Influence of legal and ethical CSR strategy on performance of public universities in Kenya.

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility is a vital aspect of any business. Organizations are responsible not only for treating their stakeholders well, but also for keeping their end of the bargain with the communities they serve. Managers are legally responsible for looking after shareholder profits but are also socially responsible for minimizing socially damaging business decisions. This is their ethical and legal duty. Organizational leaders thus have a social responsibility to avoid behavior that results in improper use of the company resources. CSR activities need to be considered from a moral and ethical basis, assuming that firms self-regulate their CSR behavior and their communication of those activities. The aim of this study was to establish whether engaging in legal and ethical CSR practices would influence the performance of the Public sector institutions in Kenya. The study hypothesized that legal and ethical CSR strategies did not significantly influence performance of Public Universities in Kenya. The results showed that legal and ethical practices positively contribute to organizational performance of Public Universities. Therefore, the study recommended that increased focus on an organization’ legal and ethical practices would significantly increase the performance of public sector organizations.