BETWEEN SOCIAL VALUE AND BUSINESS STRATEGY – THREE MODELS OF SOCIO-CULTURAL SPACES IN ORGANIZATIONS THAT PRACTICE CSR

Abstract

The article explores participation process of employees in cultures of three Danish organizations that practice Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In such organizations, participation in culture relates to new practices that links with CSR in organizations. However, participation in the culture is an active process that relates not only to understanding but also to interpreting of cultural symbols (values) or meanings (knowledge). In the paper, I would like to describe, understand and explain processes of participation in culture of organizations that practices CSR because the participation in the cultures of organizations constitutes the context for learning processes, situated in the organizations that practice CSR. I start by framing four scripts briefly that are administration, policy, economy and ethics in order to understand global context for participation and learning in socio-cultural spaces. I demonstrate three models of socio-cultural spaces and study how the global scripts were practiced in the organizations that implement or introduce CSR as well as I describe how they influence local processes of participation of social actors in the organizations that practice CSR. As a result, I build three empirical models of socio-cultural spaces in the culture of the organizations that practice CSR, which social actors create during participation in strategic dimensions of culture of organizations that practice CSR when they standardize, privatize or even marketize symbolic dimensions of cultures of organizations, including social values in the context of CSR global idea. However, I describe an ambivalent dynamic of the participation processes in the cultures of organizations. I have observed that processes of participation stretched out between participation of employees and their managers in groups, situated in culture of organizations and their participation in new tasks at work, which was development of new CSR strategy in organizations. Therefore, I conclude that participation as well as integration processes in the human groups of employees, or in a professional community was fragmented, or disturbed because participants finally practice CSR strategy that influence their relationships in groups locally.