ESADE Business School, Barcelona

Micro-macro tensions in CSR: How employees make sense of incongruent personal and organizational CSR preferences

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ABSTRACT

CSR implementation in organizations relies on the buy-in of its employees. While it is commonly argued that employee engagement with organizational CSR is dependent on congruence between the employees and their organization, much less is known on situations of incongruence where employees disagree with their perception of the CSR agenda of the organization. In this study, we strive to uncover the tensions arising due to such employee-organization incongruence on CSR and examine how employees interpret these tensions. To this end, we utilize 72 interviews with junior and middle managers from a FMCG to conduct an inductive case study. We adopt organizational tensions as an analytical lens to investigate the tensions that accrue across micro and macro levels of analysis between the employee and the organization due to incongruent CSR preferences. We use sensemaking to explore and explain how these tensions are interpreted by employees. We find that the incongruences between employees’ own CSR preferences and their perceptions of organizational CSR leads to an experience of person-organization (P-O) tensions in CSR. These tensions are around implementation, ambitions, and priorities, and trigger sensemaking due to the cognitive dissonance. By doing so, we offer a domain-specific categorization of P-O tensions in CSR that highlights the moral dimension of such tensions. We contend that each type of person-organization tension will activate a different interpretation from the employee. By opening the black box of incongruence on employee-organization CSR, this study holds promise for more effective CSR implementation.

BIOGRAPHY

Originally trained as a dentist in Pakistan, Shahzeb made a career change, and is currently a 3^rd year PhD in Management candidate in the Department of Society, Politics, and Sustainability at Esade Business School, Barcelona.

Previously, he completed a Master of Research in Management from University of York in the United Kingdom, holds dual masters (MBA and Master of Project Management) from University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business from UUNZ Institute, New Zealand. Before pursuing an academic career, he has worked in different management roles in New Zealand, and Pakistan, in addition to working as a dentist.

Shahzeb’s research interests lie at the intersection of corporate social responsibility, specifically micro-CSR, and the paradox theory, and his doctoral thesis explores employee engagement with CSR in line with their individual preferences, cognition, motivation, and emotion. Shahzeb is being mentored by Professor Tobias Hahn.