In Good Company: An Anatomy of Corporate Social Responsibility by Dinah Rajak, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2011, 296 pages. Paperback: $24.95.

• Author: Milton R. Moskowitz
• Published date: 01 September 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8594.2012.00411.x
• Date: 01 September 2012

In Good Company: An Anatomy of Corporate Social Respon-

sibility. By Dinah Rajak, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA:

2011, 296 pages. Paperback: $24.95.

In this recently published book, Dinah Rajik, a lecturer in

anthropology at the University of Sussex in the United

Kingdom, explores the role of corporate social responsibility

against the backdrop of one company. That company happens to

be Anglo American, one the world’s leading mining companies

(coal, copper, platinum, diamonds, iron ore) and the largest

private employer on the African continent.

It was a shrewd decision to go with Anglo American since this

company has been in the forefront of some crucial social respon-

sibility issues during the past three decades. And Rajik lucked out

because Anglo American granted him access to their people and

facilities in London and South Africa.

This is not a story of how a “bad” company underwent a trans-

formation. Anglo American has long enjoyed a reputation as a

socially responsible corporation. It goes back to its founding in

1917 by Ernst Oppenheimer, who declared that “the aim of this

Group is, and will remain, to earn profits for our shareholders, but

to do so in such a way as to make a real and lasting contribution to

the communities in which we operate.” This philosophy was

embraced by his successor, his son Harry, and subsequently, by

other top executives of Anglo American. They believed that busi-

ness, even one engaged in the nasty activity of extracting minerals

from the ground, had to do with more than just making money.

As a result, Anglo American morphed into more than just a

mining company. It became stitched into the fabric of life in South

Africa, renowned for philanthropic contributions that did much to

enhance the social, cultural, and educational institutions of the

country. It was said that nothing important could be mounted in

South Africa without the support or approval of Anglo American.

Milton R. Moskowitz is a journalist, published the newsletter Business & Society from 1968 to

1974 and served as senior editor of Business and Society Review for 25 years. He is coauthor

of Fortune magazine’s annual survey of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” He is now a

member of the editorial board of Business and Society Review. E-mail: milton1996@aol.com.

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Business and Society Review 117:3 407–411

© 2012 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by Blackwell Publishing,

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.