Instances of Corporate Social Responsibility in CoalMining: An Exampleof Chosen PolishMines

The article presents exogenous and endogenous instances of CSR in the mining industry in the Polish mines on the basis of results of 1170 surveys (Research sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Project: 4659/B/T02/2010/3, The role of managers in the process of management of safety culture in coal mines in Poland) and companies reports. Among the endogenous factors of CSR, a special emphasis has been put on safety culture, because the majority of accidents in the mines, the human factor is to blame. The exogenous factors include activities, which mines undertake to improve the condition of the natural environment. Thus, two conclusions can be drawn: 1) There are alarming attitudes towards the work safety, and a correlation between greater work safety and social and economic benefits for the workers and organisations is not discerned 2)The increase in the importance of CSR can be observed mainly for PR purposes, though, internal CSR is not on the satisfactory level. The attitudes of the managerial staff towards safety differ from the attitudes of workers. The managers are pressed to achieve higher goals, which increases the pace of work and various hazards as well as stress. The research also revealed that in Polish mines we have a strong corporate culture, which impedes the introduction of changes in this area.