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Exxonmobil Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

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Communities and Shareholders: The impact of how ExxonMobil manage their interaction Exxon-Mobil is the world’s largest privately owned multi-national oil and gas company (Skjaerseth 2003). For companies as large as ExxonMobil, which possess considerable capital resources and are able to exert considerable power and influence, society is increasingly demanding that they behave in a socially responsible manner (Diara, Alilo, and McGuire 2004). There is a growing expectation that companies will adopt a business approach that illustrates responsibility to society above and beyond the economic function and legal performance of the firm (Gibbs 2009). This expectation can be understood as an implicit social contract. One of the underlying …show more content…

Other activities have included the provision of training in areas such as business entrepreneurship, management skills and record keeping, plus practical training on farming techniques and livestock care (MPNCN as cited in Idemudia 2009). From this perspective, it can be seen that the corporation has endeavoured to improve “host” communities in a number of instances. Such examples provide evidence that ExxonMobil’s efforts have been aimed at increasing (local) community capacity and sustainability. By engaging with communities in this way ExxonMobil are able to present themselves as part of the community. As a consequence there is less likelihood of negative outcomes for the company’s operations including concerns for worker safety and damage to worksites (Idemudia 2009). Thus, the benefits for the corporation are wide reaching but include an improvement to corporate reputation through improved relationships with local stakeholders as they come to accept and identify with the corporation. In addition, to ExxonMobil’s credit, they show a concern for the community beyond that of wealth generation for shareholders. While ExxonMobil’s engagement with communities that are proximal to their operations can often be described as proactive and

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