ABSTRACT
When CEP compared the experiences of companies across sectors and operating in different parts of the world, we found there are three areas that determine if companies get it wrong or if they get it right with respect to company-community relations. This chapter introduces a framework for analysis of corporate-community relations to depict how these three areas can affect company-community relations either positively or negatively. In the framework, benefits distribution refers to how tangible and intangible benefits such as wages, contracts, community projects, and legitimacy accrue to some people and not to others. Behavior refers to manner in which company and company staff show respect, or lack of respect, for local people, It has to do with the signals that company policies and staff actions send to local people about trust, fear, and caring. The term side effects refers to level of responsibility that a company takes for the broader and longer-term impacts that its presence has on local communities.
