A Proposal on

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

TOWARDS EMPLOYEE DURING THE COVID-19
PANDEMIC: A STUDY OF NEPALESE SERVICE SECTOR

Submitted To
Apex College
in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Submitted By
Suraj Kumar Tamang
PU Registration No.: 2018-2-22-0114
Exam Roll No.: 18220057

July, 2020
Kathmandu
Table of Content

Title of the Thesis ....................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction of the Study ...................................................................................... 1

1.2 Background of the Study ...................................................................................... 1

1.3 Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................... 2

1.4 Objective of the Study .......................................................................................... 4

1.4.1 General Objective .......................................................................................... 4

1.4.2 Specific Objectives ........................................................................................ 4

1.5 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 4

1.6 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................... 5

1.7 Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................... 6

1.8 Research Hypothesis ............................................................................................. 6

1.9 Chapter Plan .......................................................................................................... 6

Title of the Thesis

“Corporate Social Responsibility towards Employee during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A

Study of Nepalese Service Sector”

1.1 Introduction of the Study

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the Corporate Social Responsibilities of

Organization towards employee during the Covid-19 Pandemic state in Nepalese Service
Sector. It also analyzes the degree of how organizational roles impacts the employee
motivation in the current state of pandemic chaos.

1.2 Background of the Study

Coronavirus started as a disease spread by bats in Wuhan, China. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), the Chinese government officially reported its first case on
the 8th of December 2019. The Coronavirus outbreak was declared a Public Health
Emergency of International Concern on 30th January. However, because of the rapid
spread throughout the world, it was characterized as a global pandemic on the 11th of
March. The famous disease is now called COVID-19. Currently, 212 countries around the
world are affected by COVID-19 with a total of around 12 million confirmed cases,
including 551 thousand deaths (as of 10th July, 2020). The number of highest cases is
encountered by the USA, followed by Spain and Italy (Worldometer 2020).

In Nepal, the first case was confirmed on 23rd January 2020 in Kathmandu and it was even
the first case in South Asia. The citizen had a travel history as he returned from Wuhan
with the COVID-19 symptoms. Between January and March, Nepal took steps to prevent
a widespread outbreak of the disease while preparing for it by procuring essential supplies,
equipment and medicine, upgrading health infrastructure, training medical personnel, and
spreading public awareness. The first case of local transmission was confirmed on 4th April,
2020 in Kailali District and the first death occurred on 14th May, 2020. Since 24th March,
2020, the Country is at Lockdown State and have been using strict rules to cope up with
the pandemic. So far only 35 Deaths has been confirmed with around 16 thousand
confirmed cases (as of 10th July, 2020).

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The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the organizations as well and the changes that they
are making because of the pandemic will be long lasting. To ensure that their business
continues, several organizations are attempting innovative ideas and policies to operate in
the chaos period. Despite the changes, this pandemic is teaching the businesses as well as
their HR managers a lot of lessons. One of the major points is the impact of Digital
Integration in the human resource management. World Health Organization and Several
other Health safeguarding institutions has been highlighting the increased role of
organization to focus on human resource in innovative approach. There is a highly felt need
of knowing specifically the impact of Coronavirus disease on employees from the point of
HRM. In addition, an intellectual puzzle exists to investigate how the Coronavirus disease
impacts employees in an organization. This paper is an attempt to explore and describe the
role of Human Resource Management towards the employees in the pandemic period.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

The recent Pandemic in the form of Covid-19 has created a lot of mess all over the world.
After engulfing a lot of lives across the globe, the recent Pandemic has left a lot of adverse
impact on the economic well-being of the economies that include slashes of jobs or
reducing their salaries. The impact of this factor varies from countries to countries. It means
that its impact is adverse on some economies and lighter on the other. Nevertheless, most
of the economies are having a tough economic time. It has rose the number of job losses,
debt pressures and dissatisfied human resource. Hence, it is a high time for organizations
to mend their strategies in such a way to retain valuable human resource and gain
productivity during the pandemic period.

Due to losing of jobs abruptly and mounting the debt pressure, lots of employees across
the globe are getting unsatisfied. The Human Resources (HR) department in different parts
of the world is focusing on the retention of their employees professionally. For that
purpose, they are taking a lot of measures and points into consideration. This aim of this
research paper is to examine the role of Organization towards the employees as far as
curbing the adverse impact of Covid-19 is concerned. The HR department is likely to retain
the employees during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Especially during pandemics, employees
are a strategic asset of any organization, that has to be managed, preserved and retained,

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with focus on experienced and skilled ones. When they feel dissatisfied with the current
job because of lack of several variables. Consequently, organizations lose their invested
resources for competitors, employees’ organizational relationship are then damaged and
more over the moral goes down dramatically, which leads directly to low level of retention.

