Social Responsibility and Ethics 1

Social Responsibility and Managerial Ethics: A Focus on Saudi Arabia

By
Social Responsibility and Ethics 2
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3
Research Background .............................................................................................................. 3
Research Aims &Objectives ..................................................................................................... 4
Aims & Objectives-How to Achieve .......................................................................................... 4
Research Questions ................................................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................. 6
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 6
Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility ............................................................................. 6
CSR in the Arabian Countries ................................................................................................... 7
Saudi Managers and CSR ......................................................................................................... 8
Challenges of Managerial Ethics in Saudi Arabia .................................................................. 11
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 13
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 13
Research Philosophy .............................................................................................................. 13
Research Approach ................................................................................................................ 14
Research Strategy .................................................................................................................. 14
Time Horizon .......................................................................................................................... 15
Data Proposal/Collection Tools ............................................................................................. 16
Research Instrument .............................................................................................................. 16
Sampling and Data Analysis .................................................................................................. 16
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 18

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This research work will be focusing on the concept of social responsibility in Arabian
Countries and hence narrowing down it focuses on Saudi Arabia.

Research Background
It has been very well known that Saudi Arabia is one of the richest and largest nations in
the Middle East with significant influence in terms of policy and the economy. However, there
are a number of challenges and problems being experienced by the Saudi Government in terms
of their CSR programs. One challenge is the move from being a country relying on oil exports to
a country dependent on its human resources and focus on being socially responsible. This
change is occurring, with the government spending billions of dollars, over the last five years,
on higher education, internally and externally (Wild & John, 2009, Pp. 256-287). Much of this
education includes learning about management and business ethics. Despite this focus on
human resource development, Saudi Arabia is still in the early stages of developing their
practices on being socially responsible.
In some cases, actions and initiatives have been locally designed. In fact, one of the high
points of the entire process has been to see how local business leaders have joined and often
led local efforts to ensure business puts its best foot forward in the change process of the Arab
region (Visser, 2008, pp. 473-503). In others, CSR actions represent a concerted response at a
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global or regional level of large corporate entities to adapt their CSR work for greatest possible
local relevance.

Research Aims &Objectives
The main aim of this research work will be identifying the practices of managers and
their focus on social responsibility and ethics. However, this research work will be focusing on
Saudi Arabia and managerial practices in the specified region. The main objective of this study is
to have an in-depth analysis of ethical and social responsibilities of the managers. This research
work will establish relation between the factors that have their impact on managers that tend
to practice ethical. Following are the main aims and objectives of this research work:
To analyze the managerial ethics in Saudi region
To understand the focus corporate social responsibilities of Saudi managers
To identify the business ethics and social responsibility of managers in Saudi
Arabia
To indicate the extent at which Saudi managers are practicing CSR activities in
their organizations

Aims & Objectives-How to Achieve
The main intention of carrying out this research is to comprehend the practices of Saudi
managers that eventually come out to be implementing socially responsible and ethical
practices in order to achieve the goals of being socially responsible business. Throughout this
research work, the attention of the researcher will be on the Saudi Arabia, which will be
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obtained through analyzing extended literature review. However, the literature review
facilitates in laying out the basis for study and assist in interpreting the whole research findings
for understanding the existing knowledge on relevant topics and highlighting the impact of
overall study.

Research Questions
The aims and objectives of the research study helps in laying out the research questions
that ultimately helps in finding the exact and adequate data and reach to the best conclusion.
However, this research work will be focusing on Saudi Arabia and managerial practices,
therefore following are the research questions that have been formulated from the research
aims and objectives:
Analyze the managerial ethics in Saudi region?
What are the practices of Saudi managers in being socially responsible?
How we can identify the business ethics and social responsibility of managers in
Saudi Arabia?
What is the extent that Saudi managers are being practicing CSR activities in
their organizations?




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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter provides the review of the literature on the topic under discussion. The
review of the literature will help in analyzing the overall topic of the current research through
prior searches conducted on the relevant research works by several authors. Therefore, this
section is particularly relevant as it covers the views from authors and experts in the area that
provides valuable frameworks and supports the whole research.

Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility
CSR in the Developed and Developing countries is the concept that is normally used
while referring to the obligations of an organization, beyond self-interest and what is required
by the law, to utilize its resources in certain ways that eventually provide benefits to the
community socially and ethically. According to the EC- European Commission, the CSR is the
concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business
operations and in their interactions with stakeholders on a volunteer basis." (2002, p. 25).
Today there is an increasing recognition within the developed economies around the
world where CSR is not an optional extra - i.e., firms can no longer look at CSR as a luxury or an
indicator of their goodwill toward society. Firms, in today's context, are responsible not only for
their conduct, but also for the overall impact their businesses may have on all their
stakeholders now and in generations to come (Collier & Esteban, 2007, pp.19-33). Within the
US and European firms, it is becoming increasingly known that it is not enough to have mission
statements and codes of ethics regarding how firms may behave; it is necessary for ethics and
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CSR to become embedded in the cultural fabric of die business, as well as in the hearts and
minds of its members.
In predominantly western contexts, CSR has been investigated through various angles,
such as firm's ethical values and its impact on earnings management, emphasis on sustainability
(Harley, 2002, 418-434), concerns toward green marketing (Mellahi, 2007, pp.85-99),
environmental issues (Tessema & Soeters, 2006, pp.86-105), or good corporate citizenship, and
from an institutional perspective (Elamin & Alomaim, 2011, 38-49).
From an operational standpoint, scholars have studied aspects, for instance;
implementing social concerns in the factors of production and manufacturing processes. It
refers to the development of technologies that are environmental friendly and adopts
innovative and emerging practices of human resource management. This concept also tends to
deliver ethically and morally acceptable working environments for the employees where they
can practice considering the ethical responsibilities.

CSR in the Arabian Countries
The Corporate Social Responsibility and globalisation has presented great challenges
and opportunities throughout the region. New models of political participation, power-sharing,
and evolving forms of social consensus dominate the landscape region-wide. The Arab region
has also clearly affected the business environment. This includes the way that companies are
seen in the region and, more importantly, the way they are expected to behave. To the extent
that social conscience now more directly influences purchasing priorities and consumer trends,
many companies are recognizing that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and other forms of
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social engagement are an even more critical part of the post-Arab business model than before.
In the perspective of social engagement and benefitting the consumer, corporate citizenship
must play a new and more pro-active role than it has in this region (Aycan & Al-Hamadi, 2007).
The responses of various corporations have ranged from the creative to commonplace.
The lessons flowing from the more engaged companies will set CSR trends regionally and
globally in the future. CSR encompasses social investments to create long-term value and
sustainability for the company's business and global communities. In the context of the Middle
East, larger corporations have often partnered with NGOs under the patronage of or otherwise
favoured by ruling elites. While the practice may appear self-serving, it often arguably
represented the best means to assure impact, scale, and sustainability - all key considerations
for companies engaged in CSR.

