Assessing Community Empowerment and Engagement towards ‘Better’ Corporate
Social Responsibility: A case of Surat Basin mining communities in Australia
Abstract: Though the dichotomy in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) discourse in
developed and developing countries is very much evidenced, the issue of addressing gaps in
CSR practice is not just an issue in developing countries but a worldwide problem. Past
literatures have argued for the need for an enabling platform for beneficiaries to express their
concerns through a stakeholder dialogue. This study considers a new dimension of the
argument and posits that local communities who are key beneficiaries of CSR do not have
what it takes to effectively engage in consultation and dialogue hence the need for
community empowerment as a prerequisite to engagement. Case study approach within a
naturalistic and interpretivist paradigm is the research design for this proposed study. The
specific case involves the CSR practices of Origin Energy in the Surat Basin region within
the context of community engagement. Qualitative data will be collected using interviews,
focus group discussions and observations of participant communities and the company. The
case study is focused on gaining an improved understanding of the current CSR practices of a
case mining company, the level of community’s engagement in current CSR practices and
how elements of empowerment can avert engagement challenges to help make CSR more
localised. This achieved will make CSR practices more development driven to promote
sustainable development in local communities. The proposed study is significant as it aims to
make empirical, policy and theoretical contributions towards current CSR practice discourse
within the context of community empowerment and engagement.
1.1
Synopsis of Literature
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development are two concepts that
have received a lot of research interests in the recent decades. CSR implies that companies
take into account social and environmental concerns when carrying out their financial goals,
as the fundamental indicators of sustainable development involves the social, economic and
environmental outcomes (Jenkins and Yakovlena, 2006). Nevertheless, the paternalistic mode
of CSR of companies in the extractive industry has made their CSR practices1 to follow a
‘Decide-Inform-Execute’ pattern which undermines effective community engagement. In
cases where local communities are consulted, the consultation exercises have usually been
superficial and grossly inadequate as CSR practitioners believe locals have little to add to its
design (Frynas, 2005).
Recent literatures have indicated that a successful implementation of the CSR requires active
participation of local communities who are often the key beneficiaries. For instance, ISO
(2010) share the view that identification of and engagement with stakeholders are
fundamental to CSR practice. In Australia, there is an undoubted growth in corporate
community activity which is evidenced more generally in the growth of voluntary corporate
participation in initiatives such as the Australian Corporate Responsibility Index, the Prime
Minister’s Community Business Partnership Awards, and the Global Reporting Initiative
(Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, 2006). Nevertheless,
authors like Cronin and Zappalà, (2001) share the view that there is still far to go before these
partnerships can be considered truly strategic and innovative to impact CSR practices of
businesses.
1
In this thesis, CSR practice is defined as the “ongoing, regular, daily activities of the organization” (ISO,
2010). CSR practice is not only the codes of conduct, or the sustainability reports but also the actual activities in
between.
It is observed from literature that current CSR practices of the extractive industry is
characterised with diverse gaps such as less/no involvement of local communities, bias
management priority ranking of stakeholder demands and the practice well-grounded in the
philanthropic approach rather than it being integrated into their business strategies and
organizational practices. Considering these identified CSR gaps with the practice, the study
intends to first empower locals which can have trickling down effect to promote effective
engagement in CSR activities. Moreover, the all-inclusive and better nature of CSR practices
that the study intends to develop can help justify the need for companies to incorporate the
practice into their business strategies and practices to help yield the maximum output.
1.2
Research Questions and Objectives
The main objective of the research is to examine how empowering stakeholders can promote
effective engagement in CSR design and to offer a framework of effective CSR practice. To
achieve this objective, the following research questions have been designed.
1. What are the present CSR practices of the extractive industry?
2. What are the challenges that impedes on effective community engagement in CSR
decision making and implementation?
3. What are the impacts of community empowerment and engagement on CSR
practices?
4. What are the impacts of ‘better’ CSR practices on sustainable development of mining
communities?
1.3
Research Methodology
A research design is viewed as the general plan on how the research is set up, what happens to the
subjects and what methods of data collection are used (McMillan and Schumacher, 2007). The major
intent of a research design is to provide a framework which will help generate empirical evidence that
will be used to answer the research questions for the study. With reference to the research questions
designed for this study, the qualitative approach will be used for the data collection and analysis. The key
data collection tools that will be used under this approach are interviews and Focus Group Discussions
(FDGs). Data and information will also be collected from secondary sources. Case study approach within
a naturalistic and interpretivist paradigm is the research design for this proposed study.
Also, the study considers the purposive (snowball) sampling approach as the appropriate technique for
obtaining the needed data. According to Patton (2002), samples selected for a study are believed to be
likely knowledgeable and informative about the phenomena that form the key issue. Communities for the
study are selected using the purposive sampling technique to help sample communities who have
experience with the key issue under consideration.
