Skip to main content

The Perspective of Civil Society Organizations

The missing link in Corporate Social Responsibility Activities and Programs

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen in Deutschland

Zusammenfassung

The chapter focuses on the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSOs are conceptualized as one of the key stakeholder groups that contest harmful corporate social and environmental practices and cooperate with corporations to improve their social and environmental performance. The CSOs’ involvement is thus a necessary condition for the legitimation of CSR activities. This chapter reviews how CSR has changed over the last decades, and how these changes have shaped the involvement of CSOs with CSR. It also provides an overview of multiple roles CSOs play in various forms of CSR.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Recommended literature

  • Auld G, Bernstein S, Cashore B (2008) The New Corporate Social Responsibility. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 33: 413-435

    Google Scholar 

  • Coni-Zimmer M (2012) Zivilgesellschaftliche Kritik und Corporate Social Responsibility als Unternehmerische Legitimitätspolitik. Der Aufstieg der Legitimitätspolitik. Leviathan Sonderband 27. Nomos, Baden-Baden

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiß S (2006) Warum Übernehmen Unternehmen Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung: Ein Soziologischer Erklärungsversuch. Campus, Frankfurt/New York

    Google Scholar 

References

  • Andriof J, Waddock S, Husted B, Rahman S. (2002) Unfolding Stakeholder Thinking. Theory, Responsibility and Engagement. Sheffield, Greenleaf

    Google Scholar 

  • Auld G, Bernstein S, Cashore B (2008) The New Corporate Social Responsibility. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 33: 413-435

    Google Scholar 

  • Bäckstrand K (2006) Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Rethinking Legitimacy, Accountability and Effectiveness. European Environment 16: 290-306

    Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee SB (2008) Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Critical Sociology 34: 51-79

    Google Scholar 

  • Bendell J, Miller A, Wortmann K (2011) Public policies for scaling corporate responsibility standards. Expanding collaborative governance for sustainable development. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal 2: 263-293

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyer J, Höpner M (2003) The Disintegration of Organized Capitalism: German Corporate Governance in the 1990s. West European Politics 26: 179-198

    Google Scholar 

  • Boli J, Thomas GM (Eds) (1999) Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations since 1875. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Böhling K. Murguía DI (2013) Sustainability reporting on large-scale mining conflicts: The case of Bajo de la Alumbrera, Argentina. Journal of Cleaner Production,42: 202-209

    Google Scholar 

  • Böhling, K, Murguia DI, Godfrid J (2017) Sustainability reporting in the mining sector: Exploring its symbolic nature. Business & Society, in press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown HS, Jong M d, Levy D L (2009) Building institutions based on information disclosure: lessons from GRI’s sustainability reporting. Journal of Cleaner Production 17: 571-580

    Google Scholar 

  • Burchell J, Cook J (2006) It’s good to talk? Examining attitudes towards corporate social responsibility dialogue and engagement processes. Business Ethics: A European Review 15: 154-170

    Google Scholar 

  • Christensen LT, Morsing M, Thyssen O (2013) CSR as aspirational talk. Organization 20:372-393

    Google Scholar 

  • Clapp J (1998) The Privatization of Global Environmental Governance: ISO 14000 and the Developing World. Global Governance 4: 295-316

    Google Scholar 

  • Coni-Zimmer M (2012) Zivilgesellschaftliche Kritik und Corporate Social Responsibility als Unternehmerische Legitimitätspolitik. Der Aufstieg der Legitimitätspolitik. Leviathan Sonderband 27. Nomos, Baden-Baden, pp. 319-338

    Google Scholar 

  • Dingwerth K, Eichinger M (2010) Tamed transparency: How information disclosure under the Global Reporting Initiative fails to empower. Global Environmental Politics 10: 74-96

    Google Scholar 

  • Dingwerth K (2008) Private Transnational Governance and the Developing World: A Comparative Perspective. International Studies Quaterly 52: 607-634

    Google Scholar 

  • Espach R (2009) Private Environmental Regimes in Developing Countries: Globally Sown, Locally Grown. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishman C (2006) The Wal-Mart effect and a decent society: Who knew shopping was so important? Academy of Management Perspective 20: 6-25

    Google Scholar 

  • Fransen L (2011) Why Do Private Governance Organizations Not Converge? A Political-Institutional Analysis of Transnational Labor Standards Regulation. Governance 24: 359-387

    Google Scholar 

  • Fransen L W, Kolk A (2007) Global rule-setting for business: A critical analysis of multi-stakeholder standards. Organization 14: 667-684

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman RE, Harrison J S, Wicks A C, Parmar B L, Colle S d (2010) Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman RE (1984) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Pitman, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman M (1970) The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. New York Times September 13: 122-126

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulbrandsen LH (2010) Transnational Environmental Governance: The Emergence and Effects of the Certification of Forests and Fisheries. Elgar, Cheltenham

    Google Scholar 

  • Haack P, Schoeneborn D, Wickert C (2012) Talking the talk, moral entrapment, creeping commitment? Exploring narrative dynamics in corporate responsibility standardization. Organization Studies 33: 815-845

    Google Scholar 

  • Hale TN, Mauzerall DL (2004) Thinking globally and acting locally: Can the Johannesburg partnerships coordinate action on sustainable development? Journal of Environment & Development 13: 220-239

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinrich VF (2005) Studying Civil Society across the World: Exploring the Thorny Issues of Conceptualization and Management. Journal of Civil Society 1: 211-228

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiß S (2006) Warum Übernehmen Unternehmen Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung: Ein Soziologischer Erklärungsversuch. Campus, Frankfurt/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiß S (2007) Corporate Social Responsibility – Über die Durchsetzung von Stakeholder-Interessen im Shareholder-Kapitalismus. Berliner Debatte Initial 18: 6-15

