Human resource management practice I also available by michael armstrong

Corporate social 

responsibility

LearnIng outComes

On completing this chapter you should be able to define these key concepts. You should 

also understand:

 

●

The meaning of corporate social responsibility (CSR)

 

●

CSR activities

 

●

CSR strategy

 

●

Developing a CSR strategy

 

●

The rationale for CSR

Key ConCePts and terms

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Stakeholder theory

Strategic CSR

Value statement

105

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Part 

1

  The Practice of Human Resource Management

106

Introduction

The notion that businesses should act in a socially 

responsible way by practising ‘corporate social re-

sponsibility’ (CSR) has been around for some time. 

J M Keynes wrote in 1923 that: ‘The business man 

is only tolerable so long as his gains can be held to 

bear  some  relation  to  what,  roughly  and  in  some 

sense, his activities have contributed to society.’ The 

aim of this chapter is to explore what CSR means as 

a concept and a strategy. The rationale for CSR is 

also considered – the arguments in favour are over-

whelming,  but  reference  is  made  also  to  powerful 

opposing views.

HR professionals, because of the ethical dimen-

sion of their function (as described in Chapter 8), 

have an important role to play in furthering CSR. 

CSR was justified by the CIPD (2009: 1) as a rele-

vant and important HR activity because:

CSR needs to be embedded in an organization’s 

culture to make a change to actions and attitudes, 

and the support of the top team is critical to 

success. HR already works at communicating 

and implementing ideas, policies, cultural and 

behavioural change across organizations. Its 

role in influencing attitudes and links with line 

managers and the top team means it is ideally 

placed to do the same with CSR.

HR  professionals  need  to  marshal  the  arguments  

in favour of CSR, as set out in this chapter, to over-

come any overt or covert resistance. They must be 

able to advise on CSR strategies and how they can 

be implemented. This is not an easy task and sug-

gestions on the approaches that can be adopted are 

made in the concluding section of the chapter.