Corporate Social Responsibility of Hospitals in Southern Thailand

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a major concern in various organizations that bring benefits to corporation, community, and environment. However, there is still not systematic information about CSR of hospitals. This research aims to investigate the extent, level and factors influencing CSR of 154 selected hospitals in Southern Thailand by using questionnaires that were grouped into four sections which involved hospital characteristics, board composition, transformation leadership, and corporate social responsibility. The results of this study show that the selected hospitals in Southern Thailand completely accepted that the significant dimension of responsible hospitals might obey the law and act along with general ethical principles. They also focused on the role of hospitals in society and environmental protection, especially protecting consumers and employees. In addition, having different location and ownership had the different level of responsibility. For the result of testing the factor influencing CSR, it was significantly and positively influenced by hospital size, ownership status, board size, tenure of director, and providing role model of leader. The result of this study is benefitial for hospitals'policy makers in planning their CSR policy.