Taming the shadow: corporate responsibility in a Jungian context

Abstract

Rampant shadows undermine true corporate responsibility (CR) when companies try to keep up appearances by fair means or foul. This paper studies the thoughts, words and deeds of CR actors in their Jungian context. The aim is to help CR actors to understand different CR behaviour and to gain new insights into developing CR values, discourses and practices.This research builds on earlier psychological articles published in this journal, and digs deeper into the psychological resources of the human mind to show what vast potentials lie there to solve CR issues. Jungian theories open up the individual, organizational and societal personality and give opportunities to expand it horizontally and vertically. The Jungian prospective quality of the psyche is illustrated by three levels of unconscious -personal, cultural and collective, which can help the development of CR values, discourses and actions of individuals, organizations, societies and humankind.

Stakeholder Expectation of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: A Study on Local and Multinational Corporations in Kazakhstan

“…In some societies, social responsibilities are considered similar to religious duties and are perceived as mandatory, whereas in a secular-individualistic society, social obligations are perceived as personal matters (Keenan, 2002). The idea or concept of good governance and related CSR activities differ according to country -Anglo-American societies are different from Confucianism-oriented societies (Hoskisson et al, 2000;Ketola, 2008). Managers within a compliance-based governance system are required to abide by laws and regulations in their decision-making and focus only on maximizing shareholder value and protecting shareholder rights (Peters et al, 2011;Preuss and Barkemeyer, 2011).…”

Ethics, spirituality and self: managerial perspective and leadership implications

“…This brings ethics to the core of management practice, but also claims that full consciousness of self is the cornerstone of a morally responsible behaviour. Unless managers, leaders and employees confront their shadow to live under the rightful guidance of the self, in a respectful acknowledgement of our common essence, the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility programmes will only ever be relative (Ketola 2008). Moral exemplarity and integrity begin with the self, and so does sustainable management practice.…”

Pre‐Morphean paradigm – an alternative to modern and post‐modern paradigms of corporate sustainability

“…Yet it is the modern scientists and industrialists who were actually leading us to the Dark Ages. The industry represented our unconscious collective shadow, which we had not learned to integrate into our conscious collective ego in order to keep it under control (Ketola, 2008). Exactly the same has happened again in the climate change issue.…”

“…We all have an innate ability for thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting but because of our varied developmental circumstances each of us learns one of these ego functions best and specializes in it (Jung, 1971; see also Ketola, 1999Ketola, , 2008. Some people are mainly rational thinkers or feelers, others irrational sensors or intuitors.…”