Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can influence employee motivation and happiness so many enterprises in Thailand, both foreign and Thai, have been applying CSR concepts in their organisations, especially as part of staff management and human resource. However, many of these practices are not formalised, but intrinsic to, family-run businesses (FRBs), defined here as a business run by family members only. Despite their lack of formal procedures given their size, family heads often have their own understanding on what CSR activities should be done, and with what effect. It is less well known what the perception and perceived effect of such activities are in FRBs to provide a better understanding how informal CSR activities are initiated, how they differ among different FRBs and how these CSR activities are perceived by its employees. This is the topic of this research. The research is based on over 3,000 questionnaires sent to employees of 28 FRBs in Eastern Thailand, with 2,292 respondents in total. Overall, the results show strong appreciation of the intrinsic CSR activities with interesting gradients across sectors, organisational hierarchies, gender and age groups. Perceptions of CSR practice were clustered and labelled as: 1) inactive CSR 2) active CSR 3) caring company 4) moral owner 5) no CSR with a clear split in distribution between shop-floor staffs, head of section and managers. In addition, middle managers appear to appreciate the CSR activities more than shop-floor workers because they appreciate the strategic intent of the CSR activities and have better awareness of CSR activities within the company.