Overview: Formal Management Systems, Intrinsic CSR, and the Role of Culture in Management

Abstract

In the light of numerous well-publicised problems and scandals involving large corporations whose highly formalised CSR systems failed to prevent anti-social and illegal behaviour, there is growing interest in informal processes and relationships that foster organisational cultures that embed and exemplify Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR frameworks worldwide have been dominated by the concerns and distinctive needs of large companies and by efforts to manage CSR through a management system. However, there is a new story of business that is emerging post global financial crisis. There is a renewed interest in revisioning business to make it more compatible with human aims. It is proposed that detailed section of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with informal and non-systematic approaches to CSR can shed light on these issues of cultural embedding of CSR values. Accordingly, this section focuses on the one hand on Germany and the principles of Honourable Merchants, a thousand-year tradition, that have been reinforced and revitalised after economic crises in the private and public sector. Further, case studies of Swiss SMEs investigate the processes, values, and relationships that make up informal CSR oriented organisational cultures. Thus, it aims at identifying key drivers and dynamics of different management systems as well as business models.