Workplace Motivation of employees has been becoming a key issue of modern

organizations, because highly motivated employees are the most important factor for any
business success. Motivation is a complex phenomenon because it differs on nature,
attitude and perception from person to person. It comprises of many factors that affect
employees to behave in particular way and make effort to achieve organizational as well
as personal goals. It is more crucial for companies to recognize and address the significance
of human factors and their needs, because organizational survival and business excellence
depends on employees which at the same time needs to be motivated and satisfied with
their job (Finck, Timmers, & Mennes, 1998). Given today’s economy, a motivated
workforce represents both a competitive advantage and a critical strategic asset in any work
environment.

Although there are piles of information and research on employee motivation, job
satisfaction and staff retention, organizations are not clear on how and when should they
use their motivational tools to enhance employee motivation. One should have a clear
understand that employees at different organizations and organizational levels are
motivated by different ways. Friedlander (1964) supported this assumption when he stated
that theories of job motivation could be predicted on needs and values, which are assumed
to exist in all employees. Organizations and managers view paying high money and giving
appraisal as the main motivator of employees, regardless of their profession, despite the
lack of conclusive evidence on the motivational impact of any sorts of rewards on the job
motivation of the employees.

Hence, there is still much confusion about ways which would really motivate employees
in the workplace environment to enable them to be satisfied in the workplace and to stay
with the organization. It would benefit for Nepalese corporate sectors to be equally
confident that the same key factors discussed in other organizations, would contribute to
employee satisfaction, employee motivation and the retention of key staff. The results of

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this research could be used by the organization investigated in this study to identify the key
factors contributing to employee motivation and job satisfaction in order to further develop
policies and procedures for staff retention that are essential to the success of any
organization.

1.4 Objective of the Study

1.4.1 General Objective

To understand the Corporate Social Responsibilities of the organization towards the
employee during the Covid-19 Pandemic State in Nepalese Service sector and recommend
feasible and viable approach to motivate employee and implement CSR component in the
organization.

1.4.2 Specific Objectives

The study specially looks at the following specific objectives:

• To measure the level of employee motivation in Nepalese Service sector during the
Covid-19 Pandemic State.
• To examine the contribution of Corporate Social Responsibilities towards Em-
ployee motivation in the pandemic period.
• To identify existing motivational practice in the sectoral analysis
• To examine inter-dimensional relationship between CSR and employee motivation
in Nepalese service sector
• To suggest/recommend solution for the use of appropriate means to motivate em-
ployee during the pandemic period.

1.5 Research Questions

This study has the following are the research questions:

1. Does Safe Workplace have effect on employee motivation?

2. Does Flexible Work Setting have effect on employee motivation?

3. Does Resilient Rewarding have effect on employee motivation?

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 4. What is the current status in Employee motivation in Nepalese Service Sector in
this pandemic period?

5. Does an empirical relationship exist between CSR and Employee motivation as ex-
hibited within the sample of respondents from the Nepalese Corporate context?

6. Based on the empirical information, would it be possible to recommend to manag-

ers as a solution for higher employee motivation?

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study aims to find out the key organizational CSR towards employee in Nepalese
Service sector in the Covid-19 Pandemic State. Every organizational success depends upon
how people behave and feel about and regarding their job. Understanding the effects of
factors of employee motivation on workplace in this chaotic environment can provide feed-
back for strategies and interventions that managers and human resource practitioners can
implement to create a fulfilling work environment in an organization. This research will
help to understand the impact that organization responsibilities has on the performance of
an individual, and in turn on goal achievement and success. A successful individual will
undoubtedly contribute to the growth of their organization and society. The Corporate so-
cial responsibility is a crucial and important topic these days. Hence, this study will also
help in understanding how CSR can be used as a tool or method for the improvement of
individuals working in the organization. The results of this study will provide a better un-
derstanding the use of motivational tool to attract, motivate and retain dedicated human
resource and individuals that will help in better achieving organizational goals.

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1.7 Theoretical Framework

Independent Variables

Safe Workplace

Dependent Variable

Flexible Worksetting Employee Motivation

CSR

Resilient Rewarding

Figure: Theoretical Framework of the Study

1.8 Research Hypothesis

H1: Safe Workplace has significant relationship with Employee motivation

H2: Flexible Worksetting has significant relationship with Employee motivation

H3: Resilient Rewarding has significant relationship with Employee motivation

1.9 Chapter Plan

The report will be divided into five chapters excluding preliminary sections and Appendix.
The preliminary section will include title page, approval page, acknowledgment, table of
contents, list of tables and figures, acronyms and abstract.

Chapter One: It will include introduction, statement of the problem, objective of the study,
significance of the study, limitation of the study and organization of the study.

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Chapter Two: This chapter is about review of related literature. It includes introduction,
conceptual and theoretical review.

Chapter Three: This chapter is about research methodology. It includes introduction,

research design, rationale behind selection of study area, study population and sampling,
nature and sources of data and methods of data organization, processing and analysis and
limitation of the methodology.

Chapter Four: This chapter is about Results and Discussion. It will include interpretation
of data, data presentation and analysis and major findings of the study.

Chapter Five: This chapter is about Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations. It will
include summary, conclusion and recommendations based on findings from Chapter Four.

Bibliography

Appendices