Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In this article I critically analyze contemporary discourses of corporate social responsibility and related discourses of sustainability and corporate citizenship. I argue that despite their emancipatory rhetoric, discourses of corporate citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability are defi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical sociology Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 51 - 79
Main Author: Banerjee, Subhabrata Bobby
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2008
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Business
Citizenship
Colonialism
Companies
Corporate responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
Corporations
Critical theory
Criticism
Discourses
Interest groups
Management
Organization theory
Organizational power
Organizational research
Power
Rhetoric
Social Responsibility
Stakeholder
Stakeholders
Sustainability
Sustainable Development
corporate social responsibility
stakeholders
critical management studies
sustainability
corporate citizenship
ISSN:0896-9205, 1569-1632
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this article I critically analyze contemporary discourses of corporate social responsibility and related discourses of sustainability and corporate citizenship. I argue that despite their emancipatory rhetoric, discourses of corporate citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability are defined by narrow business interests and serve to curtail interests of external stakeholders. I provide an alternate perspective, one that views discourses of corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability as ideological movements that are intended to legitimize and consolidate the power of large corporations. I also problematize the popular notion of organizational `stakeholders'. I argue that stakeholder theory of the firm represents a form of stakeholder colonialism that serves to regulate the behavior of stakeholders. I conclude by discussing implications for critical management studies.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0896-9205
1569-1632
DOI:10.1177/0896920507084623