Does "Doing Good" Make a Difference in African Job Retention and Turnover?
Center for Creative Leadership research shows employee impact of CSR

18 May 2011 - Brussels - Businesses with effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs often reap significant benefits from "doing good" — CSR helps build winning brands and encourage a positive outlook by both customers and shareholders. But can the same social responsibility programs have an impact on employee retention?

The Center for Creative Leadership's (CCL^®) 2008-2010 World Leadership Study looked at that question. Opinions from over 280 African workers in 28 countries were included in the survey.

"It's important for Managers, Senior Executives and Board members in Africa to be aware of what pay-offs they can expect to get from an investment in CSR," says CCL's Regional Director for Africa Simon Rweyongoza, who contributed to the report. "Our survey showed evidence that CSR improves not only external perceptions of the company but those of employees as well."

There were three key findings on how employees respond to social responsibility initiatives:

• Corporate social responsibility programs are linked to how committed an employee is to an employer. This finding holds true across all ages and job levels and is particularly strong among women workers. The higher an employee rates an organization on its commitment to good corporate citizenship, the more committed the employee is likely to be to the organization.

• Employee perceptions about corporate social responsibility remained constant during the depth of the economic decline. Despite budget reductions and layoffs, employees were bullish about at least one thing. They believed their employers were committed to acting responsibly in the community.

• Corporate social responsibility programs are not a panacea for retention issues. CSR has more benefits for organizational commitment than for turnover.

"More and more companies in Africa are discovering that they can affect change in their communities and the environment through investment in CSR initiatives." Simon Rweyongoza observes. "And there's a Sourcebook from CCL that can help them find best practices and practical tips for implementation. Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Business: A Guide to Leadership Tasks and Functions is a global review of literature on CSR, corporate citizenship and sustainability from 2000 to the present."

The CSR Sourcebook is available to download.

Further details on CCL's World Leadership Survey are available.

The report was authored by Sarah Stawiski and fellow CCL researchers Jennifer Deal, William A. (Bill) Gentry and Simon Rweyongoza.

About the Center for Creative Leadership
The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL^®) is a top-ranked, global provider of executive education that accelerates strategy and business results by unlocking the leadership potential of individuals and organizations. Founded in 1970 as a nonprofit educational institution focused exclusively on leadership education and research, CCL helps clients worldwide cultivate creative leadership — the capacity to achieve more than imagined by thinking and acting beyond boundaries — through an array of programs, products and other services. Ranked among the world's Top 10 providers of executive education by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the Financial Times, CCL is headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., with campuses in Colorado Springs, Colo.; San Diego, Calif.; Brussels; Moscow; Singapore; Pune, India and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Its work is supported by 500 faculty members and staff.

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CCL's Europe, Mid East and Africa headquarters is in Brussels, headed by Rudi Plettinx, Vice President & Managing Director, EMEA.