15 - Corporate social responsibility in Europe: what role for organised labour?

Summary

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility has increasingly become embraced by industry in Europe. Being largely a concept embedded in Anglo-American capitalism, however, with its emphasis on voluntary action rather than regulation, the transfer of CSR to the European setting has resulted in some tensions. A range of activities that may fall under CSR in the United States, such as the corporate provision of health care or education, have in Europe been undertaken largely on a tax-financed basis (Matten and Moon, 2008). Additionally, the corporate discretion of CSR is at odds with the more regulated frameworks in many European nations, which grant employees and trade unions a well-defined scope to influence corporate decision-making (Dobbin and Boychuk, 1999; Marsden, 1999; Bamber, Lansbury and Wailes, 2004). The impact of CSR on organised labour in Europe is therefore one of the most interesting examples of the impact an ascendant archetype from a dominant society can have on elements of the national business systems of other countries.

Interestingly, this topic is not widely discussed currently, and there seems to be a reluctance in both the industrial relations community to engage actively with CSR (Royle, 2005) and the CSR/business ethics literature to examine the role of trade unions (Preuss, Haunschild and Matten, 2006). Furthermore, there is considerable suspicion among trade unions of CSR, and it is only recently that major players have started engaging with the topic (e.g. Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, 2005).