Which choice for CSR? Indomie, Kalypo, Condom; University don calls for policy implementation

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important intervention by organisations to help society, a project and applied management specialist, Professor Daniel Frimpong Ofori, has said its effectiveness depends on whether the Indomie, Kalypo or Condom approach is applied.

At his inaugural lecture at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, Accra, last Thursday, Prof. Ofori stirred a mix of curiosity and interest.
Doing justice to the topic, "Of Indomie, Kalypo and Condoms: An intimate conversation about Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana", the management professor and Provost of the College of Humanities of the university pricked the conscience of society and the corporate environment in particular, as he discussed the essence of CSR and the approaches to obtaining its purpose, among other elements that underpin the subject matter.

He said beyond the established approaches to CSR, namely as an act of philanthropy; as a business strategy option; as an act based on ethical and moral values; for achieving social sustainability; or based on shared values, the act ultimately manifested in one of three forms: it is either the Indomie, Kalypo approach or the Condom approach.

Prof. Ofori described the Indomie approach as the case where CSR happened as an event, a happenstance or as an activity, while referring to the Kalypo approach as the case of an organisation choosing to do several planned events or just a planned event in a year.

The condom approach, he explained, referred to the type that changed or sustained lives such as how some organisations responded to the advent of COVID-19, bearing in mind that the use of condom was to save lives.

The professor who has worked in many capacities as a management consultant, clearly established that CSR encompassed not only what companies did with their profits, but also how they made them, moving from profitability to accountability.

Prof. Ofori said CSR also went beyond philanthropy and compliance, and addressed how companies managed their economic, social and environmental impacts.

He stressed that CSR also covered managing relationships in all key spheres of influence: workplace, marketplace, supply chain, community, public, etc.

Hence, making profit unethically at the expense of the worker, community and the environment could certainly not obtain legitimacy in the community in which it operates, a situation that underpins the legitimate theory of what CSR actually represents.

Amid the researched work and presentation, interspersed with musical sideshows that featured 11 songs from 14 artistes, such as Samini, Tinny, Kokoveli, Shatta Wale, Sarkodie, Ofori Amponsah, Black Sheriff (who sang about Kwaku Frimpong) and other foreign artistes such as Burna Boy, Prof. Yaw Frimpong digested the subject in all its forms, purpose, ethics, and even the legal basis.

Ultimately, he appealed to the government to make public and implement the National Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy which has been dormant since 2016.

Policy

The policy is a codified set of rules and regulations to regulate as well as provide a pathway for CSR operations in Ghana.

Prof. Ofori, one of the framers of the policy, appears frustrated that after putting in so much work, the document was still stuck at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The government facilitated the drafting of the policy which was started in 2013 with funding from the German International Development Cooperation, GIZ.

The project, according to Professor Ofori, was coordinated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. 

The final document was submitted to the ministry in 2014, and 18 months later, approved by cabinet and launched in the same year, 2016.

He said the implementation of the policy document was crucial to help correct and streamline the haphazard way some organisations handled CSR.

Occasion

The lecture by Prof. Ofori, who has considerable teaching, research and consulting experience in CSR and strategy, was the third by the university in the academic year, as the institution showcases its bunch of academic knowledge and help in knowledge sharing with fellow academics across the world.

It attracted a wide array of representations. They included Supreme Court Judge and former faculty of the university, Justice Prof. Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu; an Appeal Court Judge, Justice Prof. Olivia Anku-Tsede; the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University, Prof. Bill Populampu; former Rector of UNIMAC-GIJ, Prof. Kwamena Quansah-Aidoo; the Krontihene of Obomeng Traditional Council, Nana Kwesi Dwamena Anim II; representatives from GIZ, students, faculty, family and friends of Prof. Ofori. 

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid; the CEO of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku-Ware Ampomah, and the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, were also present.

Structure

The Professor of Management at the University of Ghana Business School said per the organogram of the policy, it was to have a CSR Secretariat to spearhead periodic policy reviews and responsible for developing strategy and guidelines at all levels.

It was also to have a national CSR steering committee full of experts in the field to regulate the policy, but "it appears to have been botched."

The policy document is to, among other things, discourage treating CSR as happenstance or an event (indomie) or an occasional project (Kalypo) and treat it as a life safer (condom).

He said the era of treating CSR as a philanthropic gesture was no longer feasible, calling for a change in the narration.

Considered as one of the best presentations in recent times, with a unique style of lacing his lecture with appropriate music to tell his story, the professor identified four issues that organisations faced in implementing CSR.

Quoting from the first African CSR survey involving six countries, for which he wrote the Ghana chapter, Prof. Ofori named them as leadership and governance; policy framework or the manuscript that governed the organisation; monitoring and reporting, and strategic communication.

He said key to the success of CSR was stakeholder engagement or the stakeholder approach, where the communities were involved in the decision making process.

Contribution

Beyond research, Prof. Ofori has made contributions to professional development (theory), policy and governance.

For his contribution to theory, Prof. Ofori said a study he conducted found that internationally connected firms subscribed more to the contemporary notion of CSR, and were, therefore, more strategic, moral and ethical in their approach to CSR than local companies. Their local counterparts which had no international connections suffered from lack of exposure to CSR benefits, and hence were less strategic and less ethical. 

He also found that organisations where the executive and management were ethical, believing in a deity, they structured things well.
Prof. Ofori said organisational culture was also important in shaping CSR, indicating that when the organisation itself did the right things and did them well, the people changed accordingly.

“Job seekers also like organisations that think about them. They like responsibility and the organisations to be good to them first before any others,” he said.

Congratulations

The Vice-Chacellor, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, who chaired the function and also presented a brief about the presenter, explained that such lecturers enabled professors and the university to showcase what they had been doing and their contributions to the body of knowledge.

He commended Prof. Ofori for his contributions to theory, practice and policy, highlighting how the work of academics shaped various spheres of the world.

“We are there for the public good; we educate people and train them,” she said.

Prof. Amfo said through the delivery of Prof. Ofori it was evident that CSR had come to stay, and society needed to be deliberate about it.