MANAGERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY : WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SERVICE INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

The discipline of corporate social responsibility has been drawing considerable attention of business firms over the last decade. Many businesses are becoming more active in contributing to society now than they used to be earlier. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues are now being integrated into all aspects of business operations, reflected in the visions, missions and value statements of a number of companies all over the world. In this case, the attitude of managers play a major role in making decisions to include CSR in the visions, missions and value statements of companies. However, no research has been carried out in the Sri Lankan context to study the nature of attitude of managers towards CSR though CSR has become important. This is a serious omission. Therefore, this gap is addressed by this study and thus the purpose of the study is to examine the nature of attitudes of managers towards CSR, and the factors that affect the attitude of managers toward CSR. The data are collected through a structured questionnaire developed based on the respective literature. Fifty (50) managers were selected representing different industries such as telecommunication, banks, education institutes, construction, trading, and textile. A sample of managers was randomly drawn from the list of quoted public companies published by the Colombo Stock Exchange. Chi-square Test, the Duncan Multiple Range Test, ANOVA and the t- test were performed to test the statistical signifi cance wherever applicable in the analysis. The results disclose that a significant portion of managers possess a favorable attitude toward CSR. Also,  most of them believe that CSR activities increase the profitability of their companies in the long-run. Further, the result shows that attitudes of different managers are similar in different businesses.  The study discloses factors such as sector, size of the organization, education and experience of managers, and common practices in the industry  that do not influence the attitudes of managers towards CSR in Sri Lanka. The finding of this study can be used by managers to design their CSR strategies.

Keywords: Attitude, Commitment, Consistency, Connectivity, Corporate Social Responsibilities

For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk