Social Responsibility and Human Resources Development in Ghana. An Ethical Perspective

Introduction

This paper will argue that there is a link between business social responsibility and human resources development in Ghana. From an ethical perspective, it will review the philosophical basis of social responsibility, highlight the 2 competing perspectives on social responsibility and provide basic statistics to trigger reflective thinking on the issue. It concludes with some suggestions on how businesses can perform social responsibility roles to support the government to promote human resources development in Ghana.

Epistemological Background

Ethics is a branch of Philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality, and to distinguish between that what is right from what is wrong. Ethics has been applied in political science, sociology, economics and business. Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical rules and principles within a business firm; the various moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business setting; and any special duties or obligations that apply to persons who are engaged in business.

Definition of Social Responsibility

Social responsibility can be defined as part of business ethics. Social responsibility is the managerial obligation to take action that protects and improves the welfare of society as a whole and promotes the interest of the organization.

Two Competing Perspectives on Social Responsibility

A generally accepted model of social responsibility was developed by Keith Davies. He argues that social responsibility arises from social power because businesses have significant influence over issues like providing employment opportunities, contributing towards overall state incomes via prompt payment of taxes, and preventing pollution of the environment. This writer will respectively define them as economic sustainability, income sustainability and environmental sustainability. In sum the joint actions of all businesses to fulfill these roles determines the overall living conditions of the society. In that respect, society can and must hold business responsible for social conditions that result from exercising this huge influence.
Following from this argument, it is argued that businesses should build relationships with society and operate open systems to receive inputs from society and disclose its operations to the public in a transparent manner. This means both parties must listen to each other and ?give and take? to ensure a collective win-win situation for the common good of both parties. Other assumptions flowing from this model asserts that society must ultimately pay for business social costs since it will not be fair for businesses to finance socially meritorious but economically disadvantageous initiatives. It simply means passing on the costs of social activities to the consumer.
However others share a contrary perspective. The best known anti social responsibility advocate is Milton Friedman who argues that to make business managers simultaneously responsible to business owners for getting profits and to society for improving societal welfare, represents a conflict of interest. This he believes can led to the collapse of the business. This is because the profitability criterion that underpins the organizational logic of private enterprise, is directly diametrical to the promotion of the common good criterion that is at the heart of social development. Friedman believes that to require managers to pursue socially responsible objectives may in fact be unethical and even illegal since it means making them to spend money that really belongs to other individuals.
Social Responsibility & Human Resources development- The Link In an earlier article by the author (ref: mainstreaming disabled persons in HRD in Ghana, posted on 14 May 2006 on the ghanaweb), human resources development was defined as all the policies, programs, processes and activities that goes into identifying, nurturing, developing and appropriately rewarding the talents and capabilities of an individual. It is a process to facilitate personal and professional development, to reinforce self belief in a person to realize his/her full potential in a sustainable manner.
Human resources development processes facilitates human development and overall social and economic growth of a country. Social responsibility means other social partners such as business can contribute their quota towards addressing the structural causes of poverty, one of which is lack of adequate resources to invest in people. In effect business can also partner with government to fight poverty to collectively build capacities in education, rights of children, and health, which are a few examples of critical social issues in human resources development.

The Macro Statistical Context

A basic indicator of human development widely and authoritatively accepted as a benchmark for assessing human capital progress is the UN human development index(HDI). In the 1995 Human Development Report(HDR), Burkina Fasso, Niger, Mali and Sierra Leone were amongst the countries at the extremely lowest levels, placing 126,127,128,129 respectively out of a total population sample of 130 countries. Ghana placed 91. In the 2002, HDR, Ghana placed 129 out of 173 countries in the world on the (HDI) scale. Though Ghana?s HDI has been performing well in the last decade moving from 0.506 in 1990 to 0.548 in 2000 it is still below the average for the medium countries range within which it is categorized.
Whiles social responsibility can be tackled on various fronts in the economy, this paper believes that narrowing social responsibility issues to human resources development can help direct resources to the critical areas of people development, if the structural causes of poverty in Ghana is to be tackled in a sustainable manner.

Specific Statistics of Core Social Issues That Must Attract The Eyes of Ghanaian Businesses.