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiß S (2009) From Implicit to Explicit Corporate Social Responsibility: Institutional Change as a Fight for Myths. Business Ethics Quarterly 19: 433-451

    Google Scholar 

  • Huijstee M van, Glasbergen P (2008) The practice of stakeholder dialogue between multinationals and NGOs. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 15: 298-310

    Google Scholar 

  • Keck M, Sikkink K (1998) Activists beyond Borders: Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Khagram S, Ali SH (2008) Transnational transformations: from government-centric interstate regimes to cross-sectoral multi-level networks of global governance. In: Parc J, Conca K, Finger M (Eds) The Crisis of Global Environmental Governance, Routledge, Milton Park, pp. 132-162

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinderman D (2012) ‘Free Us up So We Can Be Responsible!’ The Co-evolution of Corpoprate Social Responsibility and Neo-Liberalism in the UK, 1977-2010. Socio-Economic Review 10: 29-57

    Google Scholar 

  • King AA, Lenox MJ (2000) Industry Self-Regulation Without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry’s Responsible Care Program. Academy of Management Journal 43: 698-716

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy DL, Brown HS, Jong M d (2010) The contested politics of corporate governance. The case of the Global Reporting Initiative. Business & Society 49: 88-115

    Google Scholar 

  • Lister J (2011) Corporate Social Responsibility and the State: International Approaches to Forest Co-regulation. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  • Malets O, Quack S (2013) Projecting the Local into the Global: Trajectories of Participation in Transnational Standard-Setting. In: Drori GS, Höllerer MA, Walgenbach P (Eds) Global Themes and Local Variations in Organization and Management: Perspectives on Glocalization, Routledge, Milton Park, pp. 325-338

    Google Scholar 

  • Malets O (2013) The Translation of Transnational Voluntary Standards into Practices: Civil Society and the Forest Stewardship Council in Russia. Journal of Civil Society 9: 300-324

    Google Scholar 

  • Manetti G (2011) The Quality of Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting: Empirical Evidence and Critical Points. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 18: 110-122

    Google Scholar 

  • Mansell SF (2013) Capitalism, Corporations and the Social Contract: A Critique of Stakeholder Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Marens R (2012) Generous in Victory? American Managerial Autonomy, Labour Relations and the Invention of Corporate Social Responsibility. Socio-Economic Review 10: 59-84

    Google Scholar 

  • Matten D, Crane A (2005) What is stakeholder democracy? Perspectives and issues. Business Ethics: A European Review 1: 6-13

    Google Scholar 

  • Matten D, Moon J (2008) “Implicit” and “Explicit” CSR: A Conceptual Framework for Comparative Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility. Academy of Management Review 33: 404-424

    Google Scholar 

  • Murguía DM, Böhling K (2013) Sustainability reporting on large-scale mining conflicts: the case of the Bajo de la Alumbrera, Argentina. Journal of Cleaner Production 41: 202-209

    Google Scholar 

  • Overdevest C (2010) Comparing Forest Certification Schemes: The Case of Ratcheting Standards in the Forest Sector. Socio-Economic Review 8: 47-76

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozinga S (2005) Footprints in the Forests: Current Practice and Future Challenges in Forest Certification. Moreton in Marsh

    Google Scholar 

  • Panwar R, Paul K, Nybakk E, Hansen E, Thompson D (2013) The legitimacy of CSR actions of publicly traded companies versus family-owned companies. Journal of Business Ethics 3: 481-496

    Google Scholar 

  • Pattberg P, Biermann F, Chan S, Mert A (Eds) (2012) Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Development. Elgar, Cheltenham

    Google Scholar 

  • Pattberg P (2010) Public Private Partnerships in Global Climate Governance. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews – Climate Change 1:179-287

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedersen ER., Andersen M (2006) Safeguarding corporate social responsibility in global supply chains: how codes of conducts are management in buyer-supplier relationships. Journal of Public Affairs 6: 228-240

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasche A, Waddock S, McIntosh M (2012) The United Nations Global Compact: Retrospect and Prospect. Business & Society 52: 6-30

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasche A (2009)’A Necessary Supplement’. What the United Nations Global Compact is and what it is not. Business & Society 48: 511-537

    Google Scholar 

  • Salamon LM (1994) The Rise of the Nonprofit Sector. Foreign Affairs 73: 109-122

    Google Scholar 

  • Soule SA (2009) Contention and Corporate Social Responsibility. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Streeck W (2009) Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Tamm Hallström K, Boström M (2010) Transnational Multi-Stakeholder Standardization: Organizing Fragile Non-State Authority. Elgar, Cheltenham

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JG, Scharlin PJ (2004) Smart Alliance: How a global corporation and environmental activities transformed a tarnished brand. Yale University Press, New Haven/Yale

    Google Scholar 

  • Tregida H, Milne M, Kearins K (2014) (Re)presenting ‘sustainable organizations’. Accounting, Organizations and Society 39: 477-494

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel D (2005) The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility. Brookings Institution Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Yakovleva N, Vazquez-Brust D (2011) Stakeholder perspectives on CSR of mining in Argentina. Journal of Business Ethics 106: 191-211

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olga Malets .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Malets, O., Bohling, K. (2018). The Perspective of Civil Society Organizations. In: Backhaus-Maul, H., Kunze, M., Nährlich, S. (eds) Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen in Deutschland. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02585-4_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02585-4_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-658-02584-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-658-02585-4

  • eBook Packages: Social Science and Law (German Language)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics