Unlocking from Community Stakeholders, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects for effective Company-Community relationship

Conflicts in mining fields that revolve around the type and perceived impact of CSR projects seem to be daunting to solve. Such conflicts emerge from misconceptions among community stakeholders' that lead to a failed company-community relationship. This inimical situation threatens peace, security, lives, and properties at the community level. To resolve the company-community conflicts, it is important to minimize the misconception among community stakeholders' by identifying their preferences of CSR projects. However, the challenge of identifying these projects in mining fields is yet to be fully explored and understood. The aim of this paper is to identify community stakeholders' topmost preferences of CSR projects for an effective company-community relationship and propose a path for community engagement. A sample of 604 respondents comprising community leaders' and local residents' from three regions which host Gold Mining Firms with level A' membership from the Ghana Chamber of Mines were drawn for this study. Using a questionnaire made up of close and open ended questions, a survey was conducted. With SPSS 16.0, the data on the close ended questions were analyzed with ranking and factor analyses while the open ended were drawn into teams to support the former. The results of the ranking analysis show that different group of stakeholders' had a different preference for CSR projects. The factor analysis revealed that for effective company-community relationship both stakeholders' preferred a Streamline Social Intervention and Improve Stakeholder Economic related CSR projects. Base on these findings, the study recommends that Mining firms' should give maximum consideration to projects that seek the welfare of both stakeholders' and have equal engagement with all stakeholders'. Also, managing expectations before, during and after mining should be a shared responsibility of all the stakeholders'.