Corporate Social Responsibility Practice in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The health, economic, and social consequences of the COVID-19 virus have highlighted the need for collaboration among all agents to face a scenario that we have not before seen. Like the rest of the world, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with governments of almost all GCC countries has imposed lockdowns, travel restrictions, and curfews to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many projects have been extended and operational infrastructure and utility projects face or are expected to face shortages of labor and materials, restriction in movement of personnel, and interruption to supply chains. The aims of this paper are to analyze the involvement that emerging markets have shown during the most challenging moments of the epidemic and to determine the objectives these companies have pursued with them. This paper aims to explore corporate legal and social responsibility in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in emerging economies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The paper will clarify CSR’s notion and provide an overview of different CSR domains, including legal, financial, social, and ethical domains, and it will discuss the relevance of CSR in emerging economies from the GCC region. Being socially responsible on the part of corporate entities is now no longer an option; it is part of their normal business obligations in human resource management (HRM) and the legal frameworks for employment in GCC. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, these frameworks may be exacerbated by-laws limiting circulation in and out of these countries, leading to company collapse and severe social and economic repercussions. Considering these aspects, CSR practice may be applied in the GCC region through a legal framework that would elicit some mandatory CSR actions from corporations, including HRM practices, corporate governance, accountability, and transparency. Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, Social Responsibility, Health.