Significance of corporate social investment within the field of public relations with specific reference to selected Kwazulu Natal corporations

This study is a qualitative investigation into the areas of corporate social investment and public relations. The study examines the significance of corporate social investment within the field of public relations with specific reference to selected KwaZulu Natal corporations. The study looks at the corporate social investment and public relations departments of five corporations in the KwaZulu Natal region. The corporations that were interviewed were selected based on their location, and the number of years of experience in the field. The five companies, namely, The South African Sugar Association, NBS Boland Bank, Hillside Aluminium (Alusaf), McCarthy Retail and Richards Bay Minerals received immense coverage on their corporate social investment initiatives, in the Mail and Guardian’s April 1998 issue, ‘Investing in the future, special focus on social investment.’ The report presents an in-depth literature review, which examines the history of both corporate social investment and public relations. It thereafter examines the current practices of public relations and corporate social investment from a South African perspective. The prevalent approach to corporate social investment is also addressed. Apart from the study of the five corporations, the report also comments on other dedicated corporate social investment programmes. The programmes of each of the five companies are contrasted with current and relevant documentation from the 1999 Business and Marketing Intelligence report. Graphs and tables complement this information. The findings reveal that there is little public relations involvement in corporate social investment initiatives because corporate social investment practitioners do not see the need for the involvement of public relations practitioners in all areas of their corporate social investment initiatives. The results of the interviews gives the reader a broad perspective of corporate social investment and public relations within each company. The findings suggest that the role of public relations needs to be re-examined in the new millennium.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10779
Date January 2000
CreatorsRampersad, Renitha
PublisherPort Elizabeth Technikon, Faculty of Communication and Educational Studies
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Masters, MTech
Formatix, 129 leaves, pdf
RightsNelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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