1CASE ANAYSIS

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CASE ANAYSIS
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COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
Case Analysis Framework
Step 1: reading the case.
Phase 1
Read the opening paragraph
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Read the last paragraph
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Read the headings
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Skim the body of the text and exhibits
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Phase 2
Read your assignment questions
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Remind yourself of what course/elective this case is for
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Phase 3
Read the case thoroughly
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Develop your own timeline of what happened in the case
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The case is about CDL which is real estate-based company
based in Singapore helping in building the economy and
hospitality.

Step 2: extrapolating the key information.
Who are the characters?
Key protagonist:
The key protagonists in the case are Monetary Authority of
Singapore, government of Singapore, united Nations Global
Compact and Green Mark Scheme.
Supporting roles:
[enter the names, positions and companies of other supporting
stakeholders] Christie Lee, manager, CSR for CDL, Esther An
Head of CSR and General Manager of CDL and Foo Chui Mui
Assistant General Manager, CDL
What are the issues?
Immediate issue:
Integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in CDL
Underlying issues:
the urgent need for CDL to reinforce the culture of
sustainability, government authorization and enhancing
management and development for the company and Singapore in
general.
Step 3: case content
What theories, models, frameworks or tools will help me?
Reading and examining the case study thoroughly by taking
notes, highlighting essential facts and underlining major points
such as major protagonists and stakeholders.
Crunch the numbers:
If there are numbers in the case make sure you work through
them thoroughly so that you understand their implications on
the issue(s). Remember some of the numbers may be hidden
within the core text.

In 2010 CDL profit before tax was $1 billion, in 2012 CDL had
over 300 subsiiaries and associated companies in 20 countries
and in 31st December 2012 had revenues amounting to US$2.72
billion and profit after tax amounted toUS$699 million (Hwang,
S & Havovi J, 2013).
What extra data would be helpful?
The company’s balance sheets and government planning and
assessment indexes in Singapore
Where can I find the extra data?
You might not need to find it now, but it’s useful to be aware of
where and how you might find it.
From the company database, government publications and
research journals concerning the company and related topics in
Singapore.
What assumptions have I made/do I have to make?
Assume that all the required information has been provided by
the company management without making any omissions.
Step 4: action and implementation
What are the options?
Integrating ICT, developing partnership with different world
governments and Enhancing regional sales and marketing.
Evaluate the options
[evaluate each of the options] With the modern world being
driven and operation being fostered through technology related
mechanisms ICT integration will foster growth and market CDL
globally.
When CDL develops partnership with different government and
organizations they will be prioritizing the company in their
strategic development plan which enhance growth for the
company
Regional sales and marketing ensure the company is respondi ng
to specific regional needs before making sales.
What is your preferred option?

My preferred option is regional sale and marketing.
What is the evidence to support this?
With regional sales and marketing the company will be
conducting thorough research on regional need which will
enhance CDL sustainability and customer need awareness.
Accessibility of the company’s services will be accessible
through regional sales and marketing.
How would you implement your preferred option?
The option can be implemented through opening regional based
offices and subsidiaries that will be making sales in a specific
region.
So what?
For companies to succeed in their activities they should
implement sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility as
integral part of their strategic plan and operations.
Companies should partner with various protagonists who will be
shaping and directing the company’s operations towards future
development.
CDL was committed in adopting strategies that will be shifting
the operations in line with the on-going changes that the world
is experiencing such as climate hence other companies should
also enhance their commitment for future success.
References
Hwang, S & Havovi, J. (2013). City Developments Limited: a
journey in sustainable business development
Chapter 13
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY: APPLICATIONS, RELATED

THEORETICAL CONCEPTIONS, AND CONTEMPORARY
RESEARCH
1
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This presentation may be used
and adapted for use in classes using the fourteenth edi tion of
Personality. It may not be re-distributed except to students
enrolled in such classes and in such case must be password
protected to limit access to students enrolled in such classes.
Students may not re-distribute portions of the original
presentation.
QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER
How do knowledge structures – especially cognitive “schemas”
– contribute to personality functioning and help to explain
individual differences?
How do personal goals and standards of self-evaluation differ
from one person to another, and how do these differences relate
to motivation and emotional life?
What is the role of self-efficacy beliefs and other self-referent
thinking processes in psychological disorders and therapeutic
change?
What are some scientific challenges that were not addressed in
the original formulations of social-cognitive theory and how
have they been addressed by contemporary developments in
personality theory?
COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY:
BELIEFS, GOALS, AND EVALUATIVE STANDARDS
BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF AND SELF-SCHEMAS
Schemas: knowledge structures that guide and organize the
processing of info
Example: new song on the radio sounds structured because one

has acquired schemas for song structures
Schemas guide one’s interpretation of the sounds that comprise
the song
Music from a different culture might sound chaotic!
Markus (1977) : many of our most important schemas concern
ourselves
People form cognitive generalizations about the self just as they
do about other things
Different people develop different self-schemas
Self-schemas may account for the relatively unique ways in
which idiosyncratic individuals think about the world around
them
Self-Schemas and Reaction-Time Methods
Reaction-time measures: experimental methods in which an
experimenter records not only the content of a person’s
response, but also how long it takes the person to respond
People who possess a self-schema with regard to a given domain
of social life should be faster in responding to questions
regarding that life domain
Markus (1977) identified people who possessed a self-schema

regarding independence
Participants rated themselves as high or low on independence
Participants indicated the degree to which the personality
characteristic was important to them
Those who had an extreme high or low self-rating and thought
independence/dependence was important were judged as
schematic
Participants then asked to rate whether a series of adjectives
(some of which were semantically related to
independence/dependence) were descriptive of themselves
Schematics made these judgments faster
Andersen and Cyranowski (1994): women with differing sexual
self-schemas would process interpersonal information
differently and function differently in their sexual and romantic
relationships
Women asked to rate themselves on a list of 50 adjectives, 26 of
which were used to form a Sexual Self-Schema Scale (e.g.,
uninhibited, loving)
Asked to respond to measures that asked about sexual
experiences and romantic involvement
Andersen and Cyranowski found that women with high scores
on the Sexual Self-Schema Scale (particularly those with
positive sexual self-schemas)
Were more sexually active

Experienced greater sexual arousal and sexual pleasure
Were more able to be involved in romantic love relationships
“Co-schematics (women who had both positive and negative
schemas)” found to experience
High levels of involvement with sexual partners
High levels of sexual anxiety
People tend to live complex lives in which they develop a
number of different self-schemas
Different situations may cause different self-schemas to be part
of the working self-concept: the subset of self-concept that is in
working memory at any given time
Info about the self that is in consciousness, and guides
behavior, at any given time changes dynamically as people
interact with the ever-changing events of the social world
Self-Based Motives and Motivated Information Processing
Self-schemas motivate people to process information in
particular ways
People often are biased toward positive views of the self, which
can be explained by positing a self-enhancement motive
People also may be motivated to experience themselves as being
consistent and predictable, reflecting a self-verification motive

Self-Based Motives and Motivated Information Processing
What happens when the two motives conflict?
Evidence suggests we generally prefer positive feedback but
prefer negative feedback in relation to negative self-views
Positive life events can be bad for one’s health if they conflict
with a negative self-concept and disrupt one’s negative identity
There are individual differences in this regard
We may be more oriented toward self-enhancement in some
relationships and self-verification in other relationships
CURRENT APPLICATIONS
SELF-SCHEMAS AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL ABUSE
Meston, Rellini, and Heiman (2006) hypothesized that abuse
experiences may alter self-schemas and do so in a long-lasting
manner
Conducted a study whose participants were 48 women with a
history of child sexual abuse
Also studied a group of 71 women who had not suffered from
abuse experiences and who thus served as control participants.
To measure sexual self-schemas, Meston et al. administered the
sexual self-schema scale in which people report on their
perceptions of their own sexuality
Women with a history of abuse believed themselves to be less
romantic and passionate; that is, they had lower scores on the
romantic/passionate items of the sexual self-schema measure
Women who had experienced abuse years earlier had more
negative emotional experiences in the present day
Women with lower romantic/passionate self-schemas reported
more negative emotional experiences
LEARNING VERSUS PERFORMANCE GOALS

Different goals may lead to different patterns of thought,
emotion, and behavior
Goals may be the cause of what one would interpret as different
personality styles
Two ways of thinking about goals:
Learning goal: think about the task and all you can learn from it
Peformance goal: have the aim of
showing people how smart you are
avoiding embarrassment when you don’t know something
making a good impression
Elliott and Dweck (1988) induced learning versus performance
goals among grade school students performing a cognitive task
Some told that they were performing a task that would sharpen
mental skills
Others told they were performing a task that would be evaluated
by experts
Students’ beliefs in their ability on the task (i.e., their efficacy
beliefs) were also manipulated
People who had a combination of performance goals and low
beliefs in their ability were less likely than others to develop
useful strategies on the task
Elliott and Dweck (1988) recorded the degree to which people
spontaneously expressed negative emotions while working on
the task
Performance goal participants expressed much tension and
anxiety when performing the task

