Corporate social responsibility initiatives and project performance in the mining industry in Kenya: a case of Tata Chemicals Magadi

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility is a self-regulating business model that helps a company to be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders and public. The general objective of the study is to establish the effects of corporate social responsibility on project performance in the mining industry in Kenya. Specific objectives include; determining optimal resources that have been leveraged evaluate effect of local engagement in management decisions, examine the effect of Leadership commitment to CSR sustainability performance. Different theories and literature relating to the study were reviewed and the emerging knowledge gap identified. The research was conducted in the mining industry specifically within Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited (TCML). The target population was 300 respondents from different departments including marketing and supply chain (internally) and externally the population included women and young people. The researcher used stratified random sampling. From the possible 300 target population, stratified random sampling was employed to select a total of 72 sample population. This is 24% of the total population. The method used for data collection was quantitative design where a structured questionnaire was used to get the views. Both qualitative and quantitative process was used to analyze the data that was collected and compute the information using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings were presented to the panelists by use of power point presentation. For the effect of key resources leveraged on project performance, it was demonstrated that R square value of the model was 0.438 indicating that 43.8% of project performance is influenced by key resources leveraged. For effect of leadership motivation to CSR on project performance, it was demonstrated that the R square value of the model was 0.399 indicating that 39.9% of project performance is influenced by leadership motivation. For effect of leadership motivation to CSR on project performance, it was demonstrated that the R square value of the model was 0.399 indicating that 39.9% of the project performance is influenced by leadership motivation. For local community engagement in management decisions on project performance, a mean score of 4.342 was achieved which was the highest mean score of all the aspects of CSR. The study therefore, concludes that these factors are important to organization in terms of their influence on the implementation of CSR but their consistency with project performance has yet to be supported by the study. It further concludes that CSR reflects the cultural importance in terms of project performance and it also concludes that there is a connection between the key resources leveraged and project performance. The study recommends that companies should focus on motivating its employees as this is vital in achieving and retaining competitive advantage. The study also recommends company should select project members carefully to enhance its performance. It also endorses that a similar study to be conducted on the influence of CSR initiatives on project performance on other industries.