Romulo D. Tagalo, M.M.

College Instructor Business Ethics

S.B. Banerjee,, Corporate Social Responsibility, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, (2007) Ma., USA

 Primary Stakeholders - employees, customers and investors - salient in the current political economy Secondary Stakeholders - are groups who are not engage in direct economic exchange with the business - general public, communities, activist groups, business support groups, and the media

Descriptive Stakeholder Theory: the Firm s Perspective

 Indigenous communities - are adversely affected

by

corporate activity - face severe social & environmental problems arising from extractive industries in their lands

The basis of the stakeholder legitimacy is problematic & tends to be framed from the perspective of the business firm, which limits understanding of the more complex dynamics of organization stakeholder relationships, especially if the stakeholder groups have very different social, cultural, political & economic agencies than industry.

Rights of Indigenous Nations recognizes the urgent need to respect & promote the inherent rights & characteristics of the Indigenous Nation The social, cultural , economic &environmental impacts on the indigenous communities have been devastating. Traditional relations have broken down, sacred sites been destroyed, communities been displaced & patterns of indigenous life been disrupted. Indigenous communities are the receivers of consultation, that is, that Aboriginal people are from time to time talked to about the decisions arrrived.

participation often means a dilution of their land rights & a continuation of colonial control.
Indigenous

Strategies used by mining Companies in Australia: * Insolate any indigenous group or individual who is a traditional owner and focus company efforts in making a deal with them. * Ignore indigenous land councils wherever possible

*Discredit advisers used by indigenous groups and any scientific evidence produced by outsiders * Invoke the national interest & economic security * Offer to employ employable Aborigines.

There seems to be a public recognition by some mining companies that interactions with indigenous communities need to change. This change involves recognizing the rights of indigenous communities as legitimate stakeholder in the business with whom continuous consultation is needed. Partners in resource development assumes two things: first, both parties are relatively equal in their power and access to resources and, second, all indigenous communities are in favor of mining on their lands.

 Economic self-sufficiency and removal of

welfare dependency are the aims of government and corporate policies toward indigenous communities.

In some cases, admittedly a minority,

indigenous stakeholders have been able to leverage resources from NGO s and build international networks to promote their cases.

These public responsibilities are defined and framed by Western principles of legitimacy, principles that are inimical to indigenous stakeholders in the first place.
*

The public-private dichotomy of stakeholder representation does not legitimize indigenous interests; instead it serves to regulate indigenous ways of living. The decision to mine was motivated by the economic gains to the nation and legitimize by promoting indigenous participation in development despite its deleterious effects.

It would involve examining how knowledge and theory development in the field constitutes social relations between different stakeholders and perhaps even set the ground for a different set of conditions, which in turn needs to be critiqued. The normative justification stakeholder theory masks the instrumental and economic approaches and, instead of challenging and changing power and control structures in corporations, stakeholder theory ends up reinforcing existing structures.

* The crises in these examples of conflict and portrayed as crises of corporate reputation that need to be addressed rather than the plight of the stakeholders who suffer the most damage.

Every operation shall try to understand and interact positively and constructively with its local communities. We set out to build enduring relationships with our neighbors that are characterized by mutual respect, active partnerships, long-term commitment, to arrive at an understanding of what we can do for mutual benefit and then to secure implementation of agreed objectives.