1. INTRODUCTION:

As educational institutions are always presumed to inculcate ethical behavior in all stakeholder’s transactions and interactions, an active transaction between the institution and its stakeholders is expected. The active role of its stakeholders is possible when there is enough opportunity for two-way communications and the option for the participation of its stakeholders in various activities.

The perception of stakeholders on the educational institution is always backed by the social responsiveness of the institution, how it proves its existence, and its visibility in the community. So, the responsiveness and adaptability of the institution are directly related to the institutional image.

Even though educational institutions follow the businesslike approach it is always guided by the ethical framework of education. So, instead of using the term students as customers, it is very logical to use the term stakeholders. The major stakeholders of the educational institution comprised of students, employees, parents, alumni, the local community, etc. But the cardinal stakeholders are the academic staff, students, community, and alumni.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:

The importance of Social responsibility in the educational field is on the discussion over the last decade. But the existing literature has shown that the discussion and research on educational social responsibility and its role in competitive strategy are in the budding stage, the concept has to be still researched, argued, and discussed. So this review tried to trace the concept of social responsibility and stakeholders’ perception on Institutional Social responsibility in the existing research arena.

The concept of social responsibility is adopted first in University setup. The first study on social responsibility can be traced in the work of Vallaeys (2007) where he has studied the effort of 13 Universities in Chile. After Vallaey's recognition of social responsibility in the educational field academicians and other external actors have undertaken studies that discussed and raised the challenges that institutions of higher education have faced while practicing social responsibility and tried to establish the principles and reasons to adopt social responsibilities in their academic routine.

A significant amount of literature stresses the suggestion that the practice of social responsibilities must be included in the core functioning of the institutions. As an extension of this kind of discussion, it is noted by some scholars that the institution of higher education should maintain a positive image with the external public for being responsible.

Emre Belli, Ali Gurel Goksel, and Ali Gurbus (2015) in their study aimed at researching the opinions of students who are admitted to the school of physical education at Besyo in Ataturk University and Marmara University concerning the image of these universities. The findings of the study show that there exists a significant difference among internal stakeholders on the sense of social responsibility. It is understood that female students’ sense of social responsibility is higher than that of male students.

Lucie kvasnickova, Stanislavska, Roman Kvasnicka, Katerina Kuralova, Klara Margarisova (2014) conducted a focus group study to find out the knowledge and relationship to challenges of social responsibilities of educational institutions between two groups of interest i.e. contemporary and potential students. A total of 10 members were selected for the focus group study. The discussion is prepared and conducted by the researcher. All the questions of discussion were formulated in logical sequences. The group discussions indicated that both the present as well as potential students do not have enough knowledge of the concept of corporate social responsibility. But students expressed their willingness to participate in such activity provided such actions would be considered helpful to them. Compared to this, potential students expressed their willingness to take part in socially responsible activities. Some potential students agreed that the current method of dissemination of information about the social responsible activity is satisfactory in case of active involvement.

3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

As Institutional Responsibility in educational institutions is a recent concept, very few investigations have been conducted in this area. Most studies on social responsibility are on large corporate companies. Even though there are few studies, they are exploratory in nature and concentrate on only the social responsibility activities conducted by educational institutions. So this study will be helpful in identifying existing practice of social responsibility by educational institutions, stakeholder’s perception on the institutional social responsibility. The study is an attempt to break the tradition of research focusing on corporate social responsibilities and to expand it to the education sector.

4. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The main objective of the study is to assess the perception of stakeholders towards Institutional Social Responsible practices.

The Specific Objectives of the study are:

1. To assess the perception of stakeholders towards the practice of institutional social responsibility practices by the educational institutions

2. To assess the respondents perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility among respondents institutional affiliations

5. HYPOTHESIS:

H1: Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has a significant difference between the respondents from Technical and General Education institutions.

H2: Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has significant difference among the respondents from Government, Aided and Private Institutes.

H3: Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has a significant difference between the respondents from urban and rural educational Institutes.

H4: Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has significant differences among the respondents' categories.

6. METHODOLOGY:

The quantitative method is used to garner the data from the important stakeholders. As most of the studies on this subject are based on qualitative approaches like case studies and in-depth interviews, this study tries to garner accurate data on this phenomenon. A survey of important internal and external stakeholders of the institution has been conducted to assess the objectives of the research.

7. SAMPLING:

The universe of the study is the Educational institutions of Dakshina Kannada. The Engineering Colleges which are recognized by AICTE and have a minimum of five B.Tech Programmes and General educational colleges which have a minimum of three streams are selected. (Exclusions: Colleges that have less than 500 students and less than 2 streams). A representative samples of 22 educational institutions are selected.

