ZETI AZREEN AHMAD Department of Communications, Media and Culture PR and CSR

331 Pages·2012·2.16 MB·English

ZETI AZREEN AHMAD

Department of Communications, Media and Culture

PR and CSR : Malaysian Perspectives

Thesis submitted for the degree PhD in Communications, Media and Culture

February 2012
DECLARATION

This thesis has been composed by Zeti Azreen Ahmad. The work this thesis embodies has
been done by Zeti Azreen Ahmad and has not been included in another thesis.

Signed:

Zeti Azreen Ahmad

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillah, praise to Allah SWT the Most Merciful and Benevolent for with His
willingness this thesis is completed. This thesis is indeed a humble beginning of my journey
as a qualitative researcher. It was indeed an eye opening expedition that helps me to
understand the importance to explore, question and examine taken for granted issues that
often over shadowed by the dominant world view. I wish to extent my gratitude to my
Principal Supervisor Dr Jacquie L’Etang for her dedication in guiding me in this qualitative
endeavor. I wish to personally thank her for her time, patience and interest in my work. Her
feedback, comments and advice have helped tremendously in the completion of this work.
Thank you to my second supervisor Dr Amy Dee for her inspiring motivation and
constructive points that have lured me to better understand the value of discourse analysis.
This thesis is not possible without emotional support and doa’ from my husband Mohd Yusof
Kasiron. His understanding, patience, love, encouragement and presence have been
inspirational. My gratitude to my parents, Tn. Hj. Ahmad Mandus and Hjh. Siti Zaleha Abas
for their doa and encouragement to pursue my studies and also my mother in-law, Hjh
Makunah Abd Hadi for her understanding and doa all the way. My thanks also goes to all my
friends who have been supportive and helpful especially to Huda, Seemab, Izan and Naja. I
am grateful to have wonderful colleagues Soha, Martina, Margot, Isabella, Sutannippa who
have been supportive and helpful all the way.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis presents an empirical inquiry that explicitly exposes the relationships
between CSR practice in Malaysia and the scope of PR. This thesis embraced a critical
approach which offers alternate readings in Malaysian PR literature which are dominantly
quantitative in nature. The focus is on how socio-political, economic, cultural and
organizational contexts shape the practice of CSR and affect the scope and function of PR in
pursuing the practice.

This thesis has contributed to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the
underlying motives behind the pursuit of CSR among businesses in the country. It also offers
empirical data on PR roles in pursuing CSR in Malaysia – something that has received very
little attention in the literature despite PR’s perceived potentials in spearheading the function.

This empirical work has employed semi-structured interviews among PR managers
and CSR managers working in renowned CSR organizations in Malaysia. In addition, the
thesis analyses executives’ messages in CSR reports and later triangulated with interview
findings that helped to achieve a rich description of the topic under study. Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA) was adopted in this thesis and made explicit the relationships between socio-
political, economic and cultural dimensions that shape CSR practice and the scope of PR by
taking into consideration the presence of power relations in this phenomenon. Fairclough’s
(2010) three dimensional frameworks was adopted to enable interpretation go beyond texts
that mainly applied to data from CSR reports.

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The literature revealed CSR practice is a recent phenomenon in Malaysia whereby the
government has been a major driver in its development. Drawing from Malaysian experience,
economic growth is fundamental to ensure a fair distribution of wealth among multi-races in
Malaysia that perceived imperative to preserve national unity. In this respect, CSR initiatives
have been largely undertaken to achieve the long term survival of businesses that
consequently drive the nation’s economy in a long term. CSR has been primarily constructed
as a means to create business competitiveness and a symbol for success. This has been widely
accepted among business firms in Malaysia thus become ideological. At the same time, PR
role was found dominant in promoting the practice of CSR that appears to be working to the
advantage of the dominant groups i.e., business and government. Nevertheless, how PR
promotes mutual interests of business and society through CSR remain obscure.