Child health & education
Children constitute the future talent pool of the country and must be given good health care to grow and become responsible healthy adults to contribute towards national development. This will require combating childhood diseases through low cost remedies and by strengthening primary health care and basic health services. Basic health services and primary health care have improved over the decade with the integration of measures like environmental sanitation, family planning ad nutritional programs. In the area of infant mortality the statistics indicate some progress. From 103/1000 live births in 1990 to 56.7/1000 live births in 1998, and under-five mortality rate from 155/1000 live births in 1990 to 108/1000 live births in 1998. There have also been progress in routine immunizations since 1990, with an increase percentage of 1 years olds immunized against measles from 52% in 1990 to 70% in 1999, and polio from 50% in 1990 to 73% in 1999, whiles the number of new cases of polio reduced from 60 in 1990 to 30 in 1995, 23 in 1998 and 2 in 1999.(UNICEF Ghana Report 2000:10)
A five ?year(1993-1997) National Malaria control program focusing on capacity building for improved disease management at the health facility level has helped to fight the phenomenon of malaria. Another initiative is the Roll back Malaria program which is been extended to all the 110 districts in Ghana. Some of the major activities been implemented include massive campaign on the use of insecticide treated bed nets. In the area of access to safe drinking water, accessibility over the past decade has increased from 49% in 1990 to 74% in 1998 but this falls short of the World Summit For Children(WFC) goal of universal access. There are also disparities in access to safe drinking water depending on whether one lives in the rural or urban area. As at 1998, 63% of the rural population had access to safe water compared to 94% of the urban population.
Malnutrition has also been seen as a cause of stunted growth and in some cases child mortality. With programs aimed at promoting exclusive breast feeding, nutritional education, this has led to a reduction in the proportion of children underweight and stunted between the years of 1988 and 1998 from 31% to 24.9% and 30% to 25.9%. However progress is still limited as malnutrition contributes to 45% of all children deaths beyond early infancy.(UNICEF Ghana Report 2000:12)
Article 27 of the 1992 constitution, guarantees women?s rights and makes provision for facilities for the care of children below school going rate and guarantees reasonable periods of maternity leave with pay. In addition certain traditional practices harmful to the girl child have been criminalized through legislation. The Criminal code amendment act 1998)Act 554) abolished all forms of customary slavery, whiles the criminal Code Amendment act 1994(Act 484) makes female genital mutilation(FGM) illegal. Despite the above legislations, cultural practices that demean the status of girls and women still persist.(UNICEF Ghana Report 2000:14)
The 1992 constitution provides that basic education should be free, compulsory and available to all. The free compulsory and universal basic education(fCUBE) program was launched in 1996 and is aimed at quality, efficiency and access to education and providing good basic education for all children of school going age in Ghana. In 1990 net primary school attendance rate and enrollment ratio was 67%, in 1993 it was 75.5%, and in 1997 was 80.6% and 88%. An evidence of some progress. However the UNICEF reports show that in Ghana free education is regarded as only free tuition and the general poverty level is a factor restricting parents from meeting the cost of other schooling related financial commitments. Only 6.2% of pupils attained the literacy(English) criterion mastery score of 60% and only 2.7% attained the innumeracy (Mathematics) criterion mastery score of 55%. Other problems include teacher absenteeism, poor quality teaching and learning materials, poor teacher training, poor supervision and large pupil-teacher rations. The national average is 35:1, whiles the average in the northern regions(poorest regions in Ghana) is 70:1.
Child labour also constitutes another problem. According to the UNICEF report, the proportion of children aged 7-14 who are currently working is 43%. Of these, 33.2% are either paid or unpaid and 10.1% are involved in domestic work. Child labor can be seen in all sectors of the economy such as agriculture, fisheries, food production, domestic work and prostitution.
Adult illiteracy rates have reduced from 60% in 1990 to 50% in 2000, although there are gender disparities, with male literacy rate at 65% compared to female illiteracy rate of 30%
In the area of higher education, the country?s premier university, the University of Ghana, Legon, has reduced its intake of students for the 2005/2006 academic year from 11,057 last year to 8,166.The nearly 35 per cent reduction is aimed at, among others, reducing the pressure on staff and facilities, as well as ensuring good quality education. A total of 19,651 applications were received for the academic year, compared to 18,128 in 2004.
This statistical situation offers an opportunity to reflect over the country?s HRD agenda since this phenomenon is not peculiar to the University of Ghana but also to the other three national universities. The reduction is seen as significant, since, over the past 15 years, the university had been increasing intake, a situation that brought intense pressure to bear on the facilities. This stretch, has not been matched with a corresponding expansion in human and infrastructure resources although one must add that the government has made some modest efforts to address some these issues. An example is the construction of more lecture halls to accommodate the increase in student numbers.
Interestingly and on a positive note, the university continued to make conscious efforts to admit students from less endowed secondary schools as listed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and in 2005, 289 students from such schools were given admission, while the academic facility user fee for them was also waived.

