Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discuss aspects of responsibility in relation to organizational contexts, the main focus being responsibility for consequences we cannot reach. Responsibility is a major underpinning of business administration and management and also an aspect of everyday life. Responsibility is about responding, to act as an answer to previous action/s, but we never know all consequences of our actions.

Literature from management, HRM studies and from philosophy scholars is used to discover different perspectives of responsibility and a typology of responsibility handling is developed.

In total, three types of responsibility are suggested and discussed in relation to managerial and organizational practices. The main contribution is the typology of responsibility combined with the relational focus of managerial and organisational processes. Imagining, fantasy and care are shown as important for the developing of responsibility.

The suggested typology is theoretically developed without empirical studies behind.

A conclusion is that valuing of long‐term survival of humanity and nature must be built into our judgments and our assessments processes in everyday organizational life, if we should be able to act responsibly.

The concept of responsibility is currently intensively discussed, because of successes and disappointments of the CSR movements, because of global economy, and because of climate changes, etc. The suggestion of three types of responsibility in this paper can contribute to sorting out theoretical and practical possibilities in different contexts.

This paper aims to review the situation of decent work (DW) and quality of work life (QWL) in the context of Nepal.

The paper is based on a literature survey. Institutional arrangements for DW and QWL are studied in connection with current labor legislations, national policy documents, and company policies and initiatives. The status of DW and QWL is described, examining national policy documents published by the Government of Nepal, National Planning Commission, labor legislations, International Labor Organization (ILO) and other relevant literature.

At present, although the country has been successful in reducing the number of people under the poverty line, there are challenges in meeting the DW goals. In the case of QWL, since there is rising dissatisfaction among employers and employees in the present economic and political circumstances, they are interested in short‐term benefits.

There are a number of factors affecting DW and QWL. In this paper only national economic and social conditions, poverty level, employment situation and income generation are considered for analysis. The analysis of the QWL situation is done only on the basis of published information rather than using primary sources of information.

The findings of this study will have a number of implications in understanding and improving the level of current institutional arrangements in order to ensure DW and QWL. The observations made in this paper can add some value in the process of formulation of national policy for, and regulation of DW. The issues discussed will have substantial implication for the development and framing of new labor laws and policies.

The paper focuses on DW and QWL for the first time in the Nepalese context. This is an original contribution by the authors to familiarize readers with the situation of DW and QWL in Nepalese organizations.

Starting from the question whether the globalisation process leads to a social “race to the bottom”, this paper aims to highlight the international transfer of socially responsible, employee‐oriented practices by multinational small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as a possible way to counter such a trend.

Based on a literature review, an exploratory framework – building on three perspectives – is proposed about the conditions in which employee‐oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects long‐term firm performance positively. First, the stakeholder view on CSR entails that employees can be considered as legitimate stakeholders of the firm justifying introduction of employee‐oriented CSR. Second, the human resource management perspective matters as employee‐oriented CSR materialises in human resource management policies and practices that increase employee commitment. Finally, as regulative, normative and cognitive institutions differ across countries, the institutionalist perspective is relevant to understand diverging demands on content and form of employee‐oriented CSR practices.

It is argued that owner‐managers of (multinational) SMEs, who view their employees as legitimate stakeholders of the firm, will introduce employee‐oriented CSR out of their sense of moral responsibility towards their employees. This sense of moral responsibility is conditional on achieving sustainable mutual value creation as a result of employee‐oriented CSR. Finally, transfer of employee‐oriented CSR to foreign subsidiaries is positively mediated by the level of owner‐managers' institutional entrepreneurship.

This is one of the few studies addressing the position of employees as internal stakeholders of small and medium‐sized enterprises in an international context. It signals the relevance of institutional differences across countries to entrepreneurs who wish to improve long‐term firm performance through employee‐oriented CSR.

Corporate communication practices are becoming ever more important for business service clients, as they signal quality and hence are related to client-perceived value. The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate reputation and client-perceived value, and to assess the moderating role of strategic orientation in business service relationships.

The conceptual framework based on the corporate communication framework, signaling theory and relationship marketing theory has been tested on a survey sample of 228 client firms, using covariance-based SEM and additional procedures for assessment of mediation and moderated mediation.