A list of students from 22 institutions has been collected. The total population was 42,521. As per Krejice and Morgan's sampling method the sample size is 381. But to give equal chance to all the selected institutions 396 respondents were selected. The community members and alumni were considered as external stakeholders. A representative sample of 10 external stakeholders from each institute was selected. The total sample including internal stakeholders and external stakeholders is 616.

8. TOOLS:

The tools which measure the perception of institutional social responsibility consist of 10 items with 5 positively worded and 5 negatively worded statements. Each item had five alternate responses i.e., Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree and strongly disagree. The items used to measure the perception on ISR activities include; one statement related to Environmental responsibility, two statements related Ethical and Moral responsibility, one statement on Community service responsibility and one statement on Research and extension activities.

9. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The investigation evaluates the stakeholders' perception on institutional social responsibility in higher educational institutions. The data gathered in the field are computed and analyzed systematically to calculate the results. The collected data have been analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility:

The data analysis (table no. 1) depict that the mean rating on perception towards practice of institutional social responsibility ranges from 2.92 to 4.18. The Highest mean rating construct is ‘the college is imparting ethical and moral values to the students apart from the curriculum’ (4.18) followed by ‘the college offering its resources to the community whenever necessary (infrastructure, charity, donations, etc) on request’ and ‘the college is taking up environmental protection programmes voluntarily and continuously’ with a mean value of 3.81. Considering all the variable most of the variables show the mean value above average 3 except ‘the college conducts research to help local people in finding solutions to socio-economic problems’ (2.92). Considering the overall results, there is a positive perception towards practice of institutional social responsibility as the mean value is 3.6250.

Table No.2 depict that the mean rating ranges from 2.17 to 2.84. Considering all the variables most of the variables show the mean value below the average 3. So the result indicates that there is a disagreement towards negative statements of practice of institutional social responsibility as the mean value is 2.5445, which means the respondents have a positive perception of the practice of institutional social responsibility except for research help to community members by the colleges.

Table No.1

Perception (Positive Statements)	SA	A	U	DA	SDA	Mean	S.D.
The college is taking up environmental protection programmes initiatives voluntarily and continuously.	173 (28.1)	246 (39.9)	112 (18.2)	75 (12.2)	10 (1.6)	3.81	1.030
The college is imparting ethical and moral values to the students apart from the curriculum.	209 (33.9)	336 (54.5)	51 (8.3)	15 (2.4)	5 (.8)	4.18	0.748
The college gives concession for the students of the poor and deprived class of the society.	127 (20.6)	190 (30.8)	146 (23.7)	113 (18.3)	40 (6.5)	3.41	1.189
The college offers its resources to the community whenever necessary (infrastructure, charity, donations, etc) on request.	136 (22.1)	318 (51.6)	83 (13.5)	64 (10.4)	15 (2.4)	3.81	0.977
The college conducts research to help local people in finding solutions to socio-economic problems.	30 (4.9)	203 (33.0)	137 (22.2)	181 (29.4)	65 (10.6)	2.92	1.112
Overall Perception						3.6250	0.54264

Table No.2

Perception (Negative statements)	SA	A	U	DA	SDA	Mean	S.D.
The environmental concern of the college is only confined to environmental day celebrations.	27 (4..4)	151 (14.5)	113 (18.3)	261 (42.4)	64 (10.4)	2.70	1.083
The college is concentrating only on results and placements and not on other things.	13 (2.1)	51 (8.3)	86 (14.0)	341 (55.4)	125 (20.3)	2.17	.915
Getting education in college is very difficult for the poor and deprived class of the society	55 (8.9)	148 (24.0)	120 (19.5)	227 (36.9)	66 (10.7)	2.84	1.170
The college remains aloof from the communities’ request.	16 (2.6)	90 (14.6)	151 (24.5)	294 (47.7)	65 (10.6)	2.51	.954
The college conducts research activities to get a good rank in accreditation	27 (4.4)	58 (9.4)	202 (32.8)	244 (39.6)	85 (13.8)	2.51	.989
Overall Perception						2.5445	.62384

Overall the above tables explain the perception of respondents on ISR Practice of the institution. If we look into all the items in the scale considering both positively worded and negatively worded statements, the respondents expressed positive perception on environmental initiatives of the institution, moral and ethical practice and extension of its resources to the community. However, the items related to monetary assistance to needy students and research activities received a negative perception.

10 TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS:

The following hypothesis on the Perception on Institutional Social Responsibility was stated and was tested using an independent sample t- test and one-way ANOVA.

