THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY (ZAMBIA)

Presenter: Presenter: Shem Sikombe, BSc., M.A., Shem Sikombe, BSc., M.A., DipDip

Corporate Social Responsibility Discourse from the Mining Corporations and their Communities in Zambia.

Conference Theme:

Business Ethics and CSR: The Way Business Ethics and CSR: The Way Forward for Emerging Economies.Forward for Emerging Economies.

Background/Problem Discussion• Zambia is a landlocked country with a population of about 13

million, copper mining accounts for about 70% of export earnings.

• CSR is ever evolving, dynamic and contextual-specific (Sun et al., 2007).

• To understand the contextual specificity nature of CSR it is important to understand how CSR discourse is socially constructed.

• And the resulting consequences of such constructions.• Discourse results in different meanings being ascribed to CSR

which result in different discursive conflicts.• This is evident in the Zambian mining industry and their

communities.• Different meanings results in different expectations from CSR.• Its important to comprehend these discourses because

organisations are such a pervasive feature of society. • Also Research gap: Most research is concentrated on drivers of

CSR such as reputation, financial performance, sustainability etc.

• There is paucity of research on understanding CSR from Zambian context..

Purpose: To increase the understanding of CSR discourse

from the MCs and community stakeholders’

perspectives and its broader implications on the

MCs-community stakeholder relationship

Research questions:•How do MCs construct the meaning of CSR through

CSR discourse in their annual CSR reports?

•How do communities’ interpret and reconstruct the meaning of CSR from their perspectives?

•What are the implications of CSR discourse on the MCs-community stakeholder relationship?

Methodology• Social constructionist qualitative method and discourse

analysis (DA).• Ontological view: reality is socially and discursively

constructed in social interactions.• Epistemological view: knowledge is a product of social

interactions and is contingent on the social activities. • DA involves analysing the social construction of

language in order to identify the social implications.• Data sources: CSR annual reports (2010) & open-ended

questionnaire interview for stakeholders. • Data analysis: Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of

analyisIng text, discursive practice and social practice.

Empirical Material Comprehensive CSR annual reports (2010) for MCs (KCM, FQM, LM,

BARRICK, MCM, CM) ranging from 40-100 pages.

• Reports were prepared at respective group headquarters

• Some where integrative while others were arranged by subsidiary.

• After coding process. Emerging themes from MCs were:

• Business case; stakeholder partnership and empowerment and

corporate citizenship as CSR discourses.

Questionnaire interviews:

• Total administered 79 via Kwik survey and email.

• 34 successful responded.

• Following a similar coding process, the themes were:

• Stakeholder partnership and empowerment; rhetoric/‘greenwash’

and corporate citizenship CSR discourses.

Analysis and InterpretationsCORPORATE CITIZENSHIP DISCOURSE• Present MCs as citizens with duties and rights.• CSR is constructed as one of the duties of MCs although its

voluntary.• Personify MCs as ‘persons’ with humane characteristics. • MCs are presented as good citizens who care for the community.• MCs legitimatise their operations within communities via

discourse.• Good neighbourliness via unifying pronouns such as ‘we’ and

‘our’.• Ownership to responsibilities and demonstrated commitment to

CSR.BUSINESS CASE DISCOURSE• CSR contributes to economic prosperity of MCs and eventually

community• Tool for competitive advantage and other opportunities.• Essential to sustainable business success.• CSR embedded in corporate strategy.

STAKEHOLDERS PARTNERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT DISCOURSE• Partnership committed to engaging and empowering

stakeholders.• Tool for Sustainability development via collaboration.• Equal power relations characterised by trust, honest, openness

and respect.• Partnership for Socio-economic development of the community.

CSR DISCOURSE FROM COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP DISCOURSE• CSR should be mandatory not voluntary as claimed by MCs.• CSR connote risk management and mitigation tool (e.g reducing

pollution & Environmental degradation).• CSR as a form of compensation to communities.• CSR as a social contract between MCs and Communities.RHETORIC/GREENWASH DISCOURSE• A marketing and public image building tool.• Genuineness questioned; discrepancy between Talk and Action

by MCs.• Need for legislative framework to guide CSR implementation by

MCs.

STAKEHOLDERS PARTNERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT DISCOURSE

• CSR as implied partnership.

• However this partnership is one side, driven by MCs.

• CSR is more of an ‘imposition’ on communities rather than consensus.

• They emphasise the need for dialogue and consultations with

community.

• Link between CSR and socio-economic sustainability missing.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE CSR DISCOURSES

• MCs draw on traditional extractive industry discourse-maintain the

social order.

• MCs conceal unequal power relations within their discourse.

• Community stakeholders draw on various mix of discourse challenging

the current social order.

• Stakeholders’ CSR discourse is culturally and historically embedded.

• MCs-stakeholder relationship on CSR discourse still antagonistic.

characterised by ‘love-hate’ (Kapore & Imbun, 2011).

Main Conclusions and Implications

• Two main discourses are at play:1.One trying to legitimise mining activities

through CSR and Self regulation2. Anti-mining discourse from communities

and advocacy for regulatory framework over CSR.

• Ongoing struggle on what constitute CSR is still evident.

• Elements of white-washing are still evident in MC’s CSR practice.

• Culture of dependency on MCs by community ‘dependency syndrome’

• ‘Love-hate relationship’ evident.• MCs making strides towards sustainability

and changing the business model.

Summary Model

THE END…..THANK YOU!