Establishing a Corporate Social Responsibility framework for sustainable community development in South African coal mines

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a management concept for mineral-dependent countries in addressing social and environmental concerns. Emerging economies, including South Africa, continue to rely on the economic contribution of mining as a strategic catalyst for sustainable development. CSR studies conducted in emerging countries have revealed that most community development CSR initiatives are failing to deliver sustainable impact. CSR projects collapse shortly after being handed over and are mostly undertaken from a philanthropic perspective. There is limited evidence that the current management approaches to CSR by coal mining companies yield sustainable outcomes. The primary objective of this study was, therefore, to determine the core management factors, in order to establish a CSR framework for sustainable community development in South African coal mines. This study is embedded in the interpretivist-constructivist philosophy and followed an exploratory and descriptive multiple case study design. Participants in the inquiry were purposively sampled from coal mining companies A and B and the local municipality while community representatives were sampled by means of convenience. Qualitative data were generated through 18 semi-structured interviews, a focus group discussion, secondary data, and site observations. An inductive approach was followed in thematically analysing the data derived from the interview transcripts and handwritten notes taken during interviews and site observations. Data analysis was conducted using the qualitative computer software program Atlas.ti 22, which resulted in nine themes emerging from the data. The findings were related to literature in order to help answer the research question. This study established that CSR implementation in South Africa is largely influenced by legal prescripts, and that its practices are philanthropical and cognisant of cultural norms. Companies engage in CSR with a short-term perspective, which hinders maximisation of benefits to diverse beneficiaries. Several intra-organisational challenges are experienced in implementing CSR, namely insufficient staff and a lack of integrated systems, resulting in misalignment between policy and practice, as well as poor integration of CSR. CSR implementation by mining companies is framed within a collaborative environment between different spheres of government, which gives rise to a plethora of inter-organisational challenges. Current CSR systems reveal shortcomings relating to CSR planning, accountability and transparency, monitoring and evaluation of projects, reporting, and a general lack of information amongst the stakeholders is experienced. There is therefore a need to embed collaboration in legislated arrangements and systems of mining companies. The main research question of this study was answered through the identification of the core management factors required for successful CSR, which informed the development of a CSR framework for sustainable community development in South African coal mines. The identified management factors were integrated into the development of the theoretical framework, which is the main contribution of this study. The contextualised framework could be used in practice to guide CSR stakeholders in pursuit of sustainable community development.