A Phenomenological Study Of Purchasing Managers And Purchasing Social Responsibility Activities Within Electrical And Electronics Industry In Northern Malaysia: A Focus On Labour And Health & Safety
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Date
2016-09
Authors
Loo, Saw Khuan
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Abstract
This qualitative phenomenological study which is transcendental in nature, describes
purchasing managers’ lived experiences on purchasing social responsibility (PSR) activities,
specially focused on labour and health & safety. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15
purchasing managers working in electrical and electronics multinational corporations located
in northern Malaysia. Five essences describe the purchasing managers’ experiences with
regard to the nature of PSR activities. These experiences are: PSR activities are in the initial
stage and incomprehensive; health & safety are more prioritised than labour standards; mild
enforcement on supplier labour violations; extent of PSR activities differs according to the
nature of the company, and perception of PSR activities influences the extent of PSR
activities. Five essences describe the purchasing managers’ experiences pertaining to barriers
to PSR activities. These experiences are: PSR activities are lower priority than purchasing
managers’ primary objectives; there is a lack of authority for the managers to enforce PSR
activities; there is a resource constraint to implement the activities; suppliers are reluctant to
improve the standards of labour and health & safety; and the suppliers’ workers prefer longer
working hours. This research contributes to stakeholder theory through its discovery of six
essences on stakeholder salience. These essences include: customers and corporate
headquarters are definitive stakeholders with high salience, possessing all three of the
stakeholder attributes: legitimacy, power, and urgency; media and industry peers together,
are expectant stakeholders with moderate-salience, possessing two attributes: power and
urgency; government, managing directors, corporate social responsibility departments,
human resource departments, and health & safety departments are latent stakeholders with
low salience, possessing the attribute of legitimacy; competitors are latent stakeholders with
low salience, possessing the attribute of urgency; definitive stakeholders influence
purchasing managers’ primary objectives, and access to resources and authority, and
subsequently influence the purchasing managers’ experience on PSR activities; and
definitive stakeholders have yet to fully exercised their stakeholder power with regard on
enforcement of PSR activities. The key implications of this research are: purchasing
managers are recommended to be fully involved in PSR activities and include all the key
suppliers in fulfilling the full requirements of labour and health & safety; corporate
headquarters as high salient stakeholders are suggested to fully exercise power and support
purchasing managers with full authority, resources and key performance indicators to
perform PSR activities; customers as high salient stakeholders are proposed to fully exercise
power and undertake cost sharing with purchasing managers to upgrade PSR activities; and
government as low salient stakeholder is expected to exercise power and claim its urgency
in order to be high salient, and subsequently, enforce labour law and provide tax incentives
for implementation of PSR activities.
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Keywords
Phenomenological study which is transcendental in nature, describes purchasing managers’ lived experiences , on purchasing social responsibility (PSR) activities, specially focused on labour and health & safety.