The presence of CSR initiatives

As mentioned in my last blog post, week two revolved around client events. It’s now the end of week three and I can say that I have been given a very different taste of corporate public relations (PR) in the world of consultancy. The notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been the underlying notion for a couple of tasks that I have undertaken this week, allowing me to further build on my understanding of the concept from that taught within many of my university classes. It has become evidently clear to me in my time to date here in GO Communications (GC), that CSR is acknowledged as a valuable aspect of business in Kuala Lumpur (KL), just as it is back home in Australia.

I was instructed to conduct research into Orphanages within KL on behalf of a client, in order to provide a list of homes with all relevant details for a potential charity event. These such activities naturally lead to the question of corporates motivations for such events; genuine desire to give back VS the good-will appearance that results. This has always been something that I have speculated when it has come up as a learning outcome within units, however my time at GC has clarified some misconceptions. As an example, I was told that this particular charity incentive involving the homes was under wraps, with it being an activity that was not driven by media coverage, rather a genuine desire to give back to the community. I have to say that this was reassuring as a prospective PR professional soon to enter the industry and the corporate world in general. To see corporate giants have a conscience and a deeper awareness for surrounding communities was encouraging.     

At the same time, I am not naive to the world of CSR. I am aware of alternative motivations for such activities for organisations, with scholarly research indicating positive repercussions in the form of monetary return (Amrousy et al, 2012). However, I do have to say that being involved within these such tasks within the organisation has broadened my understanding of such initiatives and diminished my level of scepticism, giving credit to the organisations whom sincerely contribute for the benefit of surrounding communities and individuals rather than self-driven interests.

Well, so far my eyes have been opened and my knowledge has definitely expanded with the tasks that I have been lucky enough to be involved within. PR writing, client events and CSR research have all come up within my blogs to date- who knows what my last week here will involve! Time will tell.

REFERENCE

Amrousy, Zvi, Ilanit Gavious, Hagai Katz, and Rami Yosef. 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Firm Performance." Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing 8 (11): 1691-1703. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1468987031?accountid=10382.