Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility of First-Tier Construction Companies in Australia: Content Analysis of CSR Reporting

Griffith University
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Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of first-tier construction companies
in Australia: Content Analysis of CSR Reporting.
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Contents
1. Project Background.................................................................................................. 2
2. Purpose of the project............................................................................................... 4
2.1 Ethical Corporate Responsibility..........................................................................5
2.2 Strategic Corporate Responsibility........................................................................5
2.3 Altruistic Corporate Responsibility.......................................................................5
Justification of engagement into CSR by construction companies..........................................5
3. Expected project outcomes......................................................................................... 6
4. Methodology........................................................................................................... 6
Resources needed........................................................................................................ 9
5. Risk Assessment....................................................................................................... 9
6. Ethical issues in construction projects........................................................................11
References................................................................................................................... 12
1. Project Background
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Corporate social responsibility is a concept that is gaining momentum in the recent past and
has an influence on how construction companies account for adverse environmental impacts
caused on the natural environment [4]. As the relationship between construction companies
and the community strengthens, a number of internal and external factors interact thus
affecting the participation of companies in social welfare activities [5].
A tier 1 construction company can be defined as that which is the largest and most
experienced in the construction industry, with revenues in terms of billions or hundreds of
millions. Tier 1 construction companies work on the largest and most significant projects in
the country. Notably, there are only 6 tier 1 construction companies in Australia; CPB
Contractors Pty ltd, Thiess Pty ltd, John Holland Pty ltd, Lendlease, Bauderstone Pty ltd and
Abigroup.
Just like tier 2 and 3, first-tier construction companies form part of the community in which
they operate in, and they have an obligation to give back to the society. [1] postulate that
corporate reports have proved to be an effective way of in communicating the CSR efforts to
the public. There is need for construction companies to act responsibly by assuming CSR in
order to solve social and environmental problems to incorporate sustainability tenets in the
construction industry [1].
Construction activities have significantly higher number of environmental impacts that
results into a change of way of life, asset values and other environmental concerns [2]. These
concerns include emissions of GHGs, discharge of effluent and waste water into water
bodies, disruption of natural habitats resulting into disruption of biodiversity, health and
safety hazards. All these have a direct bearing on the environmental, social and economic
well-being of the inhabitants.
CSR is essential in enabling construction firms to have a proactive approach by adopting
mitigation strategies that would minimize some of these effects [2].
A lot of research work has been done on the Social Corporate Responsibility in construction
and how they report on ethical, social and environmental issues [3].
However, in the context of Australia, especially for the first-tier construction companies,
there is still a gap to be filled in analysis of CSR Reporting. This paper therefore serves as a
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brief project plan for content analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting. By
analyzing and reviewing a number of literatures that is already available, this paper aims to:
a) To predict overall reporting trends of Corporate Responsibility that are currently
emerging in the Australian construction industry by analyzing CR reports.
b) To come up with a relevant framework for comparison of CR reports available in the
Australian construction industry.
c) To use the framework developed and test the predictions in (a) by conducting a thorough
and in-depth review of CR reports in different construction companies.
2. Purpose of the project
There is a number of varied reasons why construction stakeholders use CR activities [6]. These
reasons stem up from the definition of SCR, which [6] defines as a process by which companies
undertake to regulate themselves in order to improve their performance related to the social,
environmental and economic expectations placed on them by the society in which they operate
in. Three forms of CR are proposed, which are similar to Carroll’s CR pyramid and gives the
importance of each tier to the operations of the company.
Figure 1. Pyramid illustrating the 4-part model of CSR: Adapted from Carroll (1999)
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