Consultas médicas de los ejemplares

Economic responsibilities or drivers are more emphasised by hotel and lodge companies in Livingstone than the other six factors in making their CSR decisions. The main explanation given was that economic drivers provide opportunities for companies to meet their profitmaking interests, as well as to foster some improvements in the lives of people in Mukuni communities through CSR that offer mutual benefits. According to the philosophies of two of the large hotel companies in Livingstone, CSR is an investment (see sections 5.2.1 and 5.2.2). Furthermore, all the eight managers considered CSR as a “selling point” for their businesses which some companies connected, especially large ones, with improving corporate image and staff morale. This finding is in line with Moon (2007, p. 300) who states that many companies see CSR as part and parcel of their competitive edge. From a local procurement perspective, CSR is viewed by hotel and lodge companies in Livingstone as a means to cut down on input costs. Selected sentiments of managers below reflect these views:

“…We engage in CSR to be seen to have good public relations…it is good for our business and good for staff morale because it motivates our workforce…when they participate in CSR activities run by the hotel in their communities, a certain sense of achievement makes them happier and motivated in their work. It is also good for our guests to visit to see what we are doing to help communities …But in earnest, it is a selling point for the business and helps to improve our corporate image for visitors who want to stay at a hotel that gives back to communities and want to see this in practice…” (Tourism Resort Managers, July – November, 2014).

139

A comparative scrutiny of these views shows that the need to improve corporate image and cutting down input costs are more emphasised by large companies than smaller ones, while staff motivation was emphasised by both large and small companies. These company philosophies outlined above are dominant in shaping CSR in the study area. Senior government officials and community participants were thus concerned about a lack of commitment among tourism companies. These participants were of the view that hotel and lodge companies have not done as much as are expected in terms of giving back to communities in Mukuni. They claimed that most of them focus more on CSR that offer them high business returns than those that can emancipate communities from poverty. They argued that emancipating communities seems to be the last thing on the agenda of these companies in Livingstone:

“…companies always claim that they make losses and give this as a reason for being overly simplistic when giving back to surrounding communities on whose land they operate…we are yet to see one of these companies that will come up and say am making a profit…when it comes to CSR and taxes, they want to claim that they are making losses, at the same time they do not want to go out of business. If they are making a loss, why are they still in business? It means they are hiding something. We are concerned about poor working conditions and low wages of employees recruited from communities...” (Tourism Department Officials, July, 2014).

“…Mukuni people were promised benefits and improvements for allowing big hotel companies…to invest on Mukuni land. However, these benefits have not come forth….we have not seen much change...but companies continue to make profits and have forgotten about their earlier promises…some even discourage their guests from visiting local crafts and curio markets...besides, they display crafts and curios in their premises creating undue competition with us poor community traders. This shows that these companies are not interested to see change and improvement in communities…maybe we need to sign more agreements if communities will ever benefit from tourism developments in the area…” (Community Participants, August- November, 2014).

140

However, in spite of these sentiments, senior government officials and community participants both acknowledged that if companies were doing well in their businesses they would be more likely to participate in CSR and would be able to support communities more. At the same time, they recognise that this is not a guarantee in itself that high benefits will automatically materialise to communities. They suggested the need to have measures put in place to check or regulate the behaviour of companies with regard to CSR issues (see next section). In connection with the business environment, senior government officials admitted that concerns had been registered by companies operating in the tourism industry, particularly with the tourism policy framework and licensing issues. They disclosed that companies had already appealed to Government through the Ministry of Tourism to address licensing issues and to remove challenges that negatively affect their businesses and their abilities to roll out their CSR plans in Mukuni and other communities. On the other hand, community participants emphasised the need to search for factors that can motivate a real change of behaviour among hotel and lodge companies in the area to commit more to community development through CSR than are the current indication.