Corporate Social Responsibility: The Estate Surveyors and Valuers’ Perspective

Abstract

As society’s expectations for business continue to rise, the societal role and perception of professionals in their respective fields need to be investigated. This paper undertook a discussion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of business institutions from the perspective of a specific professional – the Estate Surveyors and Valuers (ESVs). Pursuant to the above and in order to establish a link between CSR and the Estate Surveying and Valuation profession, the paper undertook a review of relevant literature on the concerns of CSR that have one bearing or the other either directly or indirectly on the conduct or behaviour of Estate Surveyors and Valuers and in the discharge of their specific professional duties. The paper also undertook a review of relevant literature on real estate education, the mission statements, code of ethics and conduct, objectives and activities of several Estate Surveying and Valuation professional bodies across the globe with a view to bringing out issues of concern to CSR. The identified issues of common concern include – ethics, the environment, sustainable development, infrastructure, capacity building and manpower development, and good governance. The paper showed that with respect to their professional conduct and behaviour, Estate Surveyors and Valuers operate in the domain of ethical CSR while in the discharge of their specific professional duties, it is the strategic and altruistic CSR that hold sway. It concluded that in the efficient and effective discharge of their professional duties, ESVs need to be committed to the ideals of CSR in its entirety. The paper suggested that the curriculum of real estate education should be reviewed to accommodate CSR as a relevant topic. Finally, the paper made a case for further research and empirical studies on CSR from the perspective of the ESVs across the globe with a view to shedding more light on this emerging subject area.