Corporate Culture and Social Impact

This article provides insights into how selected Zimbabwean organisations are striving to embed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their Corporate Cultures (CC) for effective Social Impact/Change through creating shared value (CSV). CSR has since developed from being a Public Relations tool used to mitigate against risk to being a business strategy in many organisations. However business strategies are usually top management's worry and CSR has to progress further to be a shared practice and philosophy in corporations. Literature indicates that effective CSR is voluntary and this goes a long way in creating a culture of the same. The development of CSR frameworks is a move towards involuntary CSR, for example the Zimbabwean mining sector has seen the development of Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs) as a CSR framework. Although this is a forced initiative, most mining organizations have tried to embrace the CSOT framework in addition to their already existing CSR initiatives resulting in the creation of shared value with the communities that surround them. Notable voluntary CSR initiatives that have had remarkable social impacts have been undertaken across most sectors in Zimbabwe. The findings of the study revealed that in trying to create a CSR culture that result in sustainable value creation and positive social change most organisations are faced with challenges like internal lack of understanding of CSR, the pursuit of unsustainable initiatives and lack of proper stakeholder consultation. These consequently impact negatively on the efforts of creating and sustaining a culture of corporate social responsibility.