This paper reveals that communication practices concerning CSR positively and significantly influence client-perceived value. The authors show that reputation fully mediates the effect of CSR on client-perceived value. Finally, the effect of CSR on value is stronger if the client firm has a short-term strategic orientation, while long-term strategic orientation boosts the effect of corporate reputation on customer-perceived value.

Further research on the topic may involve developing links between other elements of the corporate communication framework and client-perceived value.

The originality of the paper lies in better understanding the effects of CSR and corporate reputation on client-perceived value. The authors provide empirical evidence of the mediating role of reputation between the CSR (seen as “actions”) and client-perceived value.

This chapter guides the reader to an understanding of social responsibility in educational settings, namely on school/university social responsibility (USR). The phenomenon of social responsibility in these settings is nuanced when encountering stakeholders, either external or internal. This chapter conceptualizes school/USR and describes related stakeholders and their management strategies. In addition to this, the chapter discusses eight transition lines of stakeholders developed on the expectations of stakeholders, the degree and the format of engagement and impacts on society and institutions: pupil–student; teachers-academics; parents; alumni; future employers; business sector; funding providers; and society at large. It concludes that a managerial pattern while implementing social responsibility by involving stakeholders differs by educational setting. This is to say that school social responsibility is rather carried out through process, whereas USR concerns both process and outputs. This distinction results in introducing the definition of school/USR as a commitment toward performance based on ethical and other conventional principles that are respectively substantiated in the mission, values and related activities in the interplay with all possible stakeholders in order to create social value foremost.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR) and perceived organizational corruption (POC) in a developing country context. The research suggests mediating roles of perceived ethical leadership (PEL) and job satisfaction (JS) in the PCSR–POC relationship.

Data were collected through survey questionnaires. The sample consisted of 434 employees working in private and public organizations in Kosovo. Regression analysis was conducted by using a serial mediation model.

Applying a social learning framework, this study provides evidence that employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are positively related to perceived ethical leadership and job satisfaction and negatively related to perceived organizational corruption. Furthermore, results confirm that the relationship between CSR perception and organizational corruption perception is mediated by ethical leadership perception and job satisfaction.

Armed with the findings, organizations can adopt CSR practices to positively influence employee behaviors and attitudes. From these results, it is possible to better comprehend the role of CSR in dealing with relevant aspects such as corruption at the organizational level, especially in developing and emerging markets.

The findings of this research indicate that employees in socially responsible organizations perceive less organizational corruption. Adopting a more ethical and responsible management approach might represent a promising solution to fight the corruption phenomenon inside and even outside organizations. These results should serve as reflection for both managers and public authorities.

With regard to CSR, previous studies have investigated different employee outcomes but never considered the potential impact on corruption at the organizational level. Furthermore, this study extends the literature by conceptualizing perceived ethical leadership and job satisfaction as mediators between perceived CSR and organizational corruption perception, in a developing country context where the concept of CSR is still less investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to address the effects of a unique leadership programme, four years after its delivery: in a Dutch penitentiary organisation. This intervention was initiated because of a felt lack of safety in an organisation that was characterised by steep hierarchy, forceful authority, constant employee cynicism and indifference. The focus of the intervention lies on actually assuming responsibility and producing the intended, strategically relevant results.

First we sketch Hoebeke's ideas on “responsibility in one's own work system” (Hoebeke, 2004). We show how these ideas are related to the leadership programme. Next we illustrate the programme's effect with quotes from three in‐depth group interviews with the penitentiary's governor, unit manager, four department heads and six employees.

The interviews show that acting responsibly has become a living concept in the sense that is now being explicitly used among employees in all layers of the organisation. Employees and managers have learned to translate responsibility into concrete and relevant results. A new strategy for the continuity of the organisation has been co‐created with all management levels and the Workers Council and it has been implemented successfully. The intervention also defeated the cynicism and lack of integrity in the organisation.

This case shows that being trained in the ability “to be present with reality” and actually assuming responsibility for the relationship between one's own “way of being” and the results one produces had a lasting, positive impact on an organisation and its people.