| Summary: | In the twenty first century it became evident that organisations should no longer only be
managed in the interest of its shareholders, but also in that of their stakeholders.
Businesses are now being requested to scrutinise their 'sphere of influence' to mitigate
negative impacts on society and to build win-win relationships with their stakeholders.
Since apartheid resulted in enormous gaps between the income and education levels of
blacks and whites, it could be said that the responsibility of South-African organisations
is far huger than those of organisations in developed countries. According to Rockey
(2002:116), the pressure to deliver and communicate meaningful corporate social
responsibility (CSI) programmes does not only originate from government, but also from
the general public. According to Freeman (1984) and Steyn (2002a), these groups could
even prevent an organisation from fulfilling its strategic objectives.The fact of the matter
is that these groups would not like to know which detergent 'washes whitest', but
whether an organisation is investing sufficiently in the communities supporting its
brands.
Although many sources reflected the necessity of CSI and stakeholder management.
none of the sources analysed applied the management of stakeholders within CSI-programs
to academic institutions. The NWU was selected as an investigation unit
seeing that it had been was involved in corporate involvement projects ever since it was
still known as the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. Therefore the
general aim of this study was to determine how strategic communication management
was applied in the corporate social involvement programs of the NWU.
A qualitative research approach was followed, which consisted of an extensive literature
study, content analysis and in depth interviews. The stakeholder theory and the two-way
symmetrical approach were used as the backbone of this study while Reed's critical
theory perspective was applied within the socio-economic conditions of South-Africa.
A content analysis on documentation such as policies and brochures revealed that the
University was involved in a vast number of corporate social involvement programs. The
image portrayed showed that the University was quite keen on community upliftment. In
contrast to this, in-depth interviews revealed that several of these programs are
practised for personal gain and not necessarily out of concern for the community.
Results showed that the University's approach was mainly financially orientated and
would be even more so in the future. It could therefore be concluded that the corporate social involvement programs of the NWU are not managed according to the principals of
the stakeholder theory. === Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007
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