This thesis also argues that the motivation to promote business interests serves as the
key stumbling block for PR in creating sustainable impact and value to other than it
paymaster and financial stakeholders. This thesis suggests that it is time for PR to reflect on
this common practice particularly in terms of its ethical implications to both the organizations
and the value of PR profession as a whole. This empirical study has significantly contributed
particularly in the realm of PR role research in CSR within specific social-cultural, political,
economic contexts of Malaysia and PR research from the critical perspectives.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
Table of Contents v

CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW 11
2.1 Definition of CSR: A Quandary 12
2.2 CSR Across Disciplines 16
2.2.1 CSR : Special links with management 17
2.2.2 CSR and Marketing 21
2.2.3 CSR and Accounting 24
2.2.4 CSR and the law 27
2.3 Public Relations and CSR 31
2.3.1 PR: Dominant versus critical paradigm 32
2.3.2 PR: Advancing socially responsible practice through relationship
management 35
2.3.3 PR : Promoting proactive CSR through issues management
function 38
2.3.4 PR and ethical practice 39
2.3.5 PR: Enlightened self-interest through reputation building 43
2.3.6 PR and rhetorical practice 47
2.3.7 The critical view 50
2.4 CSR and business ethics: An overlapping concept 53
2.5 CSR as a Practice 60
2.6 CSR as a Concept 64
2.6.1 Shareholders’ versus stakeholders’ frameworks 66
2.7 Social, political and economic influence on the evolution of CSR 70
2.7.1 CSR in the United States and the United Kingdom 71
2.8 Conclusion 75

CHAPTER 3 : PR AND CSR IN MALAYSIA 77
3.1 Malaysia : History, politics and socio-economic at a glimpse 78
3.1.1 Social and cultural landscape 81
3.1.2 Ethnic relations and national policies 85
3.1.3 Vision 2020 87

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3.2 PR in Malaysia 90
3.2.1 The development of PR in Malaysia : The socio-cultural,
economic and political determinant 90
3.2.2 PR: Different phases of development 91
3.2.3 PR : Promoting government policies 97
3.2.4 PR : Pursuing government’s pragmatic approach 102
3.2.5 PR : Education, professional development and research 104
3.3 CSR in Malaysia 106
3.3.1 Research on CSR in Malaysia 107
3.3.2 CSR : Early practice in Malaysia 109
3.3.3 CSR: Towards competitive business and a developed nation 112
3.3.4 CSR: Championing the practice 116
3.4 Conclusion 118

CHAPTER 4 : METHODOLOGY 120
4.1 The research questions 120
4.2 How does the researcher’s background shape the research? 121
4.3 The research paradigm 123
4.4 The data collection procedures 125
4.5 Triangulation 127
4.5.1 Sample 128
4.5.2 Research informants 129
4.5.3 Managing a semi structured interview 133
4.5.4 Interview Guide 137
4.5.5 Data management 137
4.6 Analytical approach 138
4.7 Analytical process 145
4.7.1 Fairclough’s three dimensional frameworks 151
4.7.2 The textual analysis 151
4.7.3 The discourse dimension 153
4.7.4 The social practice dimension 154
4.8 Limitations 155
4.9 Ethical Issues 155

CHAPTER 5 : DATA ANALYSIS 157
5.1 CSR in Malaysia: Conceptualizing the practice 157
5.1.1 Repertoire : CSR for business survival 158
5.1.2 Repertoire : CSR as a symbol of success 170
5.1.3 Repertoire: CSR as corporate culture 174
5.2 Conclusion 180

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CHAPTER 6 : THE UNDERLYING MOTIVE TO PURSUE CSR 182
6.1 Repertoire : Business case motive 182
6.2 Repertoire : CSR for the good of the nation 195
6.3 Repertoire: Personal values of business’s leader and religious belief 202
6.4 Conclusion 212

CHAPTER 7 : PR ROLES IN CSR 214
7.1 Repertoire : Promoting CSR for a competitive business 215
7.2 Repertoire : CSR as cultural practice 225
7.3 Repertoire: Advisory role 229
7.4 PR as a mouthpiece 238
7.5 Repertoire : PR challenges 240
7.6 Conclusion 245

