Drama and Discounting in the Relational Dynamics of Corporate Social Responsibility

Georgiana Grigore (), Mike Molesworth (), Andreea Vonțea (), Abdullah Hasan Basnawi (), Ogeday Celep () and Sylvian Patrick Jesudoss ()
Additional contact information
Georgiana Grigore: University of Leicester
Mike Molesworth: University of Reading
Andreea Vonțea: Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Abdullah Hasan Basnawi: University of Reading
Ogeday Celep: University of Reading
Sylvian Patrick Jesudoss: University of Reading

Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, vol. 174, issue 1, No 4, 65-88

Abstract: Abstract Employing theoretical resources from Transactional Analysis (TA) and drawing from interviews with managers dealing with social or environmental issues in their role, we explain how CSR activity provides a context for dramas in which actors may ignore, or discount aspects of self, others, and the contexts of their work as they maintain and reproduce the roles of Rescuers, Persecutors and Victims. In doing so, we add to knowledge about CSR by providing an explanation for how the contradictions of CSR are avoided in practice even when actors may be aware of them. Specifically, we theorise how CSR work can produce dramatic stories where adversity is apparently overcome, whilst little is actually achieved at the social level. We also add to the range of psychoanalytic tools used to account for organisational behaviours, emphasising how TA can explain the relational dynamics of CSR.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Psychoanalysis; Transactional analysis; Drama Triangle; Discounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-020-04591-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:174:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04591-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04591-5

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().