their internal and external stakeholders. In an emerging economy such as South Africa, FETs have to play a major role in developing entrepreneurs in their communities, responding to the needs of industries and improving the standards of living within communities. Therefore, CSR is an important inclusive concept which has forced organisations to involve stakeholders in their decisionmaking. In other words, while it is justifiable for a company to make a profit, it should do more than that by being philanthropic, by doing more for society and by complying with the laws that govern that country, including caring for the environment. The purpose of this study was to understand how the FET sector is addressing CSR challenges. A qualitative study was undertaken to investigate how FETs are operating and what their responsibility should be with regard to CSR. Due to the fact that CSR has many definitions, a qualitative study was adopted to give participants an opportunity to express themselves in terms of how they are addressing CSR in the colleges they are connected to. A qualitative study was used to capture rich information from the participants. An interview guide was used and was integrated with theory from the literature. The study was conducted in four FETs in Gauteng and participants who had more extensive knowledge on CSR were selected. The results indicate that FETs are addressing the CSR challenges they are faced with. The findings from the study indicate that CSR is critical for the survival of colleges. It has many benefits for the colleges and is the only way to proceed if they want to stay in business. The research finding indicates that FETs are committed and consider themselves to have a responsibility towards CSR.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:7227 |
| Date | 03 October 2011 |
| Creators | Lebakeng, Andries Jimmy Nku |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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