A Critical Examination of Firestone’S Operations in Liberia: A Case Study Approach

By Tarnue Johnson

This book is about a case study of Firestone Natural Rubber Company in Liberia. In this book issues of bureaucratic corruption, ethics and social alienation are directly confronted from a case study approach. Positivist and post-positivist approaches in the framework of a mixed methodology are adopted. This approach is justified in an attempt to generate comprehensive understanding of the research problem and its likely solutions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452089461

Tarnue Johnson

Dr. Tarnue Johnson was born in Liberia, West Africa. After undergraduate training in agricultural economics at the Moscow Agricultural Academy, he attended Birbeck College, University of London. He later obtained an MA degree in political economy from Middlesex University in London. Dr. Johnson completed a postgraduate certificate (PGCE) in adult education at the Institute of Education, University of London. He spent a year doing postgraduate studies in educational research, policy and planning at the University of Manchester in Manchester, Great Britain. He later took up residence in the United States, where he has completed a doctorate in business administration (DBA) at Argosy University, Chicago. The author has also taught at several colleges and universities in the Chicago area and online. His research interests include adult learning and social change, corporate social responsibility, the political economy of economic development and organizational development and leadership.

Book preview

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2010 Tarnue Johnson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/3/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4520-8944-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-8945-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-8946-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010916022

Printed in the United States of America

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my late wife, Cheryl Patrick Johnson. Cheryl was one of a kind. Hence, the central theme of this book (ethics) resonates with Cheryl’s character and the content of the life she lived. May her soul rest in perpetual and heavenly peace.

Table of Contents

Preface

Organization of the Book

Acknowledgements

Chapter One: The Problem Background

Chapter Two: Literature Review

Chapter Three: Methodology

Chapter Four: Discussion of Findings

Chapter Five: Summary and Conclusions

References

Appendix A (1)

Appendix A (2)

Appendix (B)

Appendix (C)

Preface

In an era of economic and cultural globalization, the field of business ethics has become critical to fostering capital formation and cultural practices that benefit all constituencies, including marginal ones. This presupposes that the economic and social transformation of society relies on a deep commitment to an ethical project. Thus, in Liberia, where corruption is endemic, and has assumed monumental proportions, the realization that sustained peace is anchored on economic and social practices that correspond to ethical norms are being both gradually and steadily embraced by the enlightened social and democratic forces in society. Hence, the search for the good life in Liberia must become essentially a pursuit of peace, economic prosperity and ethical forms of life. In these circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that a theory about the rational justification of right and the good is as much important as a theory of economic and institutional change.

In this book, the issues of bureaucratic corruption, ethics and social alienation are directly confronted in the context of a case study approach. Positivist and post-positivist approaches in the framework of a mixed methodology are adopted. This approach is justified in an attempt to generate a comprehensive understanding of the research problem and its likely solutions. In the course of doing the research reported in this book, several pertinent issues germane to the economic and social interests of stakeholders were raised by research participants.

These issues have been invariably raised by stakeholders who have felt the burden of alienation with regard to the nature of the relationship between Firestone and its stakeholders. These issues are undergirded by complaints and frustration as well as the presentation of an agenda for action and change. For example, many participants who took part in the study that have been reported in this book stressed the need for Firestone to address the issue of pollution associated with its operations in Liberia. Indeed, the issue of environmental protection emerged as a dominant one. But other issues of importance to the well-being of stakeholders were also raised.

Chapters in this book have demonstrated that determined and principled governmental action might lead to the creation of a favorable policy environment in Liberia that might likely encourage Firestone’s parent company to expand its portfolio of investment and operations in other sectors of the Liberian economy. It is further suggested that the research findings could influence the management discipline and the field of business strategy in particular. The author further notes that the findings of the study could also have implications in terms of the development of professional practice in Liberia.

The book examined some of the consequences of the absence of mandatory labor laws and necessary institutional constraints on capital and concludes that this kind of market condition can buttress the dominant position of a powerful monopoly that might inevitably depress wage rates and the growth of household incomes. It is held that these outcomes could have deleterious consequences for the development of a viable economic framework for political and civil governance in the long term.

Organization of the Book

This book is the result of original research that sought to explore the social and ethical dimensions of the operations of Firestone Natural Rubber Company in Liberia. The book is divided into five chapters. The chapters duly encompassed a statement of the research problem and the various ways in which the problem, as so formulated, could be tackled using a mixed-methods approach. While the first chapter sought to outline the research problem and the historical background to the study, the second chapter aimed to establish an understanding of the structure of the subject of corporate social responsibility. Similarly, the chapter also sought to discover significant conceptual categories and variables relevant to the topic being investigated in this study. The third chapter sought to present a critical account of the underlying research design, approaches and ethical implications of this study.

