CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ENVIRONMENT IN MALAYSIA: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CSR PROGRAMME BY AXIATA GROUP

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the important elements for an organization to sustain in business. The evolution of CSR and its implementation since it was introduced in Malaysia until now has changed rapidly. There are many opportunities that can help the organization in conducting CSR to achieve the dual purpose of meeting the organizational goal and helping society. Organizations that carry out CSR face many challenges. Among the challenges they face include not being able to fully disclose some social issues that their CSR work is involved in, and the lack of measurable outcome of whether they achieved the standard of doing the CSR. On top of that, the theories and practices of CSR in other countries may not be applicable to Malaysia because of the difference in beliefs, norms, culture, and socio-economy. This paper attempts to show the effectiveness of how companies in Malaysia can conduct effective CSR programmes through evidence collected and compile from published data on the Axiata Group, in which the organization received several CSR Awards for being able to conduct many CSR programmes in the different countries where it conducts its business. This paper concludes with the recommendations to an organization that would like to emulate the success of Axiata CSR programmes or to meets their own CSR goals with their own CSR model.