“My stomach hurts” (Elliott & Dweck, 1988, p. 10)
Performance goals provides insight into what we commonly call
“test anxiety”
Dweck’s social-cognitive analysis suggests that one might
intervene by trying to change people’s patterns of thinking
Causes of Learning versus Performance Goals: Implicit
Theories
Implicit theories: those we possess, that guide our thinking, but
that we may not usually state in words
Implicit theories of interest to Dweck and colleagues: whether
or not psychological attributes are changeable
Entity theory: a particular characteristic or trait is viewed as
fixed
Incremental theory: a particular characteristic or trait is
believed to be malleable or open to change
Theories
Children with an entity view of intelligence tend to set
performance goals
If intelligence is fixed, then one interprets activities as a
“performance” in which intelligence is evaluated
Children with an incremental view of intelligence tend to set
learning goals
If intelligence can be increased, then natural to set the learning
goal of acquiring experiences that increase it

Theories
Tamir, John, Srivastava, and Gross, 2007 study
Students about to enter college were tested about whether they
believed emotions to be malleable and controllable vs. fixed
and uncontrollable
As hypothesized, students with incremental (malleable) beliefs
concerning emotion showed better emotion regulation than did
those with entity (fixed) beliefs
Throughout the first term, relative to those with entity beliefs
concerning emotion, those with incremental beliefs received
increasing social support from new friends
By the end of the freshman year, those with incremental beliefs
were found to have more positive moods and generally better
levels of adjustment than those with entity beliefs
Theories
Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck (2007): If one could turn
entity theorists into incremental theorists, one should be able to
reduce test anxiety and boost performance
Enrolled 7th-graders in an educational intervention designed to
induce an incremental theory of intelligence
Students learned that the human brain changes when people
study, growing new connections among neurons that increase a
person’s mental abilities (a separate group did not receive this
instruction)
By the end of the year, students who had been exposed to the

intervention began to outperform the other students
Personality and the Brain: Goals
Are goals and evaluative standards distinct biologicall y from
other kinds of thoughts?
D’Argembeau et al. (2009) asked participants to imagine future
outcomes that either were or were not personal goals for them
(e.g., Future doctors imagined becoming a doctor and going
deep-sea fishing)
Participants were in a brain scanner while imagining these two
types of outcomes.
D’Argembeau et al. (2009), cont’d.
Two brain regions were more active when people thought about
personal goals than about future activities that were not goals
for them
Medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)
Posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)
Why significant?
D’Argembeau et al. (2009), cont’d.
The MPFC is needed to determine the self-relevance of events
The PCC has been shown to be active during autobiographical
memory
Goals are psychologically rich mental contents that combine the
detection of personally relevant occurrences in the environment
with information stored in your “library” of autobiographical
memories

STANDARDS OF EVALUATION
Goals and standards are psychologically distinct mechanisms
Goals are aims one hopes to achieve in the future
Standards are criteria used to evaluate events in the present
Just as it is valuable to distinguish among qualitatively different
types of goals, it is valuable to distinguish among qualitatively
different types of evaluative standards
Tory Higgins (1987, 1990, 2006) has expanded the scope of
social-cognitive analyses of personality by showing how
different types of evaluative standards relate to different types
of emotional experiences and motivation
Self-Standards, Self-Discrepancies, Emotion and Motivation
Some evaluative standards represent achievement that people
ideally would like to reach: ideal standards; aspects of the
“ideal self”
Some self-guides represent standards of achievement that
people feel they should or ought to achieve: ought standards;
elements of the “ought self”
Different individuals may evaluate the same type of behavior
using different standards
Some wish to quit smoking because they ideally would like to
be more healthy
Others primarily feel a sense of responsibility to others to quit
smoking

People experience negative emotions when they detect a
discrepancy between how things really are going for them—or
their “actual self”—and a personal standard
Discrepancies with different standards trigger different
emotions
Between actual and ideal self: sadness or dejection
Between actual and ought self: agitation and anxiety
Higgins, Bond, Klein, & Strauman (1986) identified two groups:
Those who predominantly have actual/ideal discrepancies
Those who predominantly have actual/ought discrepancies
In a subsequent session, emotional reactions were assessed as
they envisioned themselves experiencing a negative life event
Although all participants envisioned the same event:
Those who had mostly actual/ideal discrepancies tended to
become sad but not anxious
Those who had mostly actual/ought discrepancies became
anxious but not sad
Higgins (2006): people’s evaluative standards have implications
for motivation
People who evaluate their actions primarily through ideal
standards
Tend to have a “promotion” approach
Are motivated toward promoting well-being, by focusing on

positive outcomes
People who evaluate their actions primarily through ideal
standards
Tends to be “prevention-focused”
Are focused on preventing the occurrence of (or gaining an
absence of) negative outcomes
CURRENT QUESTIONS
PERFECTIONISTIC STANDARDS: GOOD OR BAD?
High standards may cause people to excel. But are extremely
high, perfectionistic standards necessarily a good thing?
Hewitt and colleagues find that perfectionistic standards make
people vulnerable to psychological problems: depression,
anxiety, eating disorders
Flett, Besser, and Hewitt (2005) studied perfectionism about a
group of about 200 adults living in Israel
People who said that they needed to be perfect to meet the
expectations of friends and family rated themselves as being
more depressed
Friends saw them as depressed, too.
An adaptive lifestyle in the contemporary world may be one that
mixes high standards of achievement with the capacity to accept
oneself—including those aspects of self that are not perfect
A “General Principles” Approach to Personality
“Personality variables” explain what people do on average
“Situational factors” explain variations around the average
Higgins’s work is a general principles approach to
understanding personality and situational influences
People’s knowledge—including their ideal and ought standards

for performance—explains consistencies in their emotion and
behavior, since knowledge is an enduring aspect of personality
Knowledge mechanisms also explain situational influences
Different situations activate different aspects of knowledge and,
in so doing, bring about different emotional and motivational
patterns
Contemporary developments in personality theory: the kapa
model
Social-Cognitive Theory: Three Limitations of 20th-Century
Theory and Research
Social-Cognitive Personality Structures and Processes
In SC theory, distinction between structure and process is
ambiguous
Social-cognitive Personality Assessment
In 20th century social-cognitive theory, measurement don’t
always assess BOTH social-cognitive variables and the
situations that activate them, which can vary from person to
person
From Social-Cognitive Systems to Personality Consistency
Social-cognitive theorists criticized trait theory for not being
able to explain cross-situational variability in trait-related
behavior
Yet they never developed a social-cognitive explanation of
where, and why, people display cross-situationally consistent
personality styles
model
Addressing the Limitations: The KAPA Model
Knowledge Structures and Appraisal Processes
Knowledge is enduring; it is a social-cognitive structure

Enduring mental representations; long-lasting concepts about
oneself, other people, and the world at large
Self-knowledge refers to enduring mental representations of
one’s own personal qualities and aspirations
Appraisals shift rapidly over time; they are social-cognitive
processes
Ongoing evaluations of the relation between oneself and the
surrounding (or upcoming) environment
Thoughts that run through your head when you encounter a
challenge, for instance
Influence emotions and behavior
Knowledge influences appraisal processes
model
Social-Cognitive Personality Assessment
In the KAPA model, the main assessment goal is to identify the
knowledge structures that are most significant to an individual
and the appraisals the person engages in when thinking about
the challenges of his or her life
Two principles guide this search:
Assess knowledge and appraisal contextually
Rather than asking what people are like “in general,” KAPA
assessments try to identify people’s primary thoughts as they
encounter the varying contexts that make p their day
Be sensitive to idiosyncrasy
Rather than administering brief personality questionnaires with
a fixed set of items, KAPA assessments allow people to
describe themselves in their own words

model
Cross-Situational Coherence in Self-Appraisals: Self-Schemas
and Self-Efficacy Appraisals
KAPA model aims to understand how knowledge structures
produce cross-situationally consistent patterns of personality
functioning
Contrasting approach: (a) select a trait to study; (b) identify a
set of situations, and associated response, that are thought to be
good measures of the trait; (c) determine whether a group of
people responds consistently across this fixed set of situations
(see left panel of Figure 13.2)
Problems: (1) cross-situational consistency often low; (2) even
if high, haven’t identified processes that explain consistency;
and (3) strategy is not sensitive to idiosyncrasy
model
KAPA model suggests an alternative strategy which rests on
two ideas (see right panel of Figure 13.2):
Self-schemas can produce cross-situational consistency in
personality

