Corporate Social Responsibility and Workplace Democracy: Emerging Issues and Perspectives

CSR: History and Theoretical AnalysisCSR is responsibility business bears towards society, environment and the community. It is a point of convergence of various initiatives aimed at ensuring socio-economic development of the community in an enduring manner. Like any social phenomena, the CSR too has a history. In spite of its recent growth, there are evidences of business concern for society from very early period of history. In the 1920s and 1930s, concern for CSR evolved. But it is believed that modern era of CSR started from Howard R. Bowen's (1953) work on social responsibilities of business. According to him, large business firms were vital centers of power and decision making, and the activities of these firms touch the lives of common man at many junctures. And that is why Bowen refers CSR to the obligations of businessmen to pursue these policies, to make those decisions or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of the society (Bowen 1953: 6).Before CSR began to take form in the 1950s, it would be more beneficial if we begin with the Industrial Revolution as the starting point. In the mid-to-late 1800s, business was especially concerned with employees and how to make them more productive workers. Daniel A. Wren, the management historian argued that, there were many issues in the emerging factory system in Great Britain regarding the employment of children and women, and similar issues occurred in America. Reformers in both the countries perceived the factory system to be the source of social problems like labor unrest.With the concerns of employees growing, philanthropy was appearing, but it was difficult to ascertain whether it was individual philanthropy or business philanthropy. The early practice of business people is thinking about social causes with the business contexts is illustrated by Morrell Heald in his analysis of company's expenditures on community in the late 1880s and philanthropy assumed a central role in the development of CSR. Prior to 1990s, corporate contributions were perceived as giving away stockholders asset without their approval. Besides at that time, corporate contribution were legally restricted to the benefit of the company (Carroll 2008: 24).Initially CSR was referred as social responsibility. In the 1960s, there was a growth in the new ideas of CSR. Keith Davies argued that CSR should be seen in a managerial context. Businessmen's decisions and actions should be seen partially beyond the firm's economic or technical interest (1960: 70). He pointed out that social responsibility and business power should be commensurate and avoidance of social responsibility would lead to erosion of social power on the part of business. That is why business must not avoid social responsibility and only concentrate on profit. Then, new dimensions entered the business-society relations i. e. the acceptance of societal responsibility at the managerial level. The intimacy of business society relations was accepted at the managerial level. A degree of voluntarism should be imbibed by the employees and business should also accept the fact that such exercises require financial cost and it may not be possible to measure the direct economic return.A new thinking entered the domain of CSR with the notion of public responsibility. Preston and Post (1997) tried to direct attention away from the concept of CSR towards the notion of public responsibility. They prefer the term public responsibility because it can clearly define the functions of organizational management within the specific context of public life.Thereafter, a managerial approach grew. It recommended that companies forecast and plan for CSR, organize and assess social performance, and institutionalize corporate social policy and strategy. In the 1980s, it became established that firms have to move beyond CSR and became more competitive. Concepts like corporate governance, business ethics, and corporate social performance entered the domain of CSR. …