Applying a Gender Perspective to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): An Exploratory Study in the United Arab Emirates Research Paper

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Updated: Nov 30th, 2023

Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility is the involvement of corporate bodies in the social aspects of life of people in the community in which the corporate exists. This practice holds the principle that the corporations are like public citizens responsible for the society and the environment.

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The environment in this case is the people and the general stakeholders surrounding the business. This responsibility may not be of economic benefit to the company but enhances the image as well as perception, which the public has on the company. This social responsibility is nowadays popular in the United Arab Emirates. Many of the corporations have strategies and policies on how to handle the CSR activities through resources allocated for corporate social responsibilities (Habisch 20).

Research Objective. The objective of this research is to identify the differences between the male and females in awareness as well as support of Corporate Social Responsibility in UAE.

Literature Review. Corporate Social Responsibility is an important aspect in the recent years as corporate bodies attempt to improve their public image. The need to hold the corporate bodies accountable to the society in which they live in made many companies play their roles as public citizens. The social responsibilities that the corporate bodies have adopted proved that they are part of the society and their existence in a country does not only benefit the employees or the customers but also the communities in which they live (Griffin 12).

Corporate Social responsibility is of importance to the customers in the sense that it assists the companies to associate with the surrounding communities in a friendly manner. Before the introduction of corporate social responsibility initiatives, local people used see companies operating in their vicinity as predators of their resources and this did not augur well with companies as they sought lawsuits frequently from pressure groups and civil societies (Griffin 21).

The corporate social responsibility is an important concept because it has assisted in the preservation of the environment. Many companies engaged in activities of exploring natural resources look for ways to reinvigorate the natural resources through carbon trading initiatives where the companies fund countries for organizations involved in preservation of the environment (Griffin 27).

The other factor of importance in social corporate responsibility is that they provide a platform for companies to create positive public image. Other than creating a positive corporate image, CSR offers marketing opportunities to the companies engaged in CSR as the sponsorships. Activities by the corporate provide an opportunity to create awareness about the company products and reach out to potential customers (Griffin 32).

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In United Arab Emirates, the latest entrants in the field of Social Corporate Responsibility are the oil mining companies. Most of the oil companies are multinationals and they therefore take the profits earned to their mother countries. The feeling that the companies should do something more to benefit the communities has led to the formulation of corporate social responsibilities harnesses.

United Arab Emirates is a great beneficiary of these initiatives of various multinationals operating in the country and in the Middle East. This is in consideration that UAE is one of the few stable counties in the Middle East and therefore enjoys huge investor confidence that attracts foreign investors in the country.

Despite the existence of various literatures vindicating existence of the CSR activities in UAE, few expound on the awareness and support of CSR activities in the UAE. The role played by gender in terms of supporting and implementation of the CSR activities is crucial in formulating strategies that will be of benefit to everyone (Habisch 64).

Islam is an invisible force in CSR activities since it is the main religion for UAQE nationals. The days which most of the corporate engage in the CSR activities is during the season of Ramadan. Companies use the mosques to make announcements to the locals on the initiatives they are engaging in especially if they need the participation of the local communities (Habisch 34).

The following are some of the companies found in UAE and the Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The First one is the Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation, a major corporation in UAE. The organization sponsors the Camel race, a very popular annual event. The company provides funds to children with special needs through the ministry of labour. This is a good gesture and the funds are for educating and training the disabled children.

The other company involved in such sponsorships is the Porsche Dubai a company specializing in the sale of luxury vehicles. The company sponsors golf events in the country thereby creating social activities for the local community and enthusiasts of the luxury cars. The company sponsors racing events and the annual Tennis championships, which is a national event (Habisch 32).

Research Methodology. The research was to determine the awareness of the CSR events in the country. The qualitative and quantitative methods of research are applied in data collection. The first process in data collection was formulation of the questionnaires to collect information. The research used the Likert questionnaires to derive data from the questionnaires. The questionnaires had twenty questions and sampling was random although the sample was divided between the two genders equally (Fombrun 2).

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Findings. The research found out that there was general awareness of the CSR activities in the country as both genders indicated that they knew about the companies that engaged in the social corporate activities. Both the genders indicated their perception to have the company need to place the interests of the society before their personal interest.

Most of the respondents especially women said that the corporate need to focus more on the environmental conservation. This opinion was more prevalent among the women with sixty percent of them strongly agreeing with the statement. However, lack of awareness on the role of social corporate responsibility was evident as forty per cent were undecided.

Concerning the issue of whether production of goods and services is more important than the corporate ethics; the males strongly agreed with the statement that ethics is important. Only two per cent were undecided. Indecision prevailed in this matter among women at eighty per cent.

Recommendation. Further research is imperative in this area to investigate why there is disparity in awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility. This is because from the research many women did not decide on whether they agreed or disagreed. This is due to lack of awareness of CSR activities.

As earlier indicated most of the activities engaged as CSR by corporate are in donations of charity or sponsorship of activities. Some of the activities sponsored have little or nothing to do with women especially the sporting activities. Further research should embark to know why CSR strategists focus on male activities and less on women activities (Habisch 93).

Conclusion

Corporate Social Responsibility is integral part of the organizations and as organizations engage in those activities, it is imperative that they considered gender as an important factor. Otherwise, the activities may continue to perpetrate the suppression of one gender especially in the Unite Arab Emirates. The CSR activities provide an arena for the corporate to show what they stand for in the society.

Works Cited

Fombrun, Carol. “The Value to Be Found in Corporate Reputation.” Financial Times, December 4, 2000. Print

Griffin, Jones. “The Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance Debate.” Business and Society 36 (2007): 5–31. Print.

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Habisch, Arnold. Corporate Social Responsibility across Middle East. London: Springer Press, 2005. Print

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"Applying a Gender Perspective to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): An Exploratory Study in the United Arab Emirates." IvyPanda, 30 Nov. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/applying-a-gender-perspective-to-corporate-social-responsibility-csr-an-exploratory-study-in-the-united-arab-emirates/.

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IvyPanda. (2023) 'Applying a Gender Perspective to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): An Exploratory Study in the United Arab Emirates'. 30 November.

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IvyPanda. 2023. "Applying a Gender Perspective to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): An Exploratory Study in the United Arab Emirates." November 30, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/applying-a-gender-perspective-to-corporate-social-responsibility-csr-an-exploratory-study-in-the-united-arab-emirates/.

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IvyPanda. "Applying a Gender Perspective to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): An Exploratory Study in the United Arab Emirates." November 30, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/applying-a-gender-perspective-to-corporate-social-responsibility-csr-an-exploratory-study-in-the-united-arab-emirates/.

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