The fourth chapter provided statistical analysis of empirical findings using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. This chapter also provided an account of research findings emanating from an analysis of qualitative data. The final chapter discussed various implications of the research findings in terms of their diverse contributions to the structuring of contemporary management theory, and the development of public policy in the Liberian context. This chapter critically examined several issues on the basis of the relevant empirical research findings and concluded that judging from the perspectives of a sample of external stakeholders, the operations of Firestone in Liberia do not correspond to the core tenets of corporate social responsibility and the tenets of triple bottom line theory. Invariably, this is the single most important conclusion that this researcher has drawn from a critical analysis of the empirical data.

Acknowledgements

There are many to thank for making this latest project a reality. This includes my publisher, Author House, and editor, Kamilah Cummings. I would also like to say thanks to members of my family and Liberian compatriots, without whom fieldwork and data collection could have been impossible to complete in Liberia. I say thank you for your selflessness, judgment, and consideration. I would also extend my gratitude to my professional colleagues at Argosy University and East-West University.

This section remains especially incomplete without recognizing the patience and support of the many students I have taught over the years in numerous classes across the social science disciplines. These include young men and women and adults, many of who also regard themselves as citizens of the world. They, and others I have encountered in the intellectual field, have helped me to refine, critically reflect upon and reframe perspectives and ideals, methods and habits of mind. Indeed, this in my considered and humble view is the very essence of the presence of an inter-subjective and Socratic learning process that leads to participatory models of adult cognitive and intellectual development.

CHAPTER ONE: THE PROBLEM BACKGROUND

Introduction

This study sought to explore the social and ethical content of the operations of Firestone Natural Rubber Company in Liberia. Invariably, these social and ethical dimensions of Firestone’s operations have been encapsulated in the management literature under the rubric of corporate social responsibility. The study is divided into five relevant chapters that encompass a statement of the research problem and the various ways in which the problem, as so formulated, could be tackled using a mixed research methodological approach. In this chapter, a historical background to the study, which has provided the context for the factors that led to the emergence of the research problem, has been provided. Thus, this effort invariably suggests that the most cardinal function of this introductory chapter is to provide a context and conceptual framework for critically examining Firestone’s commitment to the concept of corporate social responsibility.

In view of the foregoing, this chapter will seek to explore the circumstances that led to the formation of Liberian society as a nation state in the West African sub-region. The chapter will seek to examine the geographical and demographic patterns unfolding in the sub-region that characterized the early origins of the Liberian state. These pertinent discussions are followed by a discussion of the historical background to Firestone and a statement of the research problem. Furthermore, a definition of the purpose of the research is provided.

The definition of the purpose of the research is followed by a statement of research questions and hypotheses as well as a justification and rationale of the study. This chapter will also attempt to provide an account of the basic assumptions that guide an interpretation of the empirical results of the study in terms of their crucial limitations and delimitations. Conceptual definitions as well as definitions of key terms constitute the last section of this chapter. The next sections will attempt to set the stage for the insertion of Firestone that became a prominent source of employment and major actor in the economic and social development of Liberia.

Background to Liberian Society

The initial sections in this chapter encapsulate both cultural and anthropological narratives of the early origins of Liberian society. As geography and demographic patterns are often a foundation of culture, and other pertinent human institutions, various geographical and historical contours that characterized the sub-region prior to the formation of settler society on the Atlantic coast are duly elucidated. A central objective of this exercise is to provide a critical insight into the unique geographical and historical circumstances that undergirded state formation in the sub-region and its subsequent social and political cleavages. Another principal and inexorable objective is to establish the background to the economic and social imperatives that led to the establishment of Firestone as a subsidiary of an American-based multinational corporation in Liberia.

Geographical and Physical Characteristics

The sub-region that later became Liberia is located on the edges of what scholars came to refer to as the Western Sudan (Sawyer, 1992). This is the region from which sprung the great empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai within the span of six centuries stretching from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. The portion of the Western Sudan that later comprised Liberia was considered part of the Grain Coast, a section of the lower Guinea Coast, by Portuguese explorers. The expansive tropical rain forest that covered Sierra Leone on the west and the Cameroon Mountains on the east and extended north from the Atlantic coast for about 200 miles constituted one of the dominant features of the lower Grain Coast sub-region (p. 43). According to geographers and experts, the conventional size of the territory of Liberia was generally estimated to be 43,000 square miles (Hasselmann, 1977).

This forest belt region that comprised Liberia has always been populated by a large number of ethnic groups (Azikiwe, 1970; Gershoni, 1985). In Liberia alone for example—an area not larger than 43,000 square miles, there are according to different estimates between 16 and 28 ethnic groups each belonging to one of three major language groups (p. 1). The most southerly front of the country is near the mouth of the Cavalla River; the Makona River marks the northern boundary whereas the most westerly point is the mouth of the Mano River. The characteristic bend of the Cavalla near Kaobli constitutes the country’s most easterly point (Schulze, 1973).

The location of Liberia in the tropics determines its high temperatures all year round with very little degree of variation (p.