Olatunji, Olusoji Samson
Department of Mass Communication
School of Business and Communication Studies
The Polytechnic Ibadan
e-mail address: sojioustimilehin@gmail.com
&
Adebayo John JAMES
Department of Mass Communication
Faculty of Social Sciences,
Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria
E-mail: adebayo.james@fuoye.edu.ng
Abstract
In a fight against the COVID-19 virus, the government took drastic measures to contain the spread of the virus by, among other measures, shutting down social activities, including public gatherings places of religious worship. The research work assessed the corporate social responsibility of selected churches in South West Nigeria during COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed quantitative approach. The quantitative method approach involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting quantitative data. Findings revealed that respondents were aware of the churches use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Unfortunately, majority of them could neither participate nor benefit from these initiatives. Therefore, they were unaware of the challenges their churches faced in the distribution of these relief items. The study recommended that church leadership should ensure that congregants benefit from packages meant for them. The church will enjoy full support when congregants benefit from items distributed and meant for them. This will also enable them to keep attending the church and devote their full time to the church activities.
Keywords: Congregants, COVID-19 Pandemic, Corporate Social Responsibility, Selected, Churches
Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the ability, especially for organisations, to become socially responsible by giving back to the society that provides the material and human resources. Sessa, Serpe and Malandrino (2020) define CSR as a set of responsibilities that a company has towards its stakeholders to ensure a fair balance between the contribution made to the organisation and the consideration received in economic and social terms. This implies that organisations are expected to be socially responsible to give back to society from where they get the necessary resources – human and material – they work with. As a discourse that has traversed multiple disciplines, corporate social responsibility (CSR) concerns an organisation‘s relationships with society and its necessity to match its principles with public expectations (Atuguba and Dowuona-Hammond 2006). This implies that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) deals with relationships between organizations and their public and how these organizations fulfill their social responsibility to the public. Coombs and Holladay (2011) further reiterate that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an organization’s voluntary act as it pursues its goal and performs its perceived duties to stakeholders, including workers, communities, the environment, and society in general. Thus, organizations implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to achieve some of their goals. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a key discussion in business and academic research over the past few years (Sharma, 2018). This is partly because giving back is vital to the survival of organisations in different societies. Rochlin, Bliss, Jordan and Kiser (2015) suggested that when organisations are involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) such acts can lead to an increase in their market value, assist in reducing risks, and retaining employees. Business and academic organisations, therefore, often create awareness of the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to the organisation‘s growth –both profit and non-profit. To this end, religious organisations are also examples of organisations that perform Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. The Church, for instance, is a religious organisation that is expected to give to the society – including those in need – as instructed by Christ. This is found in some scriptural injunctions which Christ handed down to the church. For instance, Proverbs 19:19 says that ―whoever donates (gives) to the impoverished lends to the Lord, and the Lord will reward him.