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Working with Corporate Social Responsibility in Brazilian Companies: The Role of Managers’ Values in the Maintenance of CSR Cultures

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Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the duty of management to consider and respond to issues beyond the organization’s economic and legal requirements in line with social and environmental values. However, ‘management’ is constituted by real people responsible for routine decisions and formulation and implementation of policies. It can be said therefore that the ethical ideals and beliefs of these individuals – in particular their personal values – play an important role in their decisions. It is contended in this article that the personal values of managers may contribute to the creation and maintenance of ‘CSR cultures’ in their organizations; that is, organizational cultures focused on ensuring environmental and social sustainability. Based on an exploratory study carried out in Brazil in 2008, this article explores the perceptions of five CSR managers in relation to the influence of their personal values on their work. The first part discusses the notion of CSR within the context of Brazilian society, the second provides a brief literature review on the link between values and organizational cultures and the third explores the perceptions of the participating managers, identifying the main thematic patterns that emerged in the study.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the participants in my study who so generously gave their time for the interviews. I am also thankful to Dr Claudio Boechat from Fundação Dom Cabral, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, whose assistance was invaluable to make this study possible.

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  1. School of Management, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW, 1797, Australia

    Fernanda Duarte

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  1. Fernanda Duarte
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Correspondence to Fernanda Duarte.

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Duarte, F. Working with Corporate Social Responsibility in Brazilian Companies: The Role of Managers’ Values in the Maintenance of CSR Cultures. J Bus Ethics 96, 355–368 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0470-9

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