Research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in developing countries is still underdeveloped. By studying CSR in the Zambian mining industry, this research not only tries to fill this gap but also assesses CSR practices in a sector which suffers high CSR challenges despite its significant economic contribution. In developing countries, the role of the State in promoting economic development is enormous. The State should, therefore, play a key role in driving CSR (Moon, 2002) as it is the business contribution to sustainable development. However, the State has been weakened by the growing power and influence of the multinational corporations, which increasingly are assuming a 'political' statelike role (Matten and Crane, 2005). The complementary role of Civil Society, which represents the interest of the citizenry, and hold corporations (and government) accountable becomes important (Scherer and Palazzo, 2011). The purpose of CSR is to promote a more open, transparent and democratic society (Gray, 2002). A democratic evolution would be promoted through increased accountability and transparency, particularly of powerful institutions and organisations, by recognising the rights to information of the polity (Brown and Fraser, 2006). Deliberation becomes a process through which the information rights are acknowledged for decision making purposes and the protection against potential abuses of corporate power. This research assesses current CSR reporting practice, in the Zambian mining industry, and seeks to improve (in context) upon this via State and a process of deliberative democracy. The potentiality for democratic dialogue is explored in attempting to highlight the needed change for "true" accountability to occur. It argues for "small steps" of constant improvement and transformation of real democratic processes and institutions, according to the Habermasian deliberative model adopted, in order to realise the positive effects of deliberation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:647994 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Obby, Phiri |
| Publisher | University of Essex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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