Communication as a management tool for corporate social investment programmes

Abstract

The study investigates the extent to which communication is used as a management tool for Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programmes. To this end, the following objectives were formulated; To (a) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities facilitate the realisation of mutually beneficial goals, (b) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities is regular, (c) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities is empowering to communities, (d) determine if corporate social investment managers find a difference in communication efficiency between corporate social investment programmes in education and training on the one hand and other forms of CSI programmes on the other hand. In order to investigate the aims of the study two instruments were used viz, a closed-ended questionnaire and an interview schedule. There were two samples for the study which were corporate social investment practitioners (Public Relations Managers, Community Affairs Managers, Corporate Communications Managers or any other person designated to perform such a role) and the community members who are recipients of CSI funding.

The close-ended questionnaire was administered to corporate social investment practitioners and the interview schedule was used, to solicit data from recipients of funding. For the analysis of data a chi-square one sample test was used for the first four research objectives. After the analysis and interpretation of data was done, the study came to the following conclusions (a) Communication within CSI programmes facilitates the realisation of mutually beneficial goals between funding business organisations and the community (b) Communication between funding business organisations and communities is regular because there are scheduled dates for meetings and both parties observe these scheduled meetings (c) Communication between funding business organisations and communities is empowering to communities, and (d) There was a difference in communication efficiency between education and training programmes on the one hand and other sectors on the other hand.