1. Proposed Content
Chapter One: Introduction - France Maphosa and Langtone Maunganidze
This Chapter introduces the book. The study on which this book is based was carried out to explore the nature and extent of business-society relations in Botswana. The following general questions guided the study;
- How do business corporations in Botswana define roles in society?
- What are the social issues that business corporations in Botswana are involved in? - What is the nature and extent of business social involvement?
- What processes are employed by business in their involvement in social issues?
The chapter begins with a discussion of theories relating to the relationship between business and society as a way of contextualizing the case studies. It begins with the classical theories of Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and Theodore Leveitt up to the Edward Freeman's stakeholder theory. Authors also use different theoretical frameworks and model particular to their disciplines to analyse their findings. The chapter also discusses the key the concepts that have been used to describe the relationship between business and society such as corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, corporate social investment and business ethics.
Before narrowing down to the specific case of Botswana, Chapter One contextualizes the book to the African context. It therefore presents a brief discussion on corporate social responsibility in Africa. Nine countries, namely Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are examples of African countries that are used to provide a comparative perspective. The general picture emerging from the review of literature on corporate social responsibility in Africa is that it is not widely practiced, mainly because of weak legislation.
The Chapter then focuses on Botswana, providing the rationale for Botswana being the focus. This because the economic growth that Botswana has been experiencing since its independence in 1966 not led to meaningful improvement in the wellbeing of the poor. While it is widely acclaimed as Africa's economic "miracle" it is at the same time, high levels of poverty, inequality, unemployment and high rates of HIV/AIDS prevalence. This necessitates a discussion on the role of business in society to which this book seeks to contribute.
The uniqueness and strength of this book are that it is a product of a multidisciplinary team consisting of members with varied backgrounds including sociology, human resource management, criminology, archaeology and engineering. The contributors employed various research methodologies spanning the qualitative-quantitative divide. Both the composition of the research team and the methods used reflect the complexity of the relationship between business and society.
Chapter Two: Corporate Social responsibility and Strategic Business Planning in Botswana - France Maphosa
Dispite its impressive economic performance, Botswana still faces a number of problems including poverty, high levels of unemployment, inequality and high HIV prevalence. This contradiction demonstrates that the assumption that promoting the development of the private sector will lead to the improvement of the social conditions of the poor is flawed. Although businesses in Botswana generally regard CSR/CC favourably, most of them do not consider it as
About the Author:
France Maphosa is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Botswana. His research interests include migration and transnationalism, the sociology of entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, urban and rural livelihoods, labour studies and alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
Langtone Maunganidze is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. His research interests include industrial sociology, business and society, rural livelihoods and sustainable development, and entrepreneurship.