Saudi Managers and CSR
Saudi Arabia is an important member of the GCC, which is also a host to many important
industries such as petrochemicals and refining, banking, and healthcare. In recent years, Saudi
organizations have started paying attention to CSR and have begun to show greater
commitment in terms of instituting CSR guidelines and programs. However, their efforts are
likely to be slowed since there are no guiding theoretical and practical frameworks that have
examined this phenomenon, exclusively within Saudi context, which they could depend upon. It
is therefore plausible that these efforts will be aided greatly if Saudi firms had access to primary
research, which would highlight to them how key Saudi business managers who are expected to
play a crucial role in the future will craft who, crafting the CSR policies for Saudi firms thinking
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about CSR (Human , 2003, pp. 11-32). The objective of this research study has taken under
consideration such issues. Since, the concept of CSR is an emerging phenomenon in this country
therefore, this region has been facing lack of knowledge within this area and evaluates the
extent towards which the concept of CSR has been used as a part of corporate philosophy, but
CSR has made islets in the way towards Saudi organizations.
From the prior searches, it has been identified that the concept of CSR is in its infancy
among Saudi firms. The CSR concept is in the early stage of development and is reflective of the
country's early stage of private sector development. There seems to be a narrow and shallow
understanding of the strategic role of CSR and ethical practices in achieving overall long-term
corporate objectives and limited CSR activities that seem to be localized and based on religious,
individual or propaganda-oriented initiatives. CSR in Saudi Arabia tends to lean toward being
classical and viewed as philanthropic/altruistic rather than strategic orientation.
This is infact steady with the prior research works within the same region (Goyal, 2007,
pp.145-163) who has mentioned a comparatively higher level regarding philanthropic
orientation in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan with small clusters of modern/strategic orientation in
each country. Prior authors have explained that this may be an indicator of a small group of
Western educated Arab managers who belief in the added value of strategy, thus they are still
trying to find the fit between their philanthropic tendencies and their business strategic goals.
However, several authors have also illustrated that the mqanagers from the Arab region do
have the ability and they are also ready to come together on defining the concept of CSR; on
the other hand, for this thing to take place, initiatives from the top management has to be
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driven towards CSR and should be introduced, and communicated all the way through the
organization(Collier & Esteban, 2007, pp.19-33).
From several research works it has been seen that CSR provides a platform to build trust
with all relevant stakeholders in the region including community, consumers and government.
the case for CSR in the Middle East has rarely ever been as compelling. According to Ali
Faramawy, Microsoft president for the Middle East and Africa, "during times of turbulent
change it is important for a corporation to demonstrate that it cares and that it is there to help
the citizens empower themselves to set their own future. In the space of social engagement
and benefitting the consumer, corporate citizenship must play a new and more pro-active role
than it has in this region." The responses of various corporations have ranged from the creative
to commonplace (Wild & John, 2009, Pp. 256-287). The lessons flowing from the more engaged
companies will set CSR trends regionally and globally in the future.
A major emphasis on CSR activities has led Arab managers to maximize the impact on
particular dynamic of the region that has an increase in joint activities between organizations
and other stakeholders. The values of this approach are many. First, joint collaboration
amongst many organizations allows a blending of core competencies which track important
national goals and aspirations. Second, it ensures a pathway beyond ad-hoc support to more
strategic targeting of areas that are critical for the long-term growth and development in the
affected countries. Third, it provides a mechanism for even broader partnerships which may
also include donor-financed activities where the private sector can partner to increase impact
(Snider & Hill, 2003, pp.175-187). Target areas for such collaboration include supporting
government reform, greater transparency (including through open data and other e-
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government initiatives), and inclusive democracy through support to the fast-expanding socially
and ethically responsible business practices. Other efforts to drive economic growth,
employment, and improved education are also of great importance in building business people
to practice ethically responsible (Visser, 2008, pp. 473-503).

Challenges of Managerial Ethics in Saudi Arabia
The process of change in the Arab world has been fast paced and broadly welcomed,
but produces significant challenges alongside the opportunities it presents. The challenge for
companies in this changing environment has been to disassociate with the past, demonstrate
ethical business practices, and engage proactively with the new market influencers. In a time of
revolutionary turbulence, this is easier said than done (Whitehouse, 2003, pp.85-98).
Corporations are required to continue to evolve their engagement to ensure that they are seen
to be on the right side of the change process by the region's new arbiters, the public and
particularly the youth.
This research work has focused on how some companies and their employees have
crafted and modified effective and innovative CSR initiatives in being responsive of being
socially responsible and focused on managerial ethics to the Arab region. In some cases, actions
and initiatives have been locally designed. In fact, one of the high points of the entire process
has been to see how local business leaders have joined and often led local efforts to ensure
business puts its best foot forward in the change process of the Arab region. In others, CSR
actions represent a concerted response at a global or regional level of large corporate entities
to adapt their CSR work for greatest possible local relevance (Mellahi, 2007, pp.85-99). The
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process of transition will be a long one. What is certain is that forward-looking corporations,
both local and international, will be in the middle of this process doing what they can to be
productive participants. If the value of such proactive engagement were not enough to spur
action, then certainly the reminder that a failure to engage can be commercially fatal should do
the trick. Non- engagement bears a price too high and too visible for corporate in today's
modern world of real-time social scrutiny and popular commercial sanction within the suddenly
dynamic Arab region to ignore.

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter will be presenting method of research that will be adopted for carrying out
this research work. In this chapter, research philosophy, research approach, methods of data
collection and sampling techniques will be also be highlighted.

