The Hedonic Calculus as Intervening Variable in the Perception and Behavior by Altruistic Motivation of the Customer Services and Support Operations Division of AXA Philippines

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a relevant topic of the past decade. With more and more companies switching to a socially-responsible point of view, the study on the said concept has grown over time. Motivational studies have insofar been successful in identifying key factors which affects the effectiveness of CSR programs, and one of those is the altruistic motivation coming not just from the management, but also from its employees, and another, the hedonic calculus that people use to weigh the possible benefits and costs of contributing to the CSR initiative. With this, the researcher chose AXA Philippines as the organization to be studied. AXA Philippines is an insurance company that prides itself to being one of the most improving companies in the past decade. Although still growing, the company has managed to have its own CSR program, in coordination with GK Sto. Nino in Novaliches. The organization has given the residents homes and a multipurpose building. All of the help that GK Sto. Nino has received wouldn’t be possible without the help of the employees, who are voluntarily helping the residents. On this note, the researcher would like to pinpoint how exactly does altruistic motivation and hedonic calculus come into the perception and behavior of the employees towards helping together with the company. The researcher wanted to answer the question, “How does the hedonic calculus intervene with the relationship between AXA employees’ altruistic motivation and their perception and behavior towards AXA’s CSR program?” The researcher also formulated sub objectives to help him in understanding the problem. To aid him in his research, the researcher used a 17-item survey questionnaire that was distributed to 57 employees of the Customer Support and Service Operations (CSSO) Division of AXA Philippines. The researcher then treated the instrument with descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis to further expand his findings. The descriptive results of the survey-questionnaire showed that the respondents have a tendency towards being altruistically motivated. The analysis also showed that the respondents perceive AXA Philippines as an altruistic company, in terms of not minding the costs and benefits of their CSR program, just as long as it gets to help the community at focus. Lastly, the respondents displayed a positive opinion towards the organization and its CSR program. Moreover, the respondents have also contributed towards helping GK Sto. Nino. Using other tests, the researcher found out that the results of the study validate Batson’s framework of altruistic motivation from the third subphase. The researcher also found that the motivational state of the respondents affect their perception and behavioral response towards AXA Philippines’ CSR programs. Lastly, the study revealed that hedonic calculus contributes greatly to how the respondents perceive and act towards the CSR, thereby making hedonic calculus an intervening factor between the relationship between the motivational state of the employees and their perception and behavior towards CSR.