Since schematic knowledge structures influence appraisal
processes, the self-schema should produce consistent styles of
personality across these different settings
Patterns of cross-situational consistency may vary
idiosyncratically
A person might have a unique set of beliefs about themselves;
the situations in which these beliefs may come into play may
vary idiosyncratically
model
Example depicted in Figure 13.3:
Participants identified personal strengths and weaknesses
(schematic personality qualities); “have a good time naturally”
and “crabby and bitchy”
Then identified situations that were relevant to these qualities
People are found to display consistent self-efficacy appraisals
across distinctive sets of situations – those in which their self-
schemas come into play
When self-schemas are used to predict self-efficacy appraisals,
people are found to have much higher appraisals of self-efficacy
in situations that active positive self-schemas/personal strengths

model
Schematic knowledge structures have been found to predict
cross-situational patterns of appraisal in studies of:
Adults contemplating their self-efficacy for performing
everyday behaviors
Smokers contemplating situations in which they need to resist
smoking urges
People seeking exercise who think about their ability to engage
in different types of recreational activities
Adults using humor
Older adults reflecting on how their strengths and weaknesses
might influence their ability to perform everyday challenging
tasks
model
KAPA model can be tested empirically by using a priming
manipulation to influence appraisals of self-efficacy
Prime schematic personal strength or weakness, then ask
participants to appraise their self-efficacy for success on
different challenging tasks
The priming of positive self-schemas raises self-efficacy
appraisals in situations relevant to the self-schema (see Figure

13.4)
CLINICAL APPLICATIONS
Assumptions common to technique of cognitive therapy:
Cognitions are critical in determining feelings and behaviors
The cognitions of interest tend to be specific to situations or
categories of situations, though the importance of some
generalized expectancies and beliefs is recognized.
Psychopathology arises from distorted, incorrect, maladaptive
cognitions concerning the self, others, and events in the world
Assumptions common to technique of cognitive therapy:
Faulty, maladaptive cognitions lead to problematic feelings and
behaviors, and these in turn lead to further problematic
cognitions
Cognitive therapy involves a collaborative effort between
therapist and patient to determine which distorted, maladaptive
cognitions are creating the difficulty and then to replace them
with other more realistic, adaptive cognitions
The unconscious is only important insofar as patients may not
be aware of their routine, habitual ways of thinking about
themselves and life. The emphasis is on changes in specific
problematic cognitions rather than on global personality change
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND CHANGE: MODELING, SELF-
CONCEPTIONS, AND PERCEIVED SELF-EFFICACY
Maladaptive behavior, including fears and phobias

Learned as a result of
Direct experience
Exposure to inadequate or “sick” models
Maintained through direct and vicarious reinforcement
Social-cognitive theory emphasizes the role of dysfunctional
expectancies and self-conceptions
People may erroneously expect painful events to follow some
events or pain to be associated with specific situations
They then may act
To avoid certain situations
In a way that creates the situation they were trying to avoid
Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, and Depression
Perceived inefficacy plays a central role in anxiety and
depression
People with perceptions of low self-efficacy in relation to
potential threats experience high anxiety arousal
It is not the threatening event per se but the perceived
inefficacy in coping with it that is fundamental to anxiety
The perception of inability to cope may be complicated by the
perceived inability to cope, a fear-of-fear response that can lead
to panic

Perceived inefficacy in relation to rewarding outcomes leads to
depression
Individuals prone to depression
Impose excessively high goals and standards
Blame themselves for falling short of them
Low self-efficacy may contribute to diminished performance,
leading to falling even further below standards and additional
self-blame
Discrepancies between performance and standards lead to high
motivation when people believe they can accomplish the goal
Beliefs that the goals are beyond one’s capabilities because they
are unrealistic will lead to abandoning the goal and perhaps to
apathy, but not to depression
Depression occurs when a person feels inefficacious in relation
to a goal but believes the goal to be reasonable
Self-Efficacy and Health
Strong, positive self-efficacy beliefs are good for your health
Weak, negative self-efficacy beliefs are bad for your health
Perceptions of self-efficacy to practice safer sexual behavior
have been related to the probability of adopting safer sexual
practices
Modeling, goal-setting, and other techniques have been used to
increase self-efficacy beliefs and thereby reduce risky behavior

Changes in self-efficacy beliefs also have been found to be of
importance in recovery from illness
Sometimes individuals recovering from a heart attack may have
unrealistically high self-efficacy beliefs and exercise beyond
what is constructive for them
Bandura and his associates’ research on perceived self-efficacy
and immune system functioning
Snake phobics tested under 3 conditions:
Baseline control: no exposure to a snake
Perceived self-efficacy acquisition phase: subjects were assisted
in gaining coping efficacy
Perceived maximal self-efficacy phase, once they had developed
a complete sense of coping efficacy
Small amount of blood was drawn from the subjects and
analyzed for the presence of cells that are known to help
regulate the immune system
Analyses indicated that increases in self-efficacy beliefs were
associated with increases in enhanced immune system
functioning (increased level of helper T cells)

Although the effects of stress can be negative, the growth of
perceived efficacy over stressors can have valuable adaptive
properties at the level of immune system functioning
Therapeutic Change: Modeling and Guided Mastery
Modeling
Desired activities are demonstrated by models who experience
positive consequences (or at least no adverse consequences)
Complex patterns of behavior to be learned are broken down
into subskills to ensure optimal progress
Guided mastery
Individual not only views a model performing beneficial
behaviors, but is assisted in performing the behaviors
The first-hand experience of behavioral success is expected to
produce the most rapid increases in self-efficacy and
performance
Bandura (1977): therapeutic treatments would help people to
overcome their fears only if they increased people’s self-
efficacy to cope with their fear
Chronic snake pho-bics were assigned to one of three
conditions:
Participant modeling
Modeling
Control
Both before and after these conditions, the subjects were tested
on a Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT): 29 tasks requiring

increasingly threatening interactions with a red-tailed boa
constrictor
Final task involved letting the snake crawl in their laps while
holding their hands at their sides
To test the role of perceived self-efficacy, the researchers,
measured snake phobics’ perceived self-efficacy for performing
each of a series of increasingly challenging behaviors with a
snake
Assessments taken
Before treatment
After treatment but before the second administration of the BAT
Following the second administration of the BAT
One month following the completion of treatment
Changes in self-efficacy perceptions and changes in behavior
were extremely closely related
At the between-group level, the groups that achieved the
greatest changes in self-efficacy perceptions also achieved the
greatest changes in behavior
At the individual level, strong self-efficacy judgments were
associated with higher probabilities of successful task
performance
Follow-up data indicated that the subjects not only maintained
their gains in self-efficacy and approach behavior but achieved
further improvements

Shoda and colleagues (2013) have initiated an effort to directly
translate the CAPS theoretical system into the therapeutic
situation
Focus: identify the nature of situations that a client experiences
as highly stressful and the psychological reactions they trigger
Client makes a daily diary of ratings of stressful situations and
the situational characteristics of them to provide a stress
vulnerability signature
There is an assessment of maladaptive coping strategies (e.g.,
blaming the self or others, avoidance, and wishful thinking)
Following assessment of situations and strategies, the cognitive-
affective stress management training (C-ASMT) program is
produced
A six-session intervention program that targets the maladaptive
cognitions through cognitive restructuring and relaxation.
STRESS AND COPING
Stress is viewed as occurring when the person views
circumstances as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and
endangering well-being
Two stages of cognitive appraisal
Primary appraisal: person evaluates whether there is anything at
stake in the encounter, whether there is a threat or danger
Secondary appraisal: person evaluates what, if anything, can be
done to overcome or prevent harm, or improve prospects for
benefit

STRESS AND COPING
Problem-focused coping: attempts to cope by altering features
of a stressful situation
Emotion-focused coping: coping in which an individual strives
to improve his or her internal emotional state (e.g., by
emotional distancing or the seeking of social support)
STRESS AND COPING
Research by Folkman, Lazarus, and colleagues on coping
suggests the following conclusions:
Although the use of some coping methods are influenced by
personality factors, the use of many coping methods are
strongly influenced by situational context
The greater the level of stress and efforts to cope, the poorer the
physical health and the greater the likelihood of psychological
symptoms; the greater the sense of mastery, the better the
physical and psychological health
In general, planful problem solving is more adaptive than
escape avoidance or confrontative coping
STRESS AND COPING
Stress inoculation procedure involves making clients aware of
stress-engendering, automatic thoughts and their negative
effects
Clients taught relaxation as an active coping skill and cognitive
strategies such as how to restructure problems so that they
appear more manageable
Clients taught problem-solving strategies, such as how to define
problems, generate possible alternative courses of action,
evaluate the pros and cons of each pro-posed solution, and
implement the most practicable and desirable one

The stress inoculation training procedure is active, focused,
structured, and brief
ELLIS’S RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY
Ellis’s first thesis: people do not respond emotionally to events
in the world, but to their beliefs about those events
“ABC” of rational-emotive therapy (Ellis, 1997)
An Activating (A) event may lead to a consequence (C) such as
an emotional reaction
“We . . . create Beliefs (B’s) between A and C. Our B’s about
A largely determine our response to it” (Ellis & Tafrate 1997, p.
31)
Ellis’s second thesis is that the beliefs that cause psychological
distress are irrational
Examples of the type of negative thinking that Ellis and similar
therapists wish to change in therapy:
Faulty reasoning. “I failed on this effort, so I must be
incompetent.”
Dysfunctional expectancies. “If something can go wrong for me,
it will.”
Negative self-views. “I always tend to feel that others are better
than me.”
Maladaptive attributions. “I’m a poor test taker because I am a
nervous person.”
Memory distortions. “Life is horrible now and always has been
this way.”
Maladaptive attention. “All I can think about is how horrible it
will be if I fail.”
Self-defeating strategies. “I’ll put myself down before others
do.”