Table No.3

Perception		T value/ F value	P value	Result
H1: . Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has significant difference between the respondents from Technical and General Education Institution. (t-test)	Positive	6.903	P<0.01 0.001	Significant
	Negative	9.331	P<0.01 0.001	Significant
H2: Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has significant difference among the respondents from Government, Aided and Private Institutes.(ANOVA)	Positive	39.412	P<0.01 .001	Significant
	Negative	60.271	P<0.01 0.001	Significant
H3: Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has significant difference between the respondents from urban and rural educational Institutes.( t- test)	Positive	4.262	P<0.01 .001	Significant
	Negative	2.814	P<0.05 0.005	Significant
H4: Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has significant difference among the respondents category. (ANOVA)	Positive	14.011	P<0.01 0.001	Significant
	Negative	8.645	P<0.01 0.001
	Negative	.062	P>0.05 0.951

So considering the overall results of testing of hypothesis reveal that there is significant difference in the perception concerning the practices of institutional social responsibility among nature of institutes, nature of management, location of institution, respondent category as the p value is less than 0.05. However the result indicates that there is no significant difference between male and female respondents in the perception concerning the practices of institutional social responsibility.

So, the hypothesis about respondents’ opinion on perception on Institution Social responsibility was tested using an independent sample test and one-way ANOVA. Most of the variables related to the demographical and institutional affiliation profile of the respondents depicted that there is a significant difference among respondents in the perception on ISR practice

11. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION:

· Perception towards the Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has a significant difference in the nature of institutes. Further, the general educational institutions elicited good opinions from the stakeholders in giving concessions to the poor and deprived class of the society. However, in offering research help to the local community the technical institutions elicited good opinions from the stakeholders. If we compare overall perception between technical and general educational institutions General educational institutions are good at discharging social responsibility.

· Perception towards the Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has a significant difference between the nature of management. The government and aided institutions offer better financial assistance to the students in comparison to private institutions. However, private institutions have better research initiatives to help their community. Overall the aided and government institutions are good at practicing social responsible initiatives.

· Perception towards the Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has a significant difference between the locations of the institutions. Compared to urban institutes the rural institution has a good opinion among stakeholders on practicing social responsibilities.

· Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has significant differences among the respondents' categories. Students and alumni form one group in case of Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility and community members make a separate group. Students and alumni have a good perception towards ISR activities of the college.

· Perception towards Practice of Institutional Social Responsibility has no significant difference between Male and Female respondents. The mean value of responses of both genders is 3.6.

The results of the present study reveal that institutional social responsibility is one of the image enhancers of educational institutions. The good opinion of the institutions depends on how much they are engaging with stakeholders and allowing them to participate in the activities of the institutions.

12. CONCLUSION:

In the era of competition, educational institutions must be aware of the fact that they have to undertake projects which have a social impact. So, the responsiveness and adaptability of the institution are directly related to the institutional image. The institutional image can be achieved by acting as a responsible social institution, communicating its efforts to the community, engaging the community in its efforts, and more importantly assuring that its social responsibility activities are relevant and helpful to the community. This can be achieved by confirming its activities by evaluating its work by the stakeholder’s feedback. So, the stakeholder’s perception on the institution is always considered as the informal certificate for the institutional existence.

13. REFERENCES:

1. Carroll, A. (1991) The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility: Toward the Moral Management of Organizational Stakeholders. Business Horizons. 34, 39-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(91)90005-G.

2. Emre Belli, Ali Gurel Goksel, Ali Gurbus (2015). Exploring The Institutional Image Of The University in Relation To Students Of The Department Of Physical Education And Sports Journal of Physical Education and Health. 2015, vol. 4 (6), 15-22.

3. Freeman, R. and Reed, Dl. (1983). Stockholders and Stakeholders: A New Perspective on Corporate Governance. California Management Review. 25. 10.2307/41165018.

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5. Nagy, Judy and Robb, Alan. Can Universities Be Good Corporate Citizens?. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, Elsevier. 2008;19(8): 1414-1430.

6. Olatunji, and T.E. The Impact Of Accounting System On The Performance Of Small And Medium Scale Enterprises In Nigeria – A Survey Of SME’s In Oyo State-Nigeria. 2013

7. Stensaker, B. The Relationship between Branding and Organisational Change. Higher Education Management and Policy. 2007; 19/1. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1787/hemp-v19-art1-en. 2007.

8. Vallaeys, F. Responsabilidad Social Universitaria. 2007. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/ YtrdZw. 2007

Received on 30.06.2023 Modified on 22.07.2023

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2023;14(3):147-151.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2023.00030