Professional Associations as Communities of Practice: Exploring the Boundaries of Ethics and Compliance and Corporate Social Responsibility

2017 ◽  
Vol 122 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeli Weller
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 518-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeli Weller

Companies seeking to effectively manage the ethical dimensions of their business have created formal and informal practices, including those with the labels “ethics and compliance” and “corporate social responsibility” (CSR). However, there is little research describing how practitioners who create and implement these practices understand their meaning and relationship. Leveraging a communities of practice theoretical perspective, this qualitative study proposes that these practices can be studied as artifacts of managerial learning. Thematic analysis of interviews with senior managers suggests that practices have diverse meaning, with only informal relationships between them in most cases. Theoretically, this research offers a new lens through which to view compliance and CSR practices as socially negotiated, contextual, and dynamic. Practically, it suggests that there may be new opportunities for learning if managers create practices through an intentional exploration of shared meaning.


Author(s):  
Le Thi Thanh Xuan ◽  
Tran Tien Khoa

Social ties and their influences on firm’s performance are still issues of many debates. The reason is that previous studies gave different findings about the effects of social ties on firm’s performance. This study, therefore, focuses on finding what managers in construction firms perceive of social ties in their business and how these ties affect corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices – an aspect of firm’s performance. To address these research objectives, qualitative approach is employed and in-depth interview with managers in construction firms is conducted to collect the data. Furthermore, the study also explores how managers think of CSR changes in the near future. The research findings show that interviewees strongly believe in CSR changes including both internal and external changes. In terms of social ties, the research also identifies government authorities and professional associations; and business partners as political and business ties, respectively. The findings show that managers easily realize business ties and their effects on CSR practices. Meanwhile, only some managers with years of seniority can perceive of political ties and their effects. The research findings also suggest some noteworthy issues for the authorities of the industry to consider including lack of information among managers about firm’s aspects and relationships, and the significance of professional associations (a type of political ties) although these ties currently have no influences on CSR practices of construction businesses.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Areen Al Hadeed ◽  
Mohammed Najib El Sarayrah

This study deals with the subject of corporate social responsibility, and aims to identify the philosophy adopted by the Arab Potash Company for social responsibility. In addition, the study aims at identifyingthe areas covered by social responsibility programs and the level of spending on them. The study adapted a case study and qualitative analysis as a methodology, and document analysis and in-depth interviews as data collection tools. The results of the study show that the philosophy of the Arab Potash Company for social responsibility is based on the idea of reaching the desired social balance and sustainable development. The social responsibility programs of the Arab Potash Company divided into nine areas: official support, education, social development, health, water and the environment, sport, places of worship, culture, professional associations. The areas of official support, education, social development, health and water received the largest share ofthe company›s social responsibility projects. Ninety percent (90%) of the total expenditure was spent on these areas over the last four years, Sports, places of worship, culture and professional unions received (10%) of total expenditure on social responsibility programs.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soyoung Joo ◽  
Elizabeth G. Miller ◽  
Janet S. Fink

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