Research Philosophy
The selection of the research philosophy is considered one of the most critical and
important stage in adopting any of the research methods. The philosophy determines the
scientific paradigm under which a research project is created. This research will be envisioned
using the phenomenologist research approach. The phenomenologist approach is also
commonly known as Interpretivism. This is a scientific paradigm that understands that human
behaviour cannot easily be gauged, so relating phenomena related to human behaviour to
numeric values is a futile task (Collis and Hussey, 2003).
The Interpretivism paradigm seeks to understand human behaviour through subjective
valuations made by the researcher as a result of high levels of involvement on the research
subject matter during the empirical collection of data (Creswell, 2005). The researcher will be
then highly involved on the research, analysing not only information that was explicitly
provided, but also observing attitudes, reactions, and behaviour of research participants, and
using this as part of the empirical data collected for the research. This research philosophy has
been by this researcher based upon an understanding that the topic understudy highly relates
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to the view that managers have ethical and social responsibilities and as such, it is human
behaviour that drives this research (Saunders & Lewis, 2007).

Research Approach
As it has been discussed in the previous chapter that the level of awareness in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding CSR has just started growing, therefore, the researcher can
adopt the research methodology which can deliver and facilitate in having an in depth insights
from the experiences of other GCC countries as a starting point in this research work. However,
this study objectives demand that there should be clear understanding of the managerial
practices, therefore, the research selected the survey method for obtaining the information
from Saudi managers and their perspectives about the social responsibility and managerial
ethics.

Research Strategy
The research strategy defines the general approach to the research investigation.
Similarly to all issues related to research methodology, there were different options for choice
of the research approach and this choice would depend on the study taking place. Saunders et
al (2007, pp.135) have explained that the strategy must be in line with the research objectives
and the available resources and also add that the types of strategy are frequently combined
with each other throughout the study. The two main types of research strategy to be
considered are surveys and analysis of the literature review (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2005).
According to Thomas (2004), the survey strategy aims to produce generalisations about
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populations by collecting information from samples. Additionally the author defends that this
technique is commonly used for quantitative research and such affirmation is true due to the
large sample considerations needed in order to generalise the findings. Certainly, large sample
would not allow for qualitative, in depth analysis but instead permits a greater amount of
information to be considered by using a statistic approach (Neuman, 2005).

Time Horizon
In order to perform any research work, it is required to draft a time frame outlining the
schedule for each activity which will take place. It helped to manage the work load and to
ensure that all sources were given consideration. As this project is time-limited the time line
helped to be more focused. The proposed time frame for this research is11 months, and a
Gantt chart has been drafted to meet the predetermined deadline.
Tasks
Weeks
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
Construct research proposal
Developing search themes
Submit proposal
Data search
Begin finding data sources and
gather relevant information

Analysis and redefine problem(s)
Implement findings
Prepare draft report
Begin full data analysis
Write Dissertation

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Data Proposal/Collection Tools
The data will be collected through in depth search on libraries and searching through
key words. Online libraries and data bases which are suppose to be related and updated to the
literature. Most of the online libraries that can be used are, Blackwell, Emerald and Ebsco. The
main conclusive data is the result of a thorough analysis of the material found online. The
research involved analyzing the news postings on the web over a phase of years. The approach
employed was reading the abstract or body of each publication.

Research Instrument
The instrument used for the collecting of the data will be comprised of survey
questionnaire that will be comprised of 10-15 questions including demographics. The questions
in the questionnaire will be both open ended and close ended. The close ended questions will
be based on five point Likert scale ranging from 1-5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree).

Sampling and Data Analysis
From the research aims and objectives, the researcher has focused on employing the
survey method. The sample size for the analysis will consists of 40 Saudi managers, who are
more likely to practice ethically in business environment and articulate the CSR policies within
their organizations. However, a survey questionnaire will be more helpful in obtaining the
desired information. The managers will be randomly selected from various sectors. The data
obtained from the questionnaire will be analyzed by two methods, in the first method the data
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will be analyzed through statistical analysis using ANOVA and the data obtained from open
ended will be critically analyzed in reference to the prior research work.



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Creswell, J. (2005). Educational Research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education,
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Harley, B. (2002), Employee responses to high performance work system practices: an analysis
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Mellahi, K. (2007), The effect of regulations on HRM: private sector firms in Saudi Arabia,
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