Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Governance (CG): The Case of Some Selected Companies in Ghana

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence CSR and corporate governance issues in Africa and Ghana in particular. Good corporate governance is a key part of any organisation that has and wants to maintain confidence, integrity and efficiency for its stakeholders and it is basis to attract and retain best skilled human capital and financial capital on a sustained long-term basis. For this reason, it is important that good corporate governance is not only driven by compliance or regulatory requirements, but very importantly is also seen as a means by which nations, public and private sector companies and indeed economies can improve their performance, competitiveness and sustainability. This study also sought to review how CSR activities have influenced corporate governance in Ghana and vice-versa. The study seeks to address the challenge of changing firm board members as new government comes to power in Ghana and Africa and seeks to suggest how this can be addressed through good regulation and legislation. The study also seeks to see how different companies in Ghana (multinationals and domestic) view the CSR and corporate governance concept in their strategy and hence how it informs their policy development. The culture and tendency for employees of organisations in Ghana not to challenge decisions of CEOs and senior managers can adversely influence CSR implementation and corporate governance. The study was based on interviews of some key employees MTN Ghana, Glico Life Insurance, Latex Foam, Quality Insurance Co. Ltd. and Akan Printing Press. The research design used for this specific study was based on interviews of the key employees of the Five Companies in Accra, Ghana.