Do you think it is a good idea for companies to use corporate social investment to promote their corporate image?

3. Trialogue “has found that medium – sized companies are compliance focused” explain what this means?

In practice, many environmental or contextual factors may directly bear on compliance risk management decision-making. These factors include:

• variations in a revenue authority’s financial resources that may substantially affect its capacity to deal with all of the major compliance risks identified;

• likely government positions on specific tax legislation changes (e.g. increased powers for revenue  officials) that may represent a positive (or negative) opportunity to deal with a compliance risk; and  

• Weaknesses or shortages in staff skills that may seriously impede a revenue authority’s ability to deal with certain major compliance risks.

 In a very practical sense, understanding the context in which the tax administration is to take place allows the authority to assess its sphere of influence — making clear what can or cannot be affected.  Knowing what can be affected helps to define what represents a risk and what does not, what risks require a mitigation strategy versus those that might require monitoring or those that can simply be ignored.

Compliance risk management is therefore a continuous process demanding awareness and proactive action.  It is based on reducing the likelihood and consequences of adverse impacts on agreed objectives and on increasing the opportunities for improvement through innovation.  The challenge for the future is to infuse risk  management  into  organisational culture and everyday business operations including planning, reporting and governance.  The journey itself is an important aspect in the development of the organisational culture necessary to support a risk management approach to compliance management.

4. Analyse the article, extract and list all the problems and challenges corporate social investment impose on businesses

• Their aim is to literally ‘alter attitudes’ and this philosophy has made a difference to the lives of people on rural South Africa. They have improved thousand of people that are living in poverty.
• One drawback of CSI is that community based projects often remain dependant on their donors for survival even though they are provided with huge amounts of money. Altered attitudes (CSI) has to set this right___ this is all part of CSI challenges they have to face and solve.
• Large companies employ altered attitudes cc to help them utilise their CSI money in a manner that is visible and sustainable. The job of CSI consist of various challenges like this
• In 2004, Altered Attitudes cc was commissioned by a public company to develop 6 community based organisations so that they could become self-sustaining.
• The 6 community-based organisations were registered as non profit organisation. The non-profit organisations will be able to continue operating independently of massive corporate investment.

5. Discuss the benefits business derives from implementing corporate social investment programmes. Refer to the article and mention other benefits you can think of.

• Their model has become a skills development resource for government and business. The model they have developed for CSI has become a resource for the government. That is good publicity for the business.
• Large corporations employ Altered Attitudes because of the good publicity.

In today’s tough business environment no company can afford to ignore being “Socially relevant” and not invest in the communities in which it operates. Well-executed social investment projects have a definite positive effect on the image of the company. Some benefits include:

• Provides a means to give something back to the community and enhances the caring image of the company;  

• Can improve relationships with the community;  

• Improves employee loyalty/morale;  

• Contributes to government’s poverty eradication programmes;  

• Help stabilise the economic and social environment for the corporation’s long-term survival;  

• Enhances business performance and the reaching of strategic goals;  

• Contributes to corporate brand identity;  

• Increases customer goodwill and loyalty; and  

• Provides opportunities to build relationships with business partners. 

More benefits:

• Social and political risk management.
• Relationship management, including the resolution of local disputes.
• New local skills and local procurement
• More effective environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment.
• More effective public consultation.
• Environmental management after site closure
• International standards, voluntary codes of practice.
• Involvement of local contractors in social risk management and social investment.
• Building trust and confidence and co-operation
• Consultation processes.
• Integration of business strategies with regional development plans, rural poverty adjustment schemes and local education programmes.

• Allocation of roles and responsibilities between partners and defining community expectations of business.
• Closure planning, decommissioning, site remediation, viable future land-use options and employment options.
• The funding of social investment projects aimed at local community development priorities.
• The management of foundations as vehicles for social investment.

6. Discuss the benefits communities derive from corporate social investment programmes. Refer to the articles and mention other benefits you can think of.

• Corporate social investment improves lives of the poor, people suffering with HIV/AIDS etc.
• Provides jobs for the unemployed, so that people could have food, shelter and be clothed.
• Education - for children and so that they can do specific jobs that needs a specific education.
• HIV/Aids – For breadwinners that dies to provide their family and people they were responsible for.
• Employee volunteerism – People will obtain skills that will enable them to become either employed or self employed.

7. Can you think of any problems communities experienced in relation to social corporate investment?

Building a relationship with communities who surround corporate operations is difficult. This is usually because business people have a different approach to the way business is conducted compared to how members of the local community would do it. Lecturers suggest that in South Africa there are two conflicting socio-business models. The European model is competitive and profit driven. The African model is social and politically driven. In many cases in South Africa corporate involved with CSI, who have adopted a more European approach are trying to uplift people who relate better to a spirit of ‘Ubuntu’ which translated means ‘I am because of what you are’. The communities tend to be more group orientated and inter-dependent where as corporate tend to be independent and target driven.

Furthermore, many of the community dwellers are rural people living day to day with a very basic education, minimal health care facilities, without electricity at subsistence levels. Carmichael and Drummond (1989:62) suggest that as a result it is not surprising that -

·Community groups ask for computers when they don’t have electricity;

·Community groups may direct funding requests to the wrong person;

·The form of the request, even if directed to the right person, may appear hopelessly un business like and be lacking fundamental information;

·A project that is enthusiastically proposed by a community group or by the respective company may lose momentum and diminish within three months; and

·Members of the community will not necessarily think or act like business people.