Corporate social responsibility managers as internal activists for ethics and sustainability

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a management concept for the systematic integration of social, environmental and ethical aspects into core business operations in collaboration with stakeholders, has become central to the corporate world. Nowadays, few companies can afford not to position themselves with regard to CSR and communicate their activities to stakeholders. Whilst formal structures such as codes of conduct, policy documents and certification schemes are central for the successful implementation of CSR, their formal endorsement by company leaders alone often has little to no effect.
In the worst case scenario, public commitments to CSR without proper implementation easily lead to accusations of greenwashing or the symbolic construction of a CSR façade without any substance. CSR managers play a critical role in avoiding such problems, because they are responsible for implementing CSR practices internally and spreading a CSR mindset within companies. Our research shows that CSR managers have developed a set of creative and informal tactics that promise to facilitate a more effective implementation of CSR.