Corporate community engagement framework for stakeholder relations in the extractive sector in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Stakeholder relations and Corporate Community Engagement (CCE) are both important activities that can and should be used to promote extractive sector success and sustainability. Success can be realised through stakeholder relations that is transformational in context and adaptive in character: to achieve sustainability outcomes envisaged in the CCE framework. For a transforming South African economy, sustainability should not be constrained by ineffective stakeholder relationship but contextual to the character of Corporate Community Engagement (CCE) activities for success. This study presents a framework to support effective stakeholder relations compatible with a transforming economy and supportive of CCE activities of mining companies. The characteristic of a transforming society postulate disparate perceptions of CCE and lack of its effectiveness is reported to be common. The varied perception of CCE effectiveness present the opportunity for a new framework to manage stakeholder relations for sustainability. To achieve the aim of the study, evidence of perception were collected through an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach. This approach enabled the collection of qualitative data using in-depth interviews on sixteen (16) purposefully selected employees from eight participating CCE companies and as well as quantitative online data on 384 randomly selected respondents from the extractive community using LimeSurvey. Although respondents’ perceptions were found to be mixed and variable, an understanding of the need for stakeholder’s relations effectiveness through CCE activities is common. The study concludes that CCE activities would benefit a framework that incorporates stakeholder relations as a strategy for business success and sustainability of CCE.