“Understanding the words of relationships”: Language as an essential tool to manage CSR in communities of place

Abstract

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) encounter relentless stakeholder pressures when operating across linguistic, cultural and institutional boundaries. Our aims are to examine whether and how acquisition of language resources may help MNEs to bridge these boundaries and reduce pressures on MNE legitimacy by improving their corporate social responsibility (CSR) outcomes. We propose an MNE model of language resource acquisition policy based on three language orientations: "language-as-problem," "language-as-resource" and "languageas-right." Using sociolinguistic tools -an "ecological" analysis of how language affects MNE-stakeholder relationships -and surveying 15 mining MNEs from Australia, Canada, China, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom operating in East Africa, our research found some MNEs employ regional lingua francas like Swahili and local leadership practices to build sustainable relationships with local stakeholders. These local stakeholders are members of communities of place (CofP), who steward the land their ancestors have inhabited for centuries, and their voices have grown as to how that land is used. As their voices have grown, MNEs should improve CSR outcomes with CofP through better communications. A well-designed language acquisition policy may improve such communication and so fend off threats to MNE legitimacy.

Business sustainability research: A theoretical and integrated perspective

“…Other studies (e.g., Hopwood, 2009;Gray, 2010;Bebbington and Larrinaga, 2014;) examine the importance of the proper accounting, reporting, and assurance of sustainability information in disclosing relevant financial and non-financial information to all stakeholders. Selmier, Newenham-Kahindi and Oh (2015) propose a business model of language resource acquisition policy to communicate non-financial CSR/ESG sustainability performance information to stakeholders.…”

Managing sustainable development through people

“…In developing nations with a high level of institutional voids and unregulated economic activities, MNEs face numerous challenges, opportunities and risks (DeSoto, 2000). Extractive mining MNEs, for example, whose activities are limited within specific geographical areas are of particular interest in addressing stakeholder relations, because opposition to them has likewise become increasingly globalized and their activities remain contentious (Kapelus, 2002;Newenham-Kahindi, 2011;Newenham-Kahindi and Stevens, 2012;Selmier et al, 2015). Local communities, for example, have often challenged mining MNEs on a wide range of issues such as profit flows, tax revenues, royalties, MNEs' rights to extract minerals, rights to compensation measures, rights to be engaged in community involvement, dialogue and the long-term impact on their land, as well as social issues such as job creation, water supply and health services (Calvano, 2008;Muthuri et al, 2012).…”

“…As far as this paper is concerned, we argue that by engaging MNEs in sustainable development activities, first and foremost with employees' internally, either through training or through making it part of their career growth, employees can inform MNEs about the importance of localizing CSR programs at work and in communities where they live. This approach can also lead MNEs to increase business innovation and market opportunities as they are forced to adapt to hostile conditions across various institutional contexts (Prahalad and Hart, 2002;Selmier et al, 2015;Waddell, 1999). The potential benefits to MNEs are likewise numerous, including gaining access to large amounts of capital, resources and market (Oster, 1995), improved efficiencies and accountability (Bartlett and Beamish, 2008), and exploiting economies of scale and large distribution networks (O'Regan and Oster, 2000).…”

“…convergence model of CSR (Kapelus, 2002;Newenham-Kahindi, 2011 (UNDP, 2005). The arrival of some of these MNEs from emerging markets (so-called BRICS) such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has been responsible for the growing interest in international comparative management studies (Child and Tse, 2001;Khanna et al, 2005;Selmier et al, 2015), which present an alternative sectoral form of interaction within global and local contexts in dealing with CSR challenges.…”

“…Yet, poverty, ecological impacts on communities and increased community dissatisfaction toward MNEs' CSR programs have been reported (East African Community, 2011). At the same time, the host government of the MNEs, Tanzania, has done little to provide essential public services to these communities in our sample (Newenham-Kahindi, 2010, 2011Selmier et al, 2015). Because of these gaps in the host government, MNEs have been forced to fill voids in public welfare across communities.…”