MGMT003: Business, Government and Society

Individual Assignment: Is CSR in Singapore real or lip service?

Is CSR in Singapore real or a lip service?
Since independence, the Singapore government has established several regulations and codes of practices in the fields of corporate governance, industrial relations, safety standards, pollution control etc. and companies are expected to meet these requirements. This had led to the adoption of implicit CSR practices in Singapore companies, with a narrow emphasis on an explicit display of their practices. In such a case, businesses may be practicing CSR without realizing it. This is also a major reason why 60% of Singaporean companies are not aware of CSR. Amongst the 27% of companies
NTUC FairPrice is a company that understands the very definition of CSR. It follows the Stewardship Principle thereby serving the needs of all groups that have a stake in it. It has embedded CSR into the core of its business, and has also explicitly made its stakeholders aware of its practices.
Communications: We will be analyzing CSR efforts by Pacnet and SingTel.
Pacnet is a Singapore based telecommunications service provider. It focuses most of its CSR efforts towards creating a safe workplace for its employees and minimizing its impact on the environment.
Pacnet claims to be environmentally responsible by adopting practices such as switching off lights when outside office hours, reducing heating/cooling needs, using temperature controls, providing a combination of fresh air and electrical cooling systems. It also contributes to the community by providing resources to maintain a healthy lifestyle ("Corporate social responsibility," 2014). The main issue with Pacnet is that it has focused most of its supposed CSR efforts on limited number of stakeholders and has failed to expand the scope of its responsibility to non-market stakeholders. Although it has successfully made its implicit practices explicit to society, these ordinary practices have been unnecessarily glorified thereby reflecting insincerity and hypocrisy in its efforts.
SingTel,