Coordinated Enactment: How Organizational Departments Work Together to Implement CSR

Abstract

Research on the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has revealed the critical role of CSR departments vis-à-vis functional departments. While both CSR and functional departments influence CSR implementation, the question of how they work together remains underexamined. We address this question by mobilizing and merging two complementary yet separate perspectives on CSR implementation: “coordination” and “enactment.” Building on a comparative case study involving seven large Swiss financial institutions that have established CSR departments and implemented CSR to varying extents, we inductively derive six courses of actions conducing to CSR implementation, involving both coordination and enactment. We distinguish between four courses of actions in the CSR departments ( centralizing, coalescing, orchestrating, and consulting) and two courses of actions in the functional departments ( decentralizing and tailoring). As our data suggest that coordination and enactment work in tandem, we capture these insights in a model of CSR implementation as coordinated enactment. Our research contributes to the literature by explaining how CSR departments and functional departments enact and simultaneously coordinate CSR at a particular implementation stage, thus illuminating how and why the variance in CSR implementation occurs.

In search of change: Organizational role expectancies of CSR professionals

“…However, the question whether CSR as an occupation is “threatened” by other business functions, for example, communication (Pollach et al, 2012), which may take over the control of the CSR knowledge base, once a specific change project has been finished (Risi & Wickert, 2017), is an open question. On the contrary, our study also shows that organizations expect CSR professionals to accomplish changes together with other business functions, which has also been studied by Risi et al (in press). Thus, we may conclude that organizations expect the CSR professional to fulfill either a generalist function or an expert function, which may depend on the size of the company as well as its CSR maturity level.…”

“…The CSR job ads in our sample reflect to a large degree the interdisciplinarity of responsibilities, competences, and tasks emphasized in existing research on CSR professionals (e.g., Brès et al, 2019; MacDonald & Shriberg, 2016; Risi et al, in press; Thomas et al, 2013). As pointed out by Risi and Wickert (2017), CSR professionals are conceptualized as “all‐rounders” in organizations and are expected to cope with and combine a large variety of CSR and sustainability areas and domains.…”

“…First, analyzing job ads for CSR positions means that we confine our analysis to designated CSR positions, while excluding the role of other relevant functions in the organization that are critical for CSR implementation (cf. Risi et al, in press). In particular, HR could act as a support function for initiating CSR‐related changes inside organizations or for building organizational capacities for transformation and change (cf.…”

“…Conversely, a changed environment may make it easier to adhere to external norms. However, this compatibility at the organizational level does not rule out that CSR professionals encounter tensions in implementing these changes, as they need to collaborate with individuals or entities within the organization that may pursue goals that are in conflict with the changes that CSR managers are expected to implement (e.g., Hunoldt et al, 2020; Risi et al, 2023).…”

The effect of prosocial orientation on CSR scope: the moderating role of the CSR department

“…CSR departments hold multiple roles of addressing and shaping the concerns of various stakeholders, such as government officials, community leaders, employees and suppliers, while acknowledging the company’s resource constraints (Wickert and Risi, 2019). Also, CSR departments will be under pressure for concrete outcomes, leading to prioritizing stakeholders salient to the firm while considering limited resources and capabilities rather than having a holistic view of various stakeholders regardless of their salience (Risi et al , 2023; Wickert et al , 2016). Therefore, we posit that the existence of a CSR department in a firm will have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between a firm’s prosocial orientation and CSR scope as CSR departments are responsible in managing stakeholders demands while aiming to achieve the firm’s competitive advantage.…”