BECK’S COGNITIVE THERAPY FOR DEPRESSION
Best known for its relevance to the treatment of depression, but
has relevance to a wider variety of psychological disorders
Psychological difficulties are due to
Automatic thoughts
Dysfunctional assumptions
Negative self-statements
The Cognitive Triad of Depression
Negative views of the self (e.g., “I am inadequate, undesirable,
worthless”)
Negative views of the world (e.g., “The world makes too many
demands on me and life represents constant defeat”)
Negative views of the future (e.g., “Life will always involve the
suffering and deprivation it has for me now”)
Research on Faulty Cognitions
Much research in the 1980’s and 1990’s provided evidence that
was consistent with Beck’s model
Compared to nondepressed individuals, depressed persons
Focused more on themselves
Had more accessible negative self-constructs
Had a bias toward pessimism rather than optimism, particularly
in relation to the self

Much of the early research on cognition and depression
employed “concurrent” research designs
Drawback: hard to know if relations between cognition and
depression reflect
Influence of cognition on depression
Influence of depressed emotions on cognition
Influence of some third factor that affects both cognition and
depression
In recent years investigators have turned to prospective research
designs
BECK’S COGNITIVE THERAPY FOR DEPRESSION Research
on Faulty Cognitions
Hankin, Fraley, and Abela (2005) measured participants
tendencies to engage in negative patterns of thinking that were
thought to predispose persons to becoming depressed
Then asked them to complete a daily diary for 35 days
Individual differences in the tendency to thinking negatively
predicted the subsequent occurrence of depressive symptoms
What happens to the faulty cognitions when the depression has
lifted?
Once having experienced a serious depression, tendency toward
relapse
Faulty cognitions that make the person vulnerable to depression
latent; only become manifest under stress
Task of therapy: effect fundamental change in these cognitions;
make the person aware of the conditions under which they
manifest

Cognitive Therapy
Designed to identify and correct distorted conceptualizations
and dysfunctional beliefs
Generally consists of 15 to 25 sessions at weekly intervals
Involves highly specific learning experiences designed to teach
the patient to
Monitor negative, automatic thoughts
Recognize how these thoughts lead to problematic feelings and
behaviors
Examine the evidence for and against these thoughts
Substitute more reality-oriented interpretations for these biased
cognitions
Cognitive Therapy
Beck’s cognitive therapy has been expanded to include the
treatment of other difficulties
Anxiety
personality disorders
drug abuse
marital difficulties
Each difficulty is associated with a distinctive pattern of beliefs
Recent evidence suggests that therapeutic change follows
cognitive change
CRITICAL EVALUATION
SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION: THE DATABASE
Social-cognitive theory built on a large and systematic set of
scientific evidence

Methods: controlled laboratory experiments; correlational
studies; longitudinal methods; clinical outcome studies
Studies have included: self-report questionnaires; parental and
peer reports of personality; direct observations of behavior in
natural settings; measures of cognitive processes in the
laboratory
Participants: children, adolescents, adults; people suffering
from psychological distress; high-functioning members of the
population at large
CRITICAL EVALUATION
THEORY: SYSTEMATIC?
Does not provide an overarching network of assumptions that
coherently ties together all elements of the perspective
The approach sometimes functions more as a strategy or
framework for studying personality than a fully specified theory
CRITICAL EVALUATION
THEORY: TESTABLE?
Social-cognitive theorists unquestionably have succeeded in
providing a personality theory that is testable by
Defining constructs with clarity
Providing measurement tools and experimental methods that
enabled their ideas to be tested
CRITICAL EVALUATION
THEORY: COMPREHENSIVE?
Addresses questions of motivation, development, self-concept,
self-control, and behavioral change
Even addresses a topic skipped in most other theories: learning
of social skills and other behavioral competencies
Some topics receive little attention, including biological forces
of maturation, desire for parenting in adulthood, mental

conflict, feelings of alienation or anomie, existential concerns
about death
CRITICAL EVALUATION
APPLICATIONS
Two features contribute greatly to social-cognitive theorists’
success in relating theory to practice
They did not artificially separate “basic” and “clinical” research
Wrote books central to the professional training of other
psychologists who, in turn, advanced psychological applications
Bandura’s (1969) volume on behavior therapy was used as a
textbook by many clinicians who advanced cognitive-behavioral
therapy in the last third of the 20th century
Mischel’s (1968) volume on personality assessment and
prediction taught lessons about the limitations of behavioral
predictions based on traditional psychodynamic or trait-
theoretic assessments
City Developments Limited: a journey
in sustainable business development
Hwang Soo Chiat and Havovi Joshi
Hwang Soo Chiat is an
Associate Professor based
at the School of
Accountancy,
Singapore Management
University, Singapore.
Havovi Joshi is Head of the
Communications &

Dissemination Centre for
Management Practice,
Singapore Management
University, Singapore.
Companies with sustainability in their DNA are more resilient
and make a better business model
for success and long term growth. In the mid-1990s, building
sector was seen as “destroying
before constructing”, CDL as a pioneering developer was
determined to change this perception
and committed to transforming our business strategy to one that
“conserves as we construct” for
long term sustainability. From design, construction,
procurement, maintenance and even user
engagement, the entire cycle has been aligned with
environmental sustainability in mind – Kwek
Leng Joo, Managing Director, CDL[1].
It was January 2013, and Esther An, Head of Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) and
General Manager (Corporate Affairs) of City Developments
Limited (CDL), was busy in
meetings with the members of her CSR Committee, planning
key strategies for CDL’s
proposed sustainability framework for the coming year. CDL
was one of Singapore’s leading
international property and hotel conglomerates, involved in real
estate development and
investment, hotel ownership and management, facilities
management and the provision of
hospitality solutions. The group had developed over 22,000
luxurious and quality homes in
Singapore, catering to a wide range of market segments. In
addition, its London-listed
subsidiary Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (M&C) owned

and managed over 100 hotels
spanning 70 locations in 19 countries.
CDL was widely recognised as a champion of sustainable
practices in Singapore. It was the
first company to be honoured with the President’s Social
Service Award and President’s Award
for the Environment in 2007. It was also the only developer to
be accorded the Built
Environment Leadership Platinum Award in 2009 and Green
Mark Platinum Champion Award
in 2011 by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), the
governing authority for
Singapore’s built environment. CDL was the first Singaporean
company to be listed on all three
of the world’s top sustainability benchmarks – FTSE4Good
Index Series since 2002, Global
100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World since 2010 and
the Dow Jones Sustainability
Indexes since 2011. It was a founding member of Singapore
Compact for CSR, and one of the
pioneer Singapore signatories of the United Nations Global
Compact to lend support to the
advancement of responsible corporate citizenship in
Singaporean industry.
How could CDL reinforce the culture of sustainability that it
prided itself on? What could it do
to increase awareness of their sustainability vision in the
stakeholders? How would they
influence stakeholders to adopt sustainability best practices?
These were questions that An
hoped to find solutions for in the meetings with her CSR team.
CDL