CHAPTER 8 : CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 247
8.1 A critical reflection on CSR in Malaysia 248
8.2 Future research 258
8.3 Research reflections 260
8.4 Contribution to literature 265

REFERENCES 267

Appendix I : List of CSR Reports and Respondents Profile 295
Appendix II (a) : Sample of Invitation Letter 297
Appendix II (b) : Research Summary 298
Appendix II (c) : Consent Form 300
Appendix II (d) : Interview Guide 302
Appendix III (a) : Sample of Coded Interview Transcript - Manager 1 304
Appendix III (b) : Sample of Coded Executive Message 313
Appendix III (c) : Sample of Coded Executive Message 314
Appendix IV : Categories 315
Appendix V : Themes 316

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CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION

This thesis critically examines the role of public relations (PR) in corporate
social responsibility (CSR)1 practice in Malaysia. This chapter explains the project’s
significance, the scope of the research, the methodology adopted and how the thesis
aims to contribute to knowledge and the PR industry as a whole. Finally, the chapter
lays out the structure of the thesis.

Public relations (PR) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are evolving
concepts, neither of which has a single definition. The many and diverse definitions of
the two concepts are evident in the academic literature and discussed in Chapter 2. The
lack of a standard definition for PR was notoriously first noted by Dr. Rex Harlow
(1977), who collated and analyzed 472 definitions of PR written between 1900 and
1976 (Cutlip, Center & Broom 2000, p. 4). Likewise, CSR is hard to pin down as
illustrated in the rich array of related literature coming from a wide range of academic
disciplines such as: management; marketing; accountancy; public relations; and law; to
name a few. Moreover, the practices of PR and CSR vary in concept, and are also
manifested in numerous forms and degrees, from one corporation to another. This thesis
argues that both PR and CSR are social constructs greatly influenced by the socio-
economic, political and cultural landscape of a nation. Brussel (2008) emphasized that
‘CSR comes with different national characteristics resulting from diverse cultural
tradition as well as heterogeneous social and economic backgrounds’ (p. viii). At the
same time, scholars argued that PR has a significant role in CSR and should be placed
under the purview of PR (Freitag, 2007; Kim & Reber, 2008), and that PR and CSR are

1 The acronyms of PR and CSR will be used to represent public relations and corporate social responsibility respectively throughout
the discussion
1
interconnected in such a way that CSR becomes a tool for PR (L’Etang, 1994, 1996,
2006).

This thesis focuses on the connection and relationship between PR and CSR in
one particular cultural context. Despite many claims that PR manages CSR practice, the
empirical evidence on PR roles in pursuing CSR initiatives remains scarce. The PR role
has remained marginalized in CSR, a contributing factor in encroachment2 suffered by
the profession. It has been suggested that PR practitioners’ strong self-identity towards
their competencies and values in pursuing the organizational function ‘decrease the
likelihood of encroachment’ occurring (Lauzen 1992, p.61). In this regard, it is
imperative to gain the insights of PR practitioners on issues which have remained
unheard, or taken for granted, pertaining to their role in CSR and on constraints they
experienced in pursuing the practice.

Clark (2000) asserted that ‘the rise of CSR, in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
coincided with the increased concern for a corporation’s image’ (p.364). This is
particularly true in the Malaysian context due to several policies introduced in the
1980s i.e., ‘privatization’ and ‘industrialization’ policies (see details in Chapter 3).
These policies forced business to endure in a competitive environment by giving greater
attention to corporate image, which was often managed by PR. Similarly, Malaysian
businesses feel the urge to embrace socially responsible practices in order to enhance
their reputations, while meeting the requirements of international trade (see Lu &
Castka 2009). In this context, CSR could be viewed as an essential tool for PR to use in
optimizing a company’s image and reputation (L’Etang, 1994), in order to improve

2 Professionals with other expertise such as marketing, law, human resources, or engineering occupy the senior public relations
position in an organization (Lauzen 1992, p. 61).
2