“Business Responsibilities in a Divided World”: The Cold War Roots of the Corporate Social Responsibility Movement

Abstract

Both business executives and management scholars have, in recent years, focused a great deal of attention on the theme of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Calls for business leaders to expend resources on behalf of “social good” tend to downplay, if not ignore, what is fundamentally an ideological question: just what is a “good” society and who defines “goodness”? The ideological underpinnings of social responsibility and its relationship to the “good” society can be explored through an historical perspective. The roots of the CSR movement trace back to the early years of the Cold War. Led by Donald K David, Dean of the Harvard Business School and supported by other academics and executives given voice on the pages of the Harvard Business Review, advocates urged expanded business social responsibility as a means of aligning business interests with the defense of free-market capitalism against what was depicted as the clear-and-present danger of Soviet Communism. Today's enthusiastic calls for business to “do well by doing good” could benefit from a similar critical analysis not just of the goals of CSR but also the ideological assumptions, often unacknowledged, that underlie those goals.

What to make of unprofitable corporate social responsibility

“…This perspective is contextually accompanied by warnings that "the capitalist system is under siege" by groups dissatisfied with corporate America, thereby necessitating CSR to win back hearts and minds [Porter and Kramer, (2011), p.64; see also Clark, 1916;Ghent, 1902;Heald, 1957Heald, , 1970Spector, 2008]. In its present state, the belief is most commonly known as 'social licence theory' which holds that the conduct of business requires at least the tacit permission of society to operate.…”

Responsible innovation in the light of moral responsibility

“…However, it was only in 1953 that Howard R. Bowen came to significantly shape future reflections on the subject in his seminal book, 'Social responsibilities of the businessman' published in that year, (Carroll, 2009;Carroll and Shabana, 2010;Melé, 2009;Spector, 2008). Three core ideas about CSR stood out at that time: the idea of the manager as public trustee, the balancing of competing claims for corporate resources within the company, and corporate philanthropy -business supporting worthy causes (Frederick, 2009).…”

Flawed from the “Get-Go”: Lee Iacocca and the origins of transformational leadership

“…Those articles have noted the interaction between academic approaches to management and corporate strategy on the one hand, and the pervasive national ideology and culture on the other hand (for example, Cook, et al, 2005;Kelley, et al, 2006). My own work (for example, Spector, 2008;Spector and Spital, 2011) has been part of this movement to contextualize the process of theory formulation. This article provides evidence of the interaction between the pervasive ''crisis of confidence'' that permeated American society in the late 1970s-early 1980s and the rise to dominance of TL.…”