CDL was founded in 1963, with the purpose of acquiring,
developing and selling property.
The company went public in the same year, and its shares were
listed on what was then
known as the Malayan Stock Exchange. In 1965, CDL
completed its first housing project
in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and also launched its first
condominium, Clementi Park, in
© 2013, Hwang Soo Chiat &
Havovi Joshi
Disclaimer. This case is written
solely for educational purposes
and is not intended to represent
successful or unsuccessful
managerial decision making.
The author/s may have
disguised names; financial and
other recognizable information
to protect confidentiality.
DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-11-2013-0049 VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013, pp. 1-
23, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621
EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 1
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EEMC-11-2013-0049
Singapore. This was followed by the 1966 launch of its first
high-rise residential development
in Singapore, City Towers. In 1972, the Hong Leong Group
acquired a controlling interest in
CDL and embarked on strategic diversification into commercial
and industrial

developments. CDL then acquired more investment and
development properties such as
Tanglin Shopping Centre, Katong Shopping Centre, and
Queensway Shopping Centre and
The Arcade. It thus emerged as a major property developer in
Singapore. The company
soon after ventured into the hotel business.
The 1990s witnessed a period of rapid expansion and
regionalisation. CDL’s hospitality arm,
M&C, which was the first Singaporean company to be listed on
the London Stock Exchange,
expanded to become one of the largest hotel owners and
operators in the world.
These milestones saw CDL embark on a substantial growth path,
and in 2010, the group’s
profit before tax surpassed the S$1 billion (US$0.8 billion[2])
mark.
By end 2012, CDL had an extensive global network that
included over 300 subsidiaries and
associated companies across more than 80 locations in 20
countries. Further, five
companies were listed on the stock exchanges in New Zealand,
Hong Kong, London and

Philippines.
For the financial year ending 31 December 2012, CDL recorded
revenue of US$2.72 billion
with profit after tax of US$699 million[2].
Sustainability in Singapore
An commented:
CSR is fast becoming a licence to operate in some areas. For
example, in 2005 the ‘‘Green Mark’’
was launched. But in 2008, the basic certification level of Green
Mark was made mandatory that
any new development must meet that standard.
In 2005, the BCA Green Mark Scheme was launched by the
Singapore Government as an
initiative to drive Singapore’s construction industry towards
more environment-friendly
buildings. It was intended to ‘‘promote sustainability in the
built environment and raise
environmental awareness among developers, designers and
builders when they started
project conceptualisation and design, as well as during
construction’’ (Building and
Construction Authority, 2013).

Then in 2009, in another key development, the Singapore
Government, in consultation with
its people, came out with a Sustainability Blueprint. It defined
sustainable development for
Singapore as growing the city state in a way that (Singapore
Government, 2013):
B Was efficient: develop with less resources and waste.
B Was clean: develop without polluting our environment.
B Was green: develop while preserving greenery, waterways and
our natural heritage.
Listed companies were encouraged to adopt sustainability
reporting, with the release of the
Singapore Exchange Policy Statement on Sustainability
Reporting in June 2011, which
stated that:
(I)ssuers should assess and disclose the environmental and
social aspects of their organisational
performance, in addition to the financial and governance aspects
that are already part of the
customary and regulatory disclosure practiced.
In May 2012, the Monetary Authority of Singapore stated that
sustainability should be
considered as part of corporate governance and directors ought

to consider sustainability
issues, such as environmental and social factors, as part of their
strategic formulation (refer
to Exhibit 1 for regulatory developments in Singapore).
However, Christie Lee, Manager, CSR, CDL commented, ‘‘The
push to CSR is still not
that big in Singapore. In fact, many companies have little
understanding of CSR and
sustainability.’’
PAGE 2jEMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIESj
VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013
CSR at CDL
This is CDL’s 50th anniversary. In 1999, our MD spearheaded
the work improvement plan, which
involved all the CDL staff. The idea was that we must
brainstorm within the organisation. We
talked about global warming then, and we recognised that
energy, particularly increasing
electricity costs, was a key issue. At that time, there was no
green mark or any real push from the
government. So it was our own initiative to cut down our carbon
footprint. We were the pioneer

and the first to receive the Green Mark Gold award for existing
buildings in 2005 – Anthony Goh,
Deputy General Manager, Property and Facilities Management.
The seeds for CDL’s endeavours in developing new benchmark
for CSR excellence can be
traced to almost 50 years ago to the mid-1960s, based on its
founder’s firm belief that the
success of the company should be shared with the community.
However, it was years later,
around the mid-1990s, that the company’s CSR vision:
To be a leader in business and a champion of CSR,
along with its CSR Mission:
To be a responsible corporate citizen who believes in creating
value for stakeholders, conducting
sustainable business practices (SBP), caring for the community
and protecting the environment,
was integrated with its business and operations.
CSR was promoted after taking into account a broad range of
stakeholder engagement from
several parties such as CDL’s investors, customers, employees,
contractors, suppliers and
the community (refer to Exhibit 2 for the CSR philosophy).

Soon after, the company also
began to develop and adopt international benchmark and
standards for reporting, which led
to further awards and achievements (refer to Exhibit 3 for
CDL’s sustainability rankings,
benchmarking and awards).
In 2005, CDL became a founding committee member of
Singapore Compact for CSR, which
was (and continued to be) a national society promoting CSR
among the business community
through awareness dialogue and workshops. In the same year, it
also became one of the
founding Singapore signatories of the United Nations (UN)
Global Compact to lend support
to the advancement of responsible corporate citizenship in
Singapore.
By 2011, CDL had been selected as an index component in the
Dow Jones Sustainability
Indexes (worldwide and in Asia Pacific), which were the first
global indices to track the
financial performance of leading sustainability-driven
companies worldwide. It thus was the
only Singapore property developer to be listed on both the Dow
Jones Sustainability Indexes

and FTSE4Good Index Series. CDL was also the only Singapore
company to be ranked
amongst the ‘‘Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the
World’’ for three consecutive
years (refer to Exhibit 4 for Global 100 methodology).
In 2012, CDL became one of the five founding members of the
Business Council for
Sustainable Development (BCSD) in Singapore – which had
been established as a
membership organisation comprising leading local businesses
and the regional arms of
international companies, with the objective ‘‘to work with
businesses locally to help foster
economic development in harmony with environmental
preservation and social
development’’[3].
CDL’s CSR strategy
CDL had a well-developed and rejuvenating corporate strategy
which was entrenched in the
triple bottom line (TBL) approach. This implied developing
properties that were sustainable,
functional and financially marketable.

The three pronged approach was as follows:
1. developing quality and environmentally sustainable
properties (refer to Exhibit 5);
2. managing properties in a cost efficient and energy efficient
way (refer to Exhibit 6); and
VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013 jEMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE
STUDIESj PAGE 3
3. influencing stakeholders through outreach initiatives,
working closely with government
agencies and non-governmental organisations (refer to Exhibit
7).
There were many reasons that CDL’s CSR strategy was
successful. The company clearly
had a passion for CSR, which was far beyond legislative
requirement. Allen Ang, Deputy
General Manager, Projects commented:
At the project departments, our role is to develop residential
and commercial properties and hand
them over to our customers on time, within budget and in good
quality. We define the
sustainability context ‘‘as conducting responsible business
operations at a level over and above

the statutory and regulatory requirements’’. We are very
mindful of the impact that our
development activities have on the environment. Globally, one
third of greenhouse gases are
contributed by the building sector. Large amounts of energy and
water are consumed, and
construction generates a lot of wastes, noise and dust. How do
we mitigate this, and how do we
address the safety and health of the workers? We approach all
these concerns and more with a
very integrated approach. From planning to design, and right
through to procurement and
construction – our job is to ensure that as we build, the impact
of our operations on the
environment, health and safety (or EHS), is mitigated.
We have very stringent ‘‘Green Procurement guidelines’’ that
covers sustainable design and
construction. In the procurement of our contractors and
consultants, they must be committed to
upholding high EHS standards. Our contractors must not have
any fatalities as well for the past 1
year. Similarly, we have stringent requirements for the
procurement of suppliers and materials:
materials with green label, ‘‘green’’ concrete, energy efficient

air-conditioners, etc. that we use for
projects. These materials and equipment may be more expensive
than the normal ones, however
we believe that besides mitigating the potential impact on the
environment, the use of such
materials and equipment will also translate into tangible
benefits for the end-users.
In the area of social impact on account of employees’ health and
safety too, the company
clearly aspired to make a strong positive impact on its
stakeholders.
A culture of leadership
At CDL, we recognise that we are living in an interdependent
world. Business leadership will not be
sustained without stewardship in both social and environmental
aspects. CSR is not a theory but an
important management approach to achieve good TBL, do good
and do well at the same time for
long term sustainability. If applied strategically, practising CSR
will certainly add value to the
business and achieve long term growth and sustainability.
Currently, the uptake of CSR amongst
Singapore companies remains slow as many still see CSR as a
cost. Based on our humble

experience at CDL, we see CSR as an investment and we have
indeed reaped tremendous benefits
in both tangible and intangible ways. Most importantly, we are
happy to say that while we operate to
meet the needs of the present, we are not compromising the
ability of our future generations to meet
their needs – Esther An, Head of CSR and General Manager
(Corporate Affairs), CDL.
Ang commented:
We were among the very first to adopt the ‘‘Green Mark’’
scheme. This stems from our top
management’s commitment and firm advocacy of EHS. They
have clearly supported the
implementation of green design and features in our projects,
agreeing to allocating 2-5%
construction costs of a new development for such features and
innovations in our developments
[. . .]. We have a very open and supportive top management in
terms of innovation and CSR. As a
market leader, we believe we must do things that others don’t
do. This differentiates us. And what
others do, we must do better. That’s how we started this EHS
journey and began driving

