Corporate social responsibility as a strategic tool for stakeholder management in large scale enterprises in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to establish the extent to which Larges Scale Enterprises in Kenya have entrenched Corporate Social Responsibility in their master strategies, and whether they have put in place structures and mechanisms that ensure sustainability of their social responsibility programs and sustainability of the benefits delivery to the stakeholders. The study focused on Large Scale Enterprises in Kenya covering all sectors of the economy. The study used descriptive survey method. Structured questionnaires were administered to 60 managing and corporate affairs directors. Telephone Interviews were used also to obtain in-depth information on issues that could not be adequately covered in the questionnaires. The population of this study was 103 Larger Scale Enterprises that had more than 200 permanent staff and annual sales in excess of Kes500m according to the list held by Central Bureau of statistics and verified by Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. The study established that the top priority CSR objective for most organizations across the sectors is support for education. Provision of vocational life skills was least attended to except by subsidiaries of multinationals. The study also found that Large Scale Enterprises attend to youth, water and disabled persons programs on a need basis. These were not core in their CSR policy objectives. Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Corporate Communications Manager or Public Relations Manager is responsible for the development of the CSR policy in most of Large Scale Enterprise. However these organizations CSR policies are approved by board of directors. Employee involvement in CSR policy design was high though there was little or no involvement of external stakeholders at this stage. External stakeholders involvement in CSR policy implementation was however high.