The study will use both primary and secondary sources of data. The secondary data will be the collection
of available CSR, SIMP and EIS reports of the case company: Origin Energy. Secondary data will include
issues discussed in CSR reports such as mode of CSR practices, key projects in CSR, level of community
involvement and other related issues. The primary data collection will involve three stages which is
captured in Table 1.
Table 1: Research questions and their corresponding hypothesis, data collection tool and the source of
data.
Research
Research Hypothesis
Data Collection Tool
Supporting
Questions
& Source of Data
theory/ models
RQ 1.
H1: The mode of CSR practices affects the CSR Report, SIMP CSR Theory
level of community engagement.
reports and EIS.
Stakeholder Theory
H2: Community engagement has impacts on Interview with the
CSR practice outputs.
management
and Bartlett’s
community
relation Taxonomy of CSR
officers.
Practices model
RQ 2.
H3: Building local community capacity FDG – Members of Stakeholder Theory
promotes community engagement in CSR the
sampled
Community
practices.
communities.
Empowerment
Model
H4: Building community power/influence
positively impacts community engagement
in CSR practices.
H5: Improving community access to
information
promotes
community
engagement in CSR practices.
RQ 3.
H6: Promoting Transparency in CSR system
ensures high community engagement in
CSR practices.
H7: Community engagement can improve FDG – Members of the Carroll’s
CSR
sampled communities
Philanthropic mode of CSR practices.
Pyramid Model
H8: Community engagement has positive In-depth Interviews –
impacts on commercial advantage CSR key Respondents
Bartlett’s
practices of firms
Taxonomy of CSR
Practices model
H9: Community engagement can promote
business legitimacy/ sustainability CSR
practices
RQ 4.
H10: Community engagement can positively
impacts performance CSR practices of firms
H11: ‘Better’ CSR practice promote Interview with the
economic development in host communities management
and
community
relation
H12: ‘Better’ CSR practice promote social officers.
inclusion in development plans in mining
communities
Interview
with
sampled respondents
H13: ‘Better’ CSR practices ensure good of each community.
environmental performance in mining
communities.
Triple bottom-Line
Model
SIMP
EIS
Each hypothesis is grouped under each of the principal research questions for the study and hence
assessment of the hypothesis will be done in answering the particular question. Also, the study
adopts different data collection strategies to obtain data for examining each hypothesis in order to
provide answers to the research question under which it is grouped.
1.5
Contribution of the research
Considering the ultimate goal, objective as well as the research questions that this study, it intends
to make significant contributions that will be helpful to policy makers, management of corporations,
community empowerment practitioners, state governments as well as researchers in the field of
academia. The contributions of the study are succinctly captured under three main broad groups:
empirical, theory and policy.
Empirical
The study will provide empirical evidence that shows community empowerment and engagement
can have a significant impact on the CSR practices of companies. The approach that will be adopted
in the study will be the first of its kind to be applied in the extractive industry hence serving as a
pathway for mining companies to adopt in its CSR operations. The developed ideology on effective
community engagement of this study can serve as fundamental pillar for Origin Energy and other
extractive companies for their SIMP and EIS preparation, as stakeholder engagement is a key
principle in such practice. This will help management of companies to reap the full potential of
their CSR projects and programs in host communities. Also, the extension of the discussion to
involve the extent to which these factors like how power, urgency and legitimacy affect community
engagement in CSR practices in the extractive industry introduces a new dimension of the issue to
literature. This will therefore help provide new evidence on some emerging issues that practitioners
need to incorporate into empowerment programs
Theory
The contextual model of the study will help make significant theoretical contribution to body of
knowledge. The model has more expanded contents and help fill gaps that were identified in earlier
models discussed in the literature such as the integrated model of Carroll and Wood by Jamali &
Mirshak, (2007). For instance, whereas all outputs of the integrated Carroll and Wood CSR model
were considered on the social grounds with no emphasis on the economic and the environmental
outcomes, the contextual model adopt the three fundamental sustainability indicators discussed in
the TBL model as the key output parameters for assessing sustainable development. This helps to
provide a suitable substitute model for related future research.
Policy
The study is expected to make significant contribution towards the Resource Communities
Partnership Agreement (RCPA) of the Queensland Government which is aimed to develop
prosperous regions and liveable communities in four mining basins of Queensland (QRC,
2009). Despite the substantial role that mining industry is tasked in the QRC Agreement,
there is no study yet that tackles “Community Empowerment and Engagement in CSR
design” as a strategy to realizing this set goal for the State’s mining basins. The study will
therefore provide policy recommendations that can be helpful to policy makers, decision
makers as well as planners of such regions to ensure that development businesses and
communities occurs in more sustainable and mutual manner.
References
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Australia’s Top Companies’. Journal of Corporate Citizenship.
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