STAKEHOLDERS’ ENGAGEMENT IN THE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTING OF TELECOMMUNICATION FIRMS IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF MOBILE TELEPHONE NETWORK (MTN)

Abstract

The production of stand alone corporate social responsibility reports is gradually gaining ground in the corporate social responsibility practice of firms in Africa especially in the domain of telecommunication. One of the firms that distinguish itself in this domain in Africa as far as the production of stand alone sustainability reports is concerned is the MTN Group. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which stakeholders are engaged in the corporate social responsibility reporting of MTN Group using the stakeholder engagement model of Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation. To this effect, content analysis was realised on four sustainability reports of the year 2017 to 2020. The analysis reveals that the engagement of stakeholders in corporate social responsibility reporting has gone beyond the stage of placation to situate itself at the level of degree of involvement; implying a transition from the management of stakeholders’ expectations to the initiation of effective stakeholder engagement.