AN APPRAISAL OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON CORPORATE ORGANIZATION IN ENUGU. (A CASE STUDY OF ANAMBRA MOTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY (ANAMMCO) EMENE, ENUGU).

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.