innovations in every of our developments, so as to be a leader in
our field. Every project we want
at least one innovation that no one else has done. This is our
personal KPI – that we should be a
leader in our field. An example of one such innovation is the
implementation of a home energy
management system for one of our developments that helps the
home owner monitor their overall
energy consumption and control their air-conditioner units
individually through their I-pads.
Organisational structure as a key CSR enabler
In 2008, CDL formally established a framework listing CDL’s
significant CSR issues and the
core stakeholders involved. In a significant CSR development,
it established the CSR
Committee to better align its CSR initiatives with the
company’s business strategy. The CSR
Committee comprised senior managers from the company, and
reported directly to the
VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013
Managing Director Kwek Leng Joo. It was responsible for
CDL’s CSR key performance

indicators (KPIs) and targets, and formulating and managing
programmes to improve its
social and environmental performance in the areas of focus.
These key CSR areas of focus
were the environment, employee relations, corporate governance
and risk management,
stakeholder relations and community.
The culture is such that missing a KPI is not deemed a failure,
but a case for providing
positive reinforcement.
Excellent reporting and communication standards
CDL was one of the few companies in Singapore that produced
dedicated sustainability
reports. The report was externally validated by Ere-S, a
consulting company that specialised
in business sustainability and provided services in the domains
of sustainability reporting,
sustainability report assurance, stakeholder engagement and
CSR training. CDL’s SR was
also GRI certified[4].
CDL’s sustainability report clearly measured its performance in
terms of ‘‘achieving business

excellence while maintaining good social and environmental
performance’’. The report
touched upon various dimensions in each of these three spheres
– financial, environment
and social (refer to Exhibit 8 for an extract of CDL’s
sustainability report 2012).
CDL also ensured that their contractors had in place a
comprehensive sustainability
monitoring and reporting system. Every month contractors had
to submit the EHS
performance of their respective worksites for monitoring
purposes. CDL’s project managers
would monitor the EHS performance of their respective projects
individually. At the
departmental level, various sub-committees headed by their
project managers monitored and
championed the various aspects related to EHS, such as energy
consumption and workplace
safety and occupational health.
CDL had also started carbon accounting[5], and were the fore-
runner in the industry. Project
managers provided the collated EHS performance from
worksites to CDL’s EHS manager.
At the corporate level, the EHS manager consolidated and

monitored all CO2 data for
reporting purposes.
Interestingly, even while managing their database of reports,
CDL was driven to ‘‘go green’’.
As Ms Foo Chui Mui (Assistant General Manager, Customer
Relations) commented:
We have really cut down on the use of paper. Over the years, we
have cut down our paper
consumption. For instance, only the final report is retained, and
that too is kept at a shared drive to
maintain transparency while keeping everyone on the same
page.
Training as a means to ensure adherence to CSR standards
When CDL started to embark on the sustainability journey,
there was a general lack of
knowledge and acceptability of sustainability by the
consultants, contractors and other
stakeholders. CDL had to source for information and build up
its knowledge from the internet
and other sources. Workshops were then conducted with its
stakeholders to obtain their
buy-in to go green by pitching the fact that they were also
partners in the project.

CDL continued to conduct quarterly EHS training. Both internal
and external experts were
invited to conduct talks on topics which included waste
management, water and energy
conservation, and other related issues.
CDL also conducted monthly complex management meeting
where experts were invited to
share their views, new innovative products, and other pertinent
ideas. Further, Mabel Wong,
Senior Manager, Property and Facilities Management
commented, ‘‘More than half of our
PFM managers in charge of operations are Green Mark
managers’’.
CDL’s commitment to CSR
Multiple drivers for CSR continue to strengthen globally. Total
assets managed under Carbon
Disclosure Project have grown dramatically from US$4.5
trillion in 2003 to US$78 trillion in March
STUDIESj PAGE 5
2012 with 235 companies responding in 2003 compared to 3,715
in 2011. The growing climate

change-related regulations make CSR not simply a ‘‘good to
have’’ item but a licence to operate.
It is becoming more apparent that companies who have yet to
embrace the significance of
sustainability issues have placed themselves in an increasingly
vulnerable position, putting their
operations at risk, if they have limited expertise and
contingency plans to manage the fast
emerging social, political and economic scenarios. In the face of
a changing business
environment and mind-set, it is a matter of time before the turn
of tide occurs – Kwek Leng Joo,
Managing Director, CDL (Kwek Leng, 2013).
CDL was clearly committed to maintaining and advocating
commitment towards CSR. This
often went far beyond what competition did. In an interesting
example of the same, Ang said:
We are probably the only developer in Singapore who conducts
a bio-diversity impact study for
undeveloped sites with existing natural habitats and sites in
close proximity to natural habitats,
before the site is being developed. At our ‘‘Rainforest
Executive Condo’’, a biodiversity impact
study was conducted when the site was purchased in 2011. In

the course of the site assessment,
a nest belonging to a pair of nesting white-bellied sea eagles
was discovered on an existing tree.
We were advised that the tree where the nest was located should
not be retained due to its poor
condition, so we called on experts from the Bird Park to advise
us on the appropriate measures to
be taken. Eventually, we worked with the main contractor to re-
sequence their construction and
work around the existing tree until the young offspring hatched
and grew strong enough to be
able to fly off on their own.
The culture was such that a virtuous circle of sustainability
appeared to have been
established, where each employee was pushing themselves and
the other to achieve newer
heights. Wong commented:
We are all always aligning ourselves to the corporate mission,
and personal KPIs are set for our
department far beyond what is required. We have to keep
updating our KPIs annually [. . .] We all
walk the talk, all the way from top-down.
Balancing the costs with tangible benefits

To truly grow as a business, we need to develop the right
balance between financial performance,
environmental stewardship and social engagement – CDL
Sustainability Report, 2012 (CDL, 2013).
CDL perceived some very tangible benefits of its sustainability
initiatives. For instance, there
was an estimated S$19.7 million (US$16 million[2]) in annual
energy savings for 37 Green
Mark Awarded Buildings during the time period 2008-2011.
Similarly, the buyers of
residential properties too typically enjoyed substantial energy
and water savings. An
example was the ‘‘Oceanfront @ Sentosa Cove’’ which was the
first private residential
development to be awarded the BCA Green Mark Platinum in
2007, demonstrating savings
of 30 per cent in energy and water. Similarly, it was found that
residents could enjoy average
annual energy savings of up to SG$1,000 (US$ 813[2]) on
account of energy efficient air-
conditioners in their apartments.
There were clearly distinct benefits of going green for the real
estate sector[6]. To begin with,

the company expected average expected savings of 10 per cent
in operating expenses and
17 per cent in energy consumption from the retrofitting, and
commercial buildings could
increase their capital value by about 2 per cent. Second, the
investment in achieving Green
Mark certification was not high, and the cost of the retrofit as a
percentage of the current
market value of the property was about 0.5 per cent for retail
and 1 per cent for offices.
Finally, the upfront cost of retrofitting energy inefficient
buildings could be recovered within
seven years.
However, it was recognised that there was a clear cost
associated with going green, which
has to be managed. Lenny Tan, Assistant Manager, Projects
commented, ‘‘Construction
costs have risen steadily over the years. This is a challenge that
we need to work around
while maintaining our philosophy and commitment towards
sustainability’’.
Ang elaborated:
With the market getting more competitive, we have to strategize
how to achieve cost

effectiveness for our green investment. One of the most
effective strategies is to adopt passive
VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013
low energy architectural design. Buildings should be designed
to minimise external heat gain and
maximise day-lighting and natural ventilation. This concept is
always emphasised to our
architects as a first point of consideration. We influence and
educate these architects to adopt our
philosophy.
Tan further added:
We have an EHS risk register that cuts across the design and
construction phases. The individual
project manager prepares an EHS risk assessment at the start of
every new project to assess the
impact of the development activities on the neighbours and
other impacts related to safety,
energy efficiency, road traffic, etc. This is then handed over to
the consultant to address and
mitigate the risks in their design. Any residual risk not
addressed in the design is then highlighted

to the contractor to be properly addressed in their construction
stage risk assessment. The
consultants and the contractors are also required to present their
EHS risk assessments to the
project teams and our internal colleagues and explain their
strategy to mitigate the EHS risks
identified.
The Singapore Government had commenced handing out a
number of grants to promote
sustainability. However, as Goh commented:
We have ‘‘missed out’’ on some grants as we do (sustainability
initiatives) before the grants are
available. We are doing it for the general good and we are way
ahead of the pack. So this
becomes our KPI – to strive for further improvement each year.
Enabling competitive advantage – reputational
CDL believed that practising CSR had helped differentiate their
branding and product,
particularly given the company’s long standing commitment and
consistent approach
towards encouraging the same. An clarified:
We take a long term view in our CSR commitment and practices

