Mining: Respecting Icons and Sacred Sites
By Maria Humphries and Dale Fitzgibbons
Maria Humphries is an Associate Professor of Management at Waikato Management
School at Waikato University in New Zealand. Dale Fitzgibbons is an Associate Professor of
Management at Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois.
I. Introduction
A. Case Synopsis
In recent years, corporations large and small, have begun to demonstrate much greater
responsibility for the social and environmental effects of their activities. Many corporations now
make a point of producing glossy Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Sustainability
Reports and have extensive websites that enumerate and describe their commitments and
achievements to the various stakeholders within their sphere of influence.1
Our intention in this case is to describe a seemingly simple activity (the moving of a
building) and then invite students to reflect on the underling differences in worldviews that
This case also brings to student attention a focus on indigenous peoples as an increasingly
assertive group of stakeholders in the governance of the natural environment and how different
groups (e.g., the corporation and the community) may view and interpret the use and perhaps
abuse of “nature.” By contrasting two examples of a corporate response to stakeholder pressure
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to attend to the issues that concern them, we see one very visible ‘icon’ and we are drawn into
the consideration of another example in which the dynamics and the outcomes are much less
readily available for exploration. The moving of the Pumphouse is given an almost spiritual
ambiance amplified by a sense of awe of the technical skills needed to achieve this feat. It is
While this example is drawn from the mining industry, similar issues arise as the
pressure on the governance of waterways, land use, and intellectual property take on these
dimensions. This case may be useful in discussions of the personal, community and professional
responsibilities of human beings towards each other and the Earth that sustains us. Before using
the case, we encourage the instructor to first rethink how ‘responsibility’ is to be imagined.
What is ‘a corporation’? Whose interests can be seen to prevail?
A focus on ‘the corporation’ can be discussed as both constructive but also limiting. It is
not our intent to demonize the corporation – but to invite reflection on the interest that are served
and those that are diminished in our collective commitment to this idea. For this discussion, a
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In preparation for discussing the case, the instructor might invite students to do a content
analyses of a well respected magazine – e.g. The Economist. Count the number of women and
men you see in the photographs. See if you can tell which of those women are in the photo
We, humans, are all ‘multiply positioned’ and ‘interconnected’ – a view not only held by
indigenous people, but a view that has been diminished in the ‘agency theories’ that have
B. Use of the Case
The case can be used in courses on the ethical dimensions of diversity, corporate social
responsibility, international management, or business and society. It also lends itself to course
modules on individual and social responsibility, indigenous peoples’ influence on Western
business practices, social/environmental/economic justice, and the effective way to integrate
global/local norms, beliefs, and values.
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C. Case Objectives
Draw attention to the massive amount of information corporations now put in the public
domain.
Encourage use of web-site resources to analyze the content of these web-sites in the light
of difficult questions; e.g. What is the evidence that host communities are enriched
through the presence of the Corporation? Are all stakeholders equally considered? Do
stakeholders have any real influence on corporate decisions.
Are some stakeholders or stakeholder interests more palatable to corporations than
others? If so, which ones and why?
Not all stakeholders have access to the resources to prepare their case for decisions to be
made, to do the evaluations and support the publication of their unique interests. What are
the implications of this imbalance of resources – for the stakeholders, for the wider
society, for the principles of democratic governance?
Consider how well prepared corporate executives are to engage with indigenous
communities
Debate whether local governments and the constituents they represent should have a say
in the ways in which companies conduct business within those communities.
Should local councils be obligated to work with representatives of tribal people who
claim sovereignty over jointly inhabited territories?
II. Classroom Management
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Due to its richness, there are multiple uses for how to engage students with this case. Here are
three alternatives.
1. Have students read the case and ask them to focus on why they, as business or
management students, should care about a small town, in a small country, on the other
side of the world from them. This should elicit a realization of the “world getting
smaller” phenomenon or perhaps an awareness that relationships like the ones portrayed
in the case between the mining corporation and the small town could just as easily
happen in their home towns or native countries. Furthermore, the instructor might cast the
story into a sort of “David and Goliath” saga, in which organized, wealthy, and largely
impersonal organizations can easily come to dominate relatively unorganized,
underfunded and deeply personal collections of people with unethical results, however
unintended.
2. Divide the class into three equal groups in preparation for a role play about the case. One
group would portray the mining company management, one would represent the town
people, and the last would act as observer/judge. Have the company and town groups
confer and devise a position on why/how the pumphouse should or shouldn’t be moved,
whose opinions should weigh heaviest in making the decision, and what criteria would be
most effective in influencing the other group. In the meantime, the third group would
decide what would constitute a convincing argument. After the role-play, the “judging”
group would decide the disposition of the pumphouse and explain their decision.
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3. Divide the class into ‘stakeholders’ – according to the types of social or environmental
issues that are regionally pertinent in your area. For example, a very useful website for
identifying and exploring on-site toxic releases and hazardous waste sites is the EPA’s
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)2 and the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL)3. These
sites are particularly informative, as most citizens do not know how close they live to an
area where toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities have occurred.
Once your geographical is located (usually by zip code), have the student groups each
become a stakeholder related to the situation or area. For example: local government,
corporation, citizen interests groups, and media representatives. While this alternative is a
bit removed from the situation depicted in the case, the similarities of stakeholder groups,
differing perceptions of causes/consequences, as well how to integrate conflicting
worldviews are similar.
4. This case also allows students to work alone by analyzing the particular groups described
in the case. Given the public information available through the Internet, have students do
a historical/economic/social analysis of the town of Waihi, the Newmont Mining
Company, and the indigenous people of New Zealand, the Maori. As an advanced
assignment, the instructor might ask students to then speculate as to how each group will
fare in the coming 10-15 years, given the changes in technology, globalization, and
socio-cultural forces.
D. Concluding Questions
1. What did you learn from this case?
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2. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a stakeholder analysis of organizational
situations?
3. Can Western management practices be harmonized with the perspectives of indigenous
people? What would be necessary in order for that to take place?
4. How powerful are iconic images and/or indigenous belief systems when contrasted with
those from Western/industrial societies (as represented in this case, by the profit
maximization of the mining company)?
5. As depicted by this case, what must Western managers and corporations still learn about
people from developing countries?
6. What is the social/economic status of the indigenous people who live in your area?
E. Other References and Resources
The Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME): http://www.unprme.org/,
accessed 10/6/10.
The United Nations Global Compact: http://www.unglobalcompact.org/, accessed
10/6/10.
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml, accessed 10/6/10.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/drip.html, accessed 10/6/10.
The United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/groups/groups-01.htm, accessed 10/6/10.
Newmont Mining: http://www.newmont.com/, accessed 10/6/10.
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1 See for example: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/;
http://www.ford.com/microsites/sustainability-report-2008-09/governance-progress-awards;
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/, accessed 10/6/10.
2 EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) available at
http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov/toxmap/faq/2009/08/what-is-the-toxics-release-inventory-tri.html, accessed 10/6/10.
3 Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) available at
http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov/toxmap/faq/2009/08/what-is-the-national-priorities-list-npl.html, accessed 10/6/10.