The practices of corporate social responsibility among construction companies in Malaysia

Abstract

Implementation of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among construction companies in Malaysia is necessary due to increasing importance of growing environmental awareness and demand for better social equality among population and community. Unfortunately, implementation of CSR among Malaysia construction companies is still low even though numerous promotion and encouragement has been made. The objectives of this study are to investigate the awareness of CSR implementation, to assess the current level of CSR implementation, to investigate the barrier in implementing CSR and finally to examine the strategy to implementation CSR among construction companies in Malaysia. Guideline of social responsibility presented in ISO 26000 (Guidance on social responsibility) based on seven principles served as the main reference point to gauge the implementation level of CSR among organization. Thirty (30) questionnaires sets using five point Likert scale method had been collected among selected construction companies in Malaysia. Collected data were processed using SPSS and the results were analysed using average index formula. From the findings, 66.7 per cent of the companies survey implemented CSR, 20 of 30 surveyed companies claimed that they implemented CSR principles and related core elements. The findings also show that, no support from the top management was the critical barrier to implement CSR. Meanwhile reduction of cost constrain such as tax reduction, separate CSR budget and select appropriate CSR activities were highly regarded as strategies to reduce the CSR implementation barriers.