CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Towards the end of 1800’s to the early 1990’s the mission of business

firms was exclusively economic. During this period the cardinal purpose of

business owners is to make as much profit as possible. To underscore the

above assertion Milton Friedman (1972:88) had contended that the only

responsibility of the business is to make as much profit as it can for the

owners. Today partly due to the interdependencies of many groups in our

society the values goals and attitudes of the society changed significantly.

This accounts for the complexity in the society in the area of social

economic as well as environmental problems which have been experienced.

This situation is in consonance with the view of Ackerman (1973:89) when

he opined that the people increased awareness has brought some expectation

and demand to bear on companies to be socially responsible to the society in

which they operate. Thus we often talk about the social responsibility and

social responsiveness of all organizations although the focus of this study

shall be on corporate organizations. There is a question as to what the social

responsibility of business really means.

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The concept of social responsibility is not new although the idea was

already considered in the early part of the twentieth century. The modern

discussions of social responsibility got a major impetus with the book

“social responsibility of business men” by Howard .R. Bowen who

suggested that business actors should consider the social implications of

their decisions society being awakened with respect to the urgency of social

problems is asking managers and owners of business what they are doing to

discharge their social responsibility to the society in which they operate

given negative social impacts of their business on the society such as

pollutions of all kinds air water solid waste noise to mention but a few.

The concept of social responsibility refers to the firm’s consideration

of and responses to the issues beyond narrow economic technical and legal

requirement of the firm. It is the firm’s obligation to evaluate in its decision

making process the effects of its decision on the external social system in a

manner that should accomplish social benefits along with the traditional

economic gains which the firm seeks for. However Harper D. (1976) a

classical economist consistently argued against the need to do anything that

negates profit maximization. He sees business social responsibility as an

aberration Harper (1976).

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1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

Oil spillage in some of the oil producing state is alarming and some

pollution caused by industries in our country is on the high rate. The

problems of the communities where the oil companies operate bring these

problems constructively to the attention of the companies with which they

have developed regular form for meetings. These companies have created

ecological disaster gas flowing in the communities. Therefore the problem

to be looked into in this research is that a corporate organisation does not

bother about their social responsibility to the environment where they

operate. Furthermore poverty lack of essential facilities and unemployment

are increasing is alarming proportion. As a result the needs and expectation

of the society are not met by the business organisation.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The corporate organizations naturally have its own mix and different

emphasis. The overall objectives of every organisation are survival growth

profit economic contribution and social obligation. It is known fact that

firms in Nigeria usually lay more emphasis on profit maximization. The

objective of this research work includes the following:

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i. To examine the general attitude of ANAMMCO towards social

responsibility.

ii. To examine the consequences of the company ignoring its social

responsibilities.

iii. To evaluate the problems which hinder the performance of social

responsibility practice by ANAMMCO.

iv. To recommend possible solutions for the identified problems.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

To ensure an in-depth research work with a view to providing best

solutions to problems identified the study will make us of the following four

(4) research questions:

i. Could business organisation carryout a successful social

responsibility practice?

ii. Should social responsibility be legalized?

iii. In what form should social responsibility be performed?

iv. Where should funds for carrying out these social responsibility

programmes come from?

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1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Based on the four research questions already mentioned the following

hypotheses were formulated:

HYPOTHESES 1

Ho: Business organizations can not carryout a successful social

responsibility practice.

Hi: Business organizations can significantly carry out a successful social

responsibility practice.

HYPOTHESES II

Ho: Business social responsibility should not be legalized.

Hi: Business social responsibility practices should be significantly

legalized.

HYPOTHESES III

Ho: Social responsibility practices cannot be achieved in any form.

Hi: Social responsibility practice can reasonably be achieved in different

form.

HYPOTHESES IV

Ho: There is no place to source funds for carrying out social responsibility

practice.

Hi: There are sources of fund for financing social responsibility practice.

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1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The importance of the study cannot be over-emphasized given the

interdependencies of many groups in our society. The study is therefore

important because it will not only examine the attitude of business

organisation towards the issue of social responsibility but will go a long way

to help these organisation on policy making decision in order to eliminate

the negative effects and consequences of these attitudes in the discharge of

social responsibility practices. The study will be of immense benefit to

researchers and students looking for more information on this topic.

Another significance of this research is that it will help in finding

ways to improve relationship between the company and the town in which it

operates. It enables manager of different organizations to know actually

what social responsibility is all about and it will also help them to know the

difference between social problem and economic performance. The study

will equally be beneficial to private and public sector organizations.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.

The study as earlier specified aims at appraising the social

responsibility practice by corporate organizations in Enugu using Anambra

Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO) as case study. The study is

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therefore restricted to the study of the ANAMMCO as a corporate

organization in Emene Enugu.

It is however expected that the study of ANAMMCO Emene Enugu

would give enough information on how business social responsibility can

successfully be rendered by other categories of business firms

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

In the course of carrying out this research work some difficulties

were encountered. The constraints were however managed; among these

were time materials and financial constraints.

TIME:

Time factor was one of the constraints faced by the researcher;

however the researcher took time management seriously as the study was

successful. So many useful times was involved to make the study as the

researcher had to combine full time employment with the collection of data

for the work.

MATERIALS:

It is not easy for the materials to be collected or obtained due to

limited books journals and other reference materials particularly obtaining

information from the case organization was a tedious exercise as some

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information was termed “vital confidential or classified” and are out of

reach despite the purpose and intentions to which they were requested for

though some management staff and senior supervisors were very helpful as

they assisted in providing necessary data that formed the basis for this

project write-up conclusion and recommendations.

FINANCE:

Financial problem was also encountered by the researcher in the

course of the work. This constraint informed the study of only one corporate

organization. Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO).

Notwithstanding the above constraints the quality of the research work

could not be impaired.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERM

ANAMMCO: Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company

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REFERENCES

Ackerman R. and Bauer W. (1973). Corporate Social Responsibility; The

Modern Dilema New York: Preston Publishing Company Inc.

Harper D. (1976). A View of the Corporate Role in the Society Houston:

Carriage Melon University Press

Milton Friedman (1972). Capitalism and Freedom Chicago: University of

Chicago Press

Enudu T.O. (2005). Corporate Planning in Modern Organizations: A

Fundamental Approach Lagos: Johnkens and Willy Publications Ltd.

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