Investigation of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Among Thai Public Agencies

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a complex issue with many players and different perspectives that lead to various interpretations and practices. In Thailand as others, CSR begins gaining much popularity from private management practices while it is quite new to the public sector. This survey research intends to examine three major issues: why, what, and how CSR is adopted. It also looks for problems related to CSR implementation. Research questionnaires were collected from a number of 400 respondents who some were purposively and some randomly selected to represent Thai civilian officials. The results revealed that mostly senior executives initiated the CSR activities in order to create good organizational image to public eyes. About 55 percent of the sample reported that they considerably understood CSR concepts and practices. Stakeholder-driven CSR dimensions which get practiced were essentially related to community, employee and environment, respectively. At its early stage, Thai public agencies tend to exhibit four different roles in mobilizing the CSR initiatives: facilitating, partnering, endorsing, and least on mandating. Multiple regression analyses shed lights that successful CSR activities depend a great deal on these three factors: 1) internally efficient CSR process management, 2) clear and cohesive objectives to stakeholder interests, and 3) a closely monitoring and reporting mechanism. In addition, three critical success factors in implementing the CSR programs in Thai public sectors were identified as follow: the CEO engagement and commitment, networking CSR, and good attitude and understanding on CSR processes of the government civilians. Research limitations, some suggestions on effective CSR management and future research studies were also addressed.