for sustainability – financial,
social and environmental. However, given the low level of
green consumerism as at date, the
competitive advantage of a green product or green home or
space were still limited. But with the
increased awareness of climate change, we are seeing some
progress in the preference of green
products.
Catherine Loh, Deputy General Manager, Head, Corporate
Secretarial Services stated that:
Being a high profile listed company, our reputation especially
as a CSR advocate and pioneer is
at risk every day, whether arising from internal or external
factors in connection with the
implementation of our strategies in our day-to-day operations.
With the increase in the number of
our stakeholders, we are constantly aware that our risk
management policies and practices have
to be continually reviewed and updated in a timely manner, to
safeguard the interests of our
stakeholders, our assets and our reputation.
CSR at CDL: what next?
In 2010, in an effort to embrace a holistic approach to CSR and

go beyond compliance
initiatives, CDL undertook a self-assessment of its CSR
performance. This was based on the
principles of ISO 26000: guidance on social responsibility,
which included accountability,
transparency, ethical behaviour, respect for stakeholder
interests, respect for the rule of law,
respect for the international norms of behaviour and respect for
human rights. The core
subjects listed by ISO 26000 were organisational governance,
human rights, labour
practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer
issues and community
involvement and development. Based on the above results, CDL
incorporated a human
rights corporate statement, enhanced its employee engagement,
whistle-blowing policy,
corporate governance and involvement in community
development projects.
It was important to An that CSR at CDL had to set new
benchmark in sustainable
development by doubling its efforts to meet stakeholders’
expectations, and achieve global
standards in sustainability through innovation, rigorous

assessment and communication of
the outcomes (Kwek Leng, 2013). New programs had to be
initiated to draw in a wider
audience, and the importance of CSR had to be advocated and
disseminated to a wider
range of stakeholders.
STUDIESj PAGE 7
Looking ahead, CDL remained firmly committed to CSR, and
aspired to bring it to the next
level as the environment and marketplace evolved rapidly. An
and the team were already
strategizing the right move to achieve the above.
Notes
1. Kwek Leng Joo, Managing Director, CDL, company
presentation, January 15, 2013.
2. US$1¼S$1.23 as at January 18, 2013.
3. wbcsd, Peter Bakker launches Business Council for
Sustainable Development Singapore,
November 6, 2012, available at:
www.wbcsd.org/Pages/EDocument/EDocumentDetails.

aspx?ID ¼ 15143&NoSearchContextKey ¼ true (accessed
January 2013).
4. For further details on the GRI sustainability reporting
requirements, refer to: www.globalreporting.
org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Sustainability-Reporting-
Guidelines.pdf
5. Carbon accounting is a subset of sustainability accounting,
emphasising the management and
reporting of carbon emissions.
6. Joint study by the Building and Construction Authority and
the Department of Real Estate, NUS, in
collaboration with the top six real estate consultancy firms,
September 2011.
Keywords:
Corporate social responsibility,
Sustainability,
CSR,
Business development,
Asia,
Singapore,
Sustainable business practices

References
Building and Construction Authority (2013), ‘‘About BCA
Green Mark Scheme’’, available at: http://www.
bca.gov.sg/greenmark/green_mark_buildings.html (accessed
March 2013).
City Developments Ltd (2013), Sustainability Report 2012,
available at: http://media.corporate-ir.net/
media_files/IROL/60/60774/CDL_Sustainability_Report_2012_
Final.pdf (accessed January 2013).
Kwek Leng, J. (2013), CDL Sustainability Report 2012,
Director’s presentation, available at: http://media.
corporate-
ir.net/media_files/IROL/60/60774/CDL_Sustainability_Report_
2012_Final.pdf (accessed 18
January 2013).
Singapore Government (2013), ‘‘Sustainable Singapore’’,
available at: http://app.mewr.gov.sg/web/
contents/ContentsSSS.aspx?ContId¼1291 (accessed January
2013).
Smith, J. (2013), ‘‘The world’s most sustainable companies’’,
Forbes, 23 January, available at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/01/23/the-
worlds-most-sustainable-companies/3/
(accessed March 2013).

Exhibit 1. Regulatory developments in Singapore
In May 2012, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
released the ‘‘Code of Corporate
Governance’’. The following is an extract of the 16 principles
listed therein:
1. Every company should be headed by an effective board to
lead and control the company.
The board is collectively responsible for the long-term success
of the company. The
board works with management to achieve this objective and
management remains
accountable to the board.
2. There should be a strong and independent element on the
board, which is able to
exercise objective judgement on corporate affairs
independently, in particular, from
management and 10 per cent shareholders. No individual or
small group of individuals
should be allowed to dominate the board’s decision making.
3. There should be a clear division of responsibilities between
the leadership of the board
and the executives responsible for managing the company’s
business. No one individual
should represent a considerable concentration of power.
4. There should be a formal and transparent process for the
appointment and
re-appointment of directors to the board.
5. There should be a formal annual assessment of the
effectiveness of the board as a whole

and its board committees and the contribution by each director
to the effectiveness of the
board.
VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013
6. In order to fulfil their responsibilities, directors should be
provided with complete,
adequate and timely information prior to board meetings and on
an on-going basis so
as to enable them to make informed decisions to discharge their
duties and
responsibilities.
7. There should be a formal and transparent procedure for
developing policy on executive
remuneration and for fixing the remuneration packages of
individual directors. No director
should be involved in deciding his own remuneration.
8. The level and structure of remuneration should be aligned
with the long-term interest and
risk policies of the company, and should be appropriate to
attract, retain and motivate:
B the directors to provide good stewardship of the company;
and
B key management personnel to successfully manage the
company.
However, companies should avoid paying more than is
necessary for this purpose.

B Every company should provide clear disclosure of its
remuneration policies, level and mix
of remuneration, and the procedure for setting remuneration, in
the company’s annual
report. It should provide disclosure in relation to its
remuneration policies to enable
investors to understand the link between remuneration paid to
directors and key
management personnel, and performance.
B The board should present a balanced and understandable
assessment of the company’s
performance, position and prospects.
B The board is responsible for the governance of risk. The
board should ensure that
management maintains a sound system of risk management and
internal controls to
safeguard shareholders’ interests and the company’s assets, and
should determine the
nature and extent of the significant risks which the board is
willing to take in achieving its
strategic objectives.
B The board should establish an Audit Committee (‘‘AC’’) with
written terms of reference
which clearly set out its authority and duties.
B The company should establish an effective internal audit
function that is adequately
resourced and independent of the activities it audits.
B Companies should treat all shareholders fairly and equitably,
and should recognise,
protect and facilitate the exercise of shareholders’ rights, and
continually review and

update such governance arrangements.
B Companies should actively engage their shareholders and put
in place an investor
relations policy to promote regular, effective and fair
communication with shareholders.
B Companies should encourage greater shareholder participation
at general meetings of
shareholders, and allow shareholders the opportunity to
communicate their views on
various matters affecting the company.
Source: Monetary Authority of Singapore, Code of Corporate
Governance, May 2012, www.
mas.gov.sg/regulations-and-financial-stability. . .
3May2012.ashx (accessed March 2013).
Exhibit 2. The CSR philosophy – commitment to key
stakeholders
CDL had articulated its CSR commitment to the following key
stakeholders:
B Our commitment to stakeholders. As a responsible
corporation, it is our goal to be
transparent and accountable to our stakeholders who have an
interest in our operations.
B Our customers. To offer quality and innovative products,
unsurpassed service and value
for money.
B Our investors. To maintain profitability and achieve optimum
returns for their investments.

