Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria: western mimicry ...

Page32of44understanding and practice of CSR in Western economies, where CSRis argued to have ‘advanced’ beyond philanthropy:Today, corporate social responsibility goes far beyond theold philanthropy of the past – donating money to goodcauses at the end of the financial year – and is instead anall year round responsibility that companies accept for theenvironment around them, for the best working practices,for their engagement in their local communities and fortheir recognition that brand names depend not only onquality, price and uniqueness but on how, cumulatively,they interact with companies’ workforce, community andenvironment. Now we need to move towards a challengingmeasure of corporate responsibility, where we judgeresults not just by the input but by its outcomes: thedifference we make to the world in which we live, and thecontribution we make to poverty reduction. (GordonBrown, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UKgovernment)20The study also confirms that cultural manifestation of CSR does notnecessarily need to follow a linear progression as predicted by Carroll(1991, 2004). In Carroll’s model, economic responsibility is the firststage of CSR development while philanthropic responsibility is the laststage of CSR maturity. In the case of Nigeria, philanthropicresponsibilities were emphasised over and above other aspects of20(http://www.societyandbusiness.gov.uk/pdf/dti_csr_final.pdf)