The Ghanaian Context

Clearly the above statistics indicates that there are some many areas where businesses can contribute to address the above issues which are at the heart of poverty in Ghana.
There are several legislative and institutional mechanisms that exist to empower business to perform social responsibility roles in Ghana. For example the Labour Act 2003, the act Environmental Protection Agency and ultimately the 1992 constitution of Ghana to mention a few, exist to ensure a healthy balance between promoting economic growth and protecting human rights.
Adherence to legislated social responsibilities represents the minimum performance standards that business managers must achieve. However it also seems logical for them to ask themselves how far should they go beyond the legal ?bottom-line?. This process clearly is a very challenging process since it requires a simultaneous cost and benefit assessment from the joint perspectives of the business and society in the short and long term. At the end of the day, decisions should maximize the interest of the business as well as add value towards improving the welfare of the wider society.
In Ghana there are many companies who have consistently exercised social responsibility roles towards improving the welfare of the wider society. They can be described as good corporate citizens. This writer has over the past five years been following the activities of some of these ?good corporate citizens? and has observed a certain pattern or organizational characteristics. These organizations who can be defined as socially responsive, are both effective and efficient in pursuing social responsibility actions without wasting business resources. They have well defined facilitation processes and methodology for executing social responsibility roles. For example most of them incorporate the ideas of social responsibility in their corporate vision and mission.
There is total political commitment by the CEOs, specialist staff are hired to lead the social responsibility processes, there are periodic monitoring and evaluation of the impact of such social responsibility actions and year-end annual financial and operational reports incorporate all spending related to such activities. In accounting terms, one can find clear account lines showing where such activities are charged to. Social audits conducted in such organizations are comprehensive, pervasive and obtrusive, and they rigorously assess spending justification which are reinforced by field visits to verify such expenditure.

Putting it into practice

Within the Ghanaian context, before a business wishes to embark on a social responsibility agenda, it has to define performance standards and tools or methodologies that will be used to assess evidence that a particular intervention has the potential to add value, is adding value, and indeed have added value towards addressing a social problem. Some of the minimum performance standards may include an economic value added which will define how to measure the business role in producing goods and services, providing employment opportunities etc in the intended social catchment area. Another standard will be looking at the quality of life of the social catchment area in terms of pollution and other environmental degradation indicators. A third yardstick will require assessing the quantum of investment been put into dealing with social issues such as education, health and sports etc. A fourth indicator could be sustainability which will assess the extent to which the social responsibility roles can be sustained in the short and long term, whiles a fifth indicator can be partnership which may assess the extent to which the society are actively involved in the social responsibility process in terms of power relationships.

Conclusion & Way Forward

Regardless of which strand of thought one belongs to, this paper believes that managers must consider performing voluntary social responsibilities beyond the minimum legal requirements and build relationships with other individuals and actors whose joint resources can be harnessed to promote the common good of the Ghanaian society. Issues such as internship opportunities to young graduates, child prostitution, child labor, child trafficking, educating disabled children, HIV/AIDS, and accessibility to potable water constitute areas where more corporate bodies can make value-added investments as part of their social responsibility roles. The list is endless.
The government has a role to play to promote social responsibility. In the first place, governments as duty bearers, must themselves honor their responsibilities to the people in a transparent and accountable manner. To borrow the popular clich?, they should provide ?leadership by example? and deliver to address the structural causes of poverty.
Secondly governments must have effective regulations to define the boundaries of social responsibilities roles to ensure an effective harmonization of such business efforts to complement social and economic development interventions. Thirdly governments must resource state agencies who can continuously monitor and recommend appropriate recognition and incentives to businesses that are delivering value added social services. Civil society should also work in partnership with government and the mass media to institutionalize a culture of social responsibility in the country. A nation which cares for its citizens has the potential to develop at an astronomical pace. Business has a role to play in that regard. Lets be each other?s keeper to promote social and economic development!