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Puan Maimunah Aminuddin

The CSR R Digest conducted an email interrview with Human


H
Resourc ces Manage ement (HRM) guru, Puan. Maimuna ah
Aminud ddin. Puan. Maimunah served in Universiti
U Te
eknologi
Mara (UUiTM) for 34 4 years. She began her career in Malaysia
M
teaching industriall relations at
a UiTM, theen later beca
ame one
of Malaysia’s leade ers in HRM. Her book, “Malaysian
“ Industrial
Relationns and Emp ployment Law”, 6th edittion, is McGGraw Hill’s
best-seller in the category of books
b written by local authors.
Puan. Maimunah
M reecently auth
hored “Humman Resourc ce
Manage ement”, pub blished by Oxford
O University Publications,
nglish on HRM specifically written for the
the firstt book in En
Malaysian market. Categories

CSRD: Do
D you hav
ve any commments on the
e Bursa Malaysia
• CSR Dig
gest Editorial
having made CSR reporting
r co
ompulsory for
f listed co
ompanies

• Marketplace
since 20
006?
• Transparency
Page

• Workplace
 

MA: I feel that Bursa Malaysia’s requirement of compulsory CSR reporting an excellent
move. Listed companies are responsible to their share-holders, but they also need to be
accountable for their decisions and actions which affect the general public. As listed
company’s annual reports are readily available for scrutiny, interested parties will be able to
directly access information about the CSR activities of the companies concerned.
Having said that, clearly we must distinguish between CSR reporting and the realities of
business. According to csrinternational.blogspot.com, the company in Malaysia judged to
have the best CSR reporting recently is British American Tobacco - most definitely not a
company which could be said to be socially responsible, in that its product allegedly kills
thousands of persons each year!

“Human Resource Management”


by Puan. Maimunah Aminuddin (Oxford University Publications)
CSRD: How do Malaysian employers fare in general when it comes to CSR at the workplace?
MA: There is a growing wealth of evidence relating to the state of the CSR in Malaysia today.
Lecturers at Universiti Teknologi MARA’s Faculty of Accountancy have been studying this
issue since the late 1990s, most notably starting with Prof. Dr Mustaffa Mohd Zain’s
doctoral thesis entitled “Corporate Social Responsibility in Malaysia: the current state of the
art and future prospects.”

In the last eight years, Prof. Mustaffa and his colleagues have published more than a dozen
articles on the subject, and the same number of students have written Masters level case
studies on CSR in different industries in Malaysia. Notwithstanding the academic interest in
the subject, and the Bursa Malaysia requirements on reporting on CSR, which apply to listed
companies, I suspect the average SME doesn’t have an interest in CSR.

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Office Job Stressful Job by Frixedairwave


That is not to say that SME’s conduct their businesses irresponsibly, merely that their focus
is on profit first, or at least survival; if CSR helps achieve these aims, well and good. If it
does not, then it is not of interest to entrepreneurs.

CSR requires employers to treat their internal customers, i.e. employees, ethically.
Complying with the relevant employment laws is a good start but any company which hopes
to boast about its CSR efforts should begin by looking long and hard at how it manages its
employees.

After all, these employees make decisions on behalf of the organization. They cannot be
expected to look after external stakeholders well if they feel themselves to be neglected or
discriminated against by the employer.

Thus, employers who discriminate against some employees because they belong to a
particular racial or religious group, gender, age group, or simply because they are different
in some way to the average worker are certainly behaving in a way which is the very
antithesis of corporate social responsibility. Many employers do not realize that their failure
to take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment is a form of discrimination as well as
evidence of lack of caring about safety at the workplace.

The government has been trying to get employers to formally adopt the Code of Practice on
Preventing and Eradicating Sexual Harassment at the Workplace. Statistics provided by the
Ministry of Human Resources show that only a tiny percentage of employers have done so.
Of course, it is possible that many socially responsible employers have, in fact, introduced
appropriate procedures and practices to eliminate sexual harassment, but have not officially

informed the Ministry that they have done the necessary.


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Office Politics by David Whitlam


CSRD: What more can be done to improve workplace CSR?
MA: In Malaysia, we still need vigorous enforcement of relevant laws, such as employment
laws and environmental protection laws as well as consumer protection legislation. On the
whole, the laws we have are comprehensive, but are not well enforced for a variety of
reasons.
CSRD: Do you think CSR at the workplace should be legislated?
MA: I doubt whether CSR can be effectively legislated. One size does not fit all. Different
businesses in differing industries have different CSR issues.
CSRD: What is the best method of getting businesses to take on more corporate social
responsibility at the workplace?
MA: There is plenty of evidence to suggest that legislation does not solve many of the
problems faced by society today. Indeed, the more legislation that is introduced, the more
some employers look for ways to avoid having to comply. Legislation will not make
employers socially responsible without other complimentary action.

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Office Hours by Canislupusmoon


It might be helpful if all employers with more than, say, 50 employees were required to
appoint a director responsible for CSR related matters, including compliance with the
relevant legislation. Alternatively, all directors of a company may be made jointly
responsible and should there be any non-compliance, all the directors should be jointly
charged. Fines should be hefty and magistrates must be willing to impose maximum fines
where appropriate.

It would also be helpful if HR


professional and academic courses
included a compulsory course on CSR
in their programmes.

CSRD: Kelly Services Inc. conducted a


survey which found that 87% of
Malaysian respondents believed
employers should contribute to their
employees’ well-being by enabling fl
exible hours, access to gym facilities
and less workplace stress. Do you have
any comments on these?
MA: Malaysian employers on the whole have so far been very reluctant to experiment with
practices which would improve the work-life balance of their employees, even when it is
obvious that the employees themselves and society in general would benefit from such
practices. Except for the largest employers, it is uncommon for employers to offer benefits
such as subsidized gym facilities or wellness facilities at the workplace.

At The Office by AndreeWallin


The general attitude of most employers is that “if other employers don’t offer, why should
we?” Yet, by pushing themselves to the forefront in offering benefits that really benefit
employees, not only would the employer be able to attract and retain talented workers,
productivity would also improve.

Many strategies to improve employees’ work-life balance cost little or nothing but have the
potential to bring about good returns. For example, flexible working hours, including
flexibility of where work is to be done for those whose jobs allow this (tele-working and so
on) can bring about major gains to both employers as well as employees. ◊

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