Perceptions of senior managers on corporate social responsibility in the petrochemical industry in Malaysia
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(Published version)
Date
2007
Authors
Yam, Lee Hong
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thesis
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Statement of Responsibility
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Abstract
The collapse of WorldCom (USA 2002), Enron (USA 2001), Exxon Valdez (USA 1989) and Union Carbide (India 1984) has inevitably invited tighter scrutiny from the public on unethical business practices. In order to be competitive in today's market economy, businesses need to be socially responsible and sensitive to the interests of various stakeholders, including the environment and society in general.
A study of senior managers' perceptions of CSR is vital as they are the most influential people in an organization, possessing the requisite power and resources to achieve its expectations. The petrochemical industry is chosen in this study due to its highly environmentally sensitive nature. In this research project, the CSR perceptions of senior managers in the petrochemical industry in Malaysia are examined from the perspectives of their demographic attributes, specific organizational characteristics and organizational culture. The main objectives are to study the CSR perceptions of senior of senior managers in the Malaysian petrochemical industry, to analyse the complex relationships among the moderating variables and CSR perceptions, as well as study the relationships among the four types of responsibilities of Carroll's (1979) CSR construct. Multivariate analysis, namely MANOVER, is used to analyse the complex relationships among senior managers' CSR perceptions, their demographic attributes, organizational characteristics and organizational culture.
The research findings indicate that there are simultaneous relationships among the variables correlated with the CSR perceptions of senior managers. These findings can provide useful guidelines in formulating organisational CSR policies, and human resource recruitment policy, as well as in designing training programs to increase CSR awareness among the employees. The CSR perceptions of the senior managers surveyed support Carroll's (1979) CSR model that the economic and legal responsibilities are viewed as more important than ethical and discretionary responsibilities. The relationships among the four types of responsibilities are also found to be consistent with the literature. Content analysis is used to supplement the quantitative analysis to give an overview of CSR in the Malaysian petrochemical industry by understanding the organisational culture pertaining to CSR. It is important to note that all participating companies are committed to being socially responsible in protecting the environment, despite the different levels of emphasis given in their organisational documents.
School/Discipline
International Graduate School of Business
Dissertation Note
Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2007
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Description
includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-183)
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506 0#$fstar $2Unrestricted online access