First Inter Faculty Lecture at GIJ

THE acting Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Mr Kweku Rockson, has called on corporate bodies to clearly distinguish between corporate branding and corporate social responsibility.
He noted that some businesses had neglected their social responsibilities and were focusing on branding and marketing of their companies.
Mr Rockson referred to initiatives like beauty pageants, soccer academies and reality shows, among other things, as mere promotional activities.
He made the call at the first Inter Faculty Lecture of the GIJ on the theme, “How responsive has Ghana been to the Global Corporate Social Responsibility Imperative”.
Mr Rockson said more organisations were practising more of social responsibility investment which benefitted their companies to the detriment of their social responsibility.
He said corporate social responsibility had become a global norm for organisations to engage in not-for-profit endeavours which were socially and economically responsive to the sectors and communities in which they operated.
The Rector said in the United States of America (USA), corporate social responsibility had been positioned more in terms of a philanthropic model, where corporate entities were expected to make profits so far as they paid their taxes and set aside a percentage for charity.
Mr Rockson pointed out that investment in corporate ethics and social responsibility, as well as avoiding negative consequences could often lead to “positive payoffs”.
The Rector justified the practice of corporate social responsibility as a sense of moral obligation of firms towards helping the society deal with its problems and to contribute to its welfare.
“For instance, 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world are corporations so they have to assume responsibility similar to that of the government”, he noted.
Some critics, he noted, were of the view that a number of corporations undertook corporate social responsibility activities for public relations policies to raise their profile with their communities, societies or the government.
He commended the Graphic Communications Group for creating the platform for corporate governance advocacy through its yearly “Governance Dialogues”.
The Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Kwabena Ampem-Darko, who chaired the function asked corporate entities to invest more of their profits in the society.