CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Towards the
end of 1800’s
to the early 1990’s, the mission of business
firms was exclusively
economic. During this period, the cardinal purpose of business owners is to
make as much profit as possible. To underscore the above assertion, Milton
Friedman (1972:88) had contended that the only responsibility of the business
is to make as much profit as it can for the owners. Today, partly due to the
interdependencies of many groups in our society, the values, goals and
attitudes of the society changed significantly. This accounts for the
complexity in the society in the area of social, economic as well as
environmental problems which have been experienced.
This situation is in
consonance with the view of Ackerman (1973:89), when he opined that the people
increased awareness has brought some expectation and demand to bear on companies
to be socially responsible to the society in which they operate. Thus we often
talk about the social responsibility and social responsiveness of all
organizations although the focus of this study shall be on corporate
organizations. There is a question as to what the social responsibility of
business really means.
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The concept of social
responsibility is not new, although the idea was already considered in the
early part of the twentieth century. The modern discussions of social
responsibility got a major impetus with the book
“social responsibility of business m suggested that
business actors should consider the social implications of
their decisions,
society being awakened with respect to the urgency of social problems is asking
managers and owners of business what they are doing to discharge their social
responsibility to the society in which they operate given negative social
impacts of their business on the society such as pollutions of all kinds air,
water, solid waste noise to mention but a few.
The
concept of social responsibili of and responses to the issues beyond narrow
economic, technical and legal requirement of the firm. It is the f making
process the effects of its decision on the external social system in a manner
that should accomplish social benefits along with the traditional economic
gains which the firm seeks for. However, Harper D. (1976) a classical economist
consistently argued against the need to do anything that negates profit
maximization. He sees business social responsibility as an aberration Harper,
(1976).
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1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
Oil
spillage in some of the oil producing state is alarming and some
pollution caused by
industries in our country is on the high rate. The problems of the communities
where the oil companies operate bring these problems constructively to the
attention of the companies with which they have developed regular form for
meetings. These companies have created ecological disaster, gas flowing in the
communities. Therefore, the problem to be looked into in this research is that
a corporate organisation does not bother about their social responsibility to
the environment where they operate. Furthermore, poverty, lack of essential
facilities and unemployment are increasing is alarming proportion. As a result
the needs and expectation of the society are not met by the business
organisation.
1.3
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The corporate organizations naturally have its own
mix and different
emphasis. The overall
objectives of every organisation are survival growth, profit, economic
contribution and social obligation. It is known fact that firms in Nigeria
usually lay more emphasis on profit maximization. The objective of this
research work includes the following:
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i.
To examine the general attitude of
ANAMMCO towards social responsibility.
ii.
To examine the consequences of the
company ignoring its social responsibilities.
iii.
To evaluate the problems which hinder
the performance of social responsibility practice by ANAMMCO.
iv.
To
recommend possible solutions for the identified problems.
1.4
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To
ensure an in-depth research work with a view to providing best
solutions to
problems identified, the study will make us of the following four
(4)
research
questions:
i.
Could business organisation carryout a
successful social responsibility practice?
ii.
Should
social responsibility be legalized?
iii.
In what form should social
responsibility be performed?
iv.
Where should funds for carrying out
these social responsibility programmes come from?
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Based
on the four research questions already mentioned, the following
hypotheses were formulated: HYPOTHESES 1
Ho: Business organizations
can not carryout a successful social responsibility practice.
Hi: Business organizations can significantly
carry out a successful social responsibility practice.
HYPOTHESES II
Ho: Business social responsibility should
not be legalized.
Hi: Business social responsibility practices
should be significantly legalized.
HYPOTHESES III
Ho: Social responsibility practices cannot
be achieved in any form.
Hi: Social responsibility practice can
reasonably be achieved in different form.
HYPOTHESES IV
Ho: There is no place to source funds for
carrying out social responsibility practice.
Hi: There are sources of
fund, for financing social responsibility practice.
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The
importance of the study cannot be over-emphasized given the
interdependencies of
many groups in our society. The study is therefore important because, it will
not only examine the attitude of business organisation towards the issue of
social responsibility but will go a long way to help these organisation on policy
making decision in order to eliminate the negative effects and consequences of
these attitudes in the discharge of social responsibility practices. The study
will be of immense benefit to researchers and students looking for more
information on this topic.
Another significance of
this research is that, it will help in finding ways to improve relationship
between the company and the town in which it operates. It enables manager of
different organizations to know actually what social responsibility is all about
and it will also help them to know the difference between social problem and
economic performance. The study will equally be beneficial to private and
public sector organizations.
1.7
SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
The
study, as earlier
specified, aims at
appraising the social
responsibility
practice by corporate organizations in Enugu using Anambra
Motor
Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO) as case study.
The study is
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therefore restricted to the study of the ANAMMCO as
a corporate organization in Emene, Enugu.
It is, however, expected that the study of ANAMMCO,
Emene, Enugu would give enough information on how business social
responsibility can successfully be rendered by other categories of business
firms
1.8
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In
the course of carrying out this research work, some difficulties
were encountered. The
constraints were however managed; among these were time, materials and
financial constraints.
TIME:
Time factor was one of
the constraints faced by the researcher; however, the researcher took time
management seriously, as the study was successful. So many useful times was
involved to make the study as the researcher had to combine full time employment
with the collection of data for the work.
MATERIALS:
It is not easy for the
materials to be collected or obtained due to limited books, journals and other
reference materials, particularly obtaining information from the case
organization was a tedious exercise, as some
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information was termed “vital confid reach despite
the purpose and intentions to which they were requested for,
though some management staff and senior supervisors
were very helpful as they assisted in providing necessary data that formed the
basis for this project write-up, conclusion and recommendations.
FINANCE:
Financial problem was also encountered
by the researcher in the course of the work. This constraint informed the study
of only one corporate organization. Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company
(ANAMMCO). Notwithstanding the above constraints, the quality of the research
work could not be impaired.
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