B Our employees. To maximise their potential and care for their
personal well-being and
career development.
B Our contractors and suppliers. To select based on quality
work and their ability to
complement our commitment to environment, health and safety.
B The community. To serve the community we operate in so as
to create a better place for
all, especially caring for the less fortunate, enhancing youth
development, promoting the
arts and conserving the environment.
STUDIESj PAGE 9
Source: CDL ‘‘CSR philosophy’’, January 2013,
www.cdl.com.sg/app/cdl/social_
responsibility/our_csr_philosophy.xml (accessed 11 January
2013).
Exhibit 3. CDL’s 2012 sustainability rankings and
benchmarking
Exhibit 4. The 2013 Global 100 methodology
The Global 100 was considered to be the most extensive data-
driven corporate
sustainability assessment in the world. It was an annual project
launched in 2005 by
Corporate Knights, a Toronto-based media company, with the
annual Global 100 announced
each year during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

For the 2013 Global 100 selection for instance, the methodology
used was to first consider all
companies that had a market capitalization exceeding US$2
billion as of October 1, 2012.
Then four screens were employed, based on the companies’
sustainability disclosure
practices, financial health, product category and financial
sanctions. Companies that
passed all four screens would constitute the 2013 Global 100
Shortlist. They would then get
assessed on 12 key performance indicators (KPIs). The Global
100 would finally comprise
the highest ranking companies in the shortlist, subject to each
industry group’s cap.
In 2012, Unicore, the global materials technology group based
in Belgium, was ranked the
most sustainable company in the world.
According to Doug Morrow, Vice President of Research at
Corporate Knights, ‘‘Sustainability
is recognizing that a corporation’s long-term interests are
intellectually and financially
Table EI
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Sustainability rankings and benchmarks
Asian sustainability rating (%) 66 76 74 81 NA
Carbon disclosure project Participated since 2007, and
disclosure to the
public since 2009
Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Listed since 2011

FTSE4Good Index Series Listed since 2002
Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the
World (ranking)
NA NA 81 100 62
Singapore Quality Class Certified since 2009
Sustainability commitments and certifications
Anti-corruption and compliance declaration Signatory since
2009
Caring for climate statement Signatory since 2008
Securities Investors Association Singapore –
Corporate Governance Statement of Support
Signatory since 2010
UN Global Compact Signatory since 2005
ISO 9001 (15 CDL buildings) Signatory since 2007
ISO 14001 Property Development and Project
Management
ISO 14001 Corporate Management and
Operations
OHS 18001 Property Development and Project
Management
OHS 18001 Property Management Signatory since
2011

Sustainability reporting
Global Reporting Initiative C B þ B þ B þ A þ
AA1000 Assurance Standard NA – Type 2 Type 2 Type 2
ISO 26000: 2010 Guidance on Social
Responsibility
Strategic alignment since 2009
Source: CDL, Sustainability Report 2012,
www.cdl.com.sg/sustainabilityreport2012/impacts_srbac.
html (accessed February 2013)
VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013
consistent with resource efficiency, proactive health and safety
practices, and responsible
leadership’’ (Smith, 2013). Toby Heaps, Editor-in-Chief of
Corporate Knights, added:
Sustainability is when what is good for a company is also good
for the planet, and
vice-versa. It means creating more wealth than we destroy. It
means that a company is
on balance increasing our overall stock of wealth, grounded in
human, produced,
financial, natural, and social capital.
Source: Global 100,
www.global100.org/methodology/overview.html (accessed
February 2013).
Exhibit 5. The first of CDL’s three pronged CSR strategy

Develop: internalising ‘‘safe and green’’ corporate philosophy
B Five-star EHS assessment to raise builder’s EH standards
since 2001. Independently
appraised and graded quarterly by independent auditors engaged
by CDL.
B Established an EHS policy in 2003, incorporating measures to
mitigate impact through
CDL’s entire operations.
B Investment of between 2 and 5 per cent of each project’s
construction costs on green
design elements.
B Targets to achieve a minimum BCA Green Mark Gold Plus
Rating for all new
developments.
B Green procurement guidelines to influence our vendors and
suppliers at the corporate
office since 2008.
Exhibit 6. The second of CDL’s three pronged CSR strategy
Manage: optimising water and energy efficiency
1. Improve energy-efficiency:
B Consumer buildings consume 30 per cent of total energy in
Singapore.
B Air-conditioning takes up 65 per cent within commercial
buildings (other areas of
energy consumption include lights 21 per cent, lift/escalator 9
per cent and others 5

per cent).
2. Regular energy audits in particular on aircon plants:
B Preliminary site data and collection of data to understand the
chiller plant performance
and building load profile.
B Detailed audit.
B Financial study for ROI.
3. Regular training of operations and management staff on
energy-efficiency, to be certified
as Green Mark managers, Green Mark facility managers and
certified energy managers.
Exhibit 7. The third of CDL’s three pronged CSR strategy
Influence: awareness amongst stakeholders through measures as
given below
B Contractors and suppliers: through EHS assessment systems,
review and peer learning
programs, CDL EHS Assessment Award.
B Tenants and business community: 1degree C Up campaign,
recycling initiative.
B Residential customers: T.O.P. Fairs.
B Employees: Let’s Work Green! Campaign, Achieve ISO
14001 targets.
B Community-at-large: CDL e-generation challenge, CDL-
Singapore Compact Young CSR

Leaders Award, Singapore Young Photographer Award.
B Investors: sustainability reports, disclosure surveys and
listings, e-mails, web site, etc.
CDL also worked on engaging the community through some of
the following measures:
STUDIESj PAGE 11
B Corporate and social partnership: since 2005, CDL played an
active role in mentoring
youth, and supported six schools in Singapore.
B BCA-CDL Green Sparks Competition: promoting innovation
and raising awareness of
green business practices and solutions amongst students who
will be future practitioners
in the industry.
B CDL-Singapore Compact Young CSR Leaders Award:
promoting CSR amongst the youth
to promote the ways in which organisations implement CSR into
their daily operations.
Exhibit 8. CDL’s reporting standards
Data disclosure was aligned with the seven core areas of ISO
26000 (Figure E1).
Exhibit 9. CDL’s Sustainability Report 2012 – summary of key
financial,
environment and social impact (in US$ million[2])

Financial highlights
Figure E1
Table EII
Financial Highlights
Year ending
31 December 2012
Year ending
31 December 2011
Year ending
31 December 2010
Revenue 2,726.0 2,666.7 2,522.8
Gross profit 1,350.4 1,441.5 1,343.9
Profit from operations 747.9 916.3 804.9
Net finance costs (32.5) (43.1) (26.8)
Profit before tax 780.6 923.6 867.5
Net income 699.4 782.1 703.3
VOL. 3 NO. 8 2013
Capital management
Environmental impact
Social impact

For a full copy of the report, refer to CDL Sustainability Report
2012, www.cdl.com.sg/
sustainabilityreport2012/pdf/report.pdf
Source: City Developments Ltd, Sustainability Report 2012,
www.cdl.com.sg/
sustainabilityreport2012/pdf/report.pdf (accessed April 2013).
Corresponding author
Hwang Soo Chiat can be contacted at: [email protected]
Table EV
Year ending 31 December
2011
2010
2009
Employee turnover rate (%) 14.4 13.7 10.7
Total CSR and environment-related training
(hours)
3,287 3,694 .3,000
Employee volunteerism participation rate
(%)
71 60 85
Employee volunteerism participation rate
(hours)

2,838 2,894 5,524
Accident frequency ratea 0.11 0.23 0.38
Injury rateb 30 63 100
Notes: aDefined as number of workplace accidents per million
manhours worked at CDL worksites; bdefined as the number of
fatal and
non-fatal workplace injuries per 100,000 persons employed at
CDL worksites
Table EIII
Year ending
31 December 2011
Year ending
31 December 2010
Cash and cash equivalents (in US$ millions) 2,116 1,523
Net borrowings (in US$ millions) 1,476 1,907
Net gearing ratio (excludes fair value gains
on investment properties as the Group’s
accounting policy is to state its investment
properties at cost less accumulated
depreciation and impairment losses)
0.21 0.29
Interest cover ratio (times) 21.8 21.3
Table EIV
2011

2010
2009
Total energy used (k kWh) 66,230 71,708 61,496
Total water used (m3) 682,519 764,643 603,558a
Construction waste generated at CDL
worksites (kg/m2)
24.50 46.50 61.70
Total carbon emissions (tonnes CO2) 31,589 34,221 30,924
Note: aThis figure included the water consumed at the CDL
corporate office, which had not been tracked until 2011
STUDIESj PAGE 13
m01gips000001CDLfinal
FORMAT FOR WRITTEN BRIEF CASE REPORT ANALYSIS
Required Sections
Guidelines
I. Executive Summary
· One to two paragraphs in length
· After the cover page of the report
· Briefly identify the major problems facing the manager/key
person

· Summarize the recommended plan of action and include a
brief justification of the recommended plan
II. Statement of the Problem
· State the problems facing the manager/key person
· Identify and link the symptoms and root causes of the
problems
· Differentiate short term from long term problems
· Conclude with the decision facing the manager/key person
III. Causes of the Problem
· Provide detail analyses of the problem/s identified in the
Statement of the Problem
· In the analysis, apply theories and models from the text and/or
readings
· Support conclusions and/or assumptions with specific
references to the case and/or the readings
IV. Decision Criteria and Alternative
Solution
s
· Identify criteria against which you evaluate alternative
solutions (i.e. time for implementation, tangible costs,
acceptability to management)
· Include two or three possible alternative solutions

· Evaluate the pros and cons of each alternative against the
criteria listed
· Suggest additional pros/cons if appropriate
V. Recommended

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