ASSESSMENT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PRACTICES OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY: THE CASE OF MATAHARA SUGAR FACTORY

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the informal governing rule to meet the societal needs from corporate. The concern of CSR relates with the economic, social and environmental impact of a business firm’s activities to the society at large. The CSR requires volunteering actions by the business firms. The motivation of this research is address the knowledge gap in the sugar industy in Ethiopia. The objective of this research was to assess CSR practice of the sugar industry towards its management body, employment, consumer, environment, community, stakeholders and its engagements. To attain the stated objective of the study relevant data was collected through questionnaire, interviews, review of documents, and observation. Respondents to questionnaire were selected using systematic random sampling tehcniques. Interview with concerned officials were made using convenience sampling.. To analysis the collected data, descriptive techniques were used. The result shows that the factory objective in practicing CSR activities is marketing, community development, environment and voluntary activities related were under taken as responses. The factory has a full compliance to the CSR rules and regulation of the country. The factory is more of reactive, not proactive interms of discharging its social responsibility. In this factory the act of CSR is used as a marketing tools. The major recomandation is the factory should be proactive in discharging CSR supported by plan