An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility at Credit Line

An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility at Credit Line: A Narrative Approach Michael Humphreys Andrew D. Brown ABSTRACT. This article presents the results of an inductive, interpretive case study. We have adopted a narrative approach to the analysis of organizational pro- cesses in order to explore how individuals in a financial institution dealt with relatively novel issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The narratives that we reconstruct, which we label ‘idealism and altruism�, ‘eco- nomics and expedience� and ‘ignorance and cynicism� illustrate how people in the specific organizational context of a bank (‘Credit Line�1) sought to cope with an attempt at narrative imposition. In particular, our work exemplifies how people in organizations draw on shared discursive resources in order to make sense of themselves and their organizations. We illustrate how many people within the bank found it hard to integrate the normative case for CSR with their version of a narrative identity which had, and continued to be, centred on economic imperatives for new initiatives. Our article demonstrates both the value of the analysis of shared narratives, and represents an attempt to deal adequately with the polyphony of organizational voices, in case studies of CSR. KEY WORDS: corporate social responsibility, identity, narrative, sensemaking, power, case study Introduction This article analyses three narratives regarding cor- porate social responsibility (CSR) told by members of a bank (Credit Line). In line with the linguistic ‘turn� in the social sciences, we understand ‘organi- zation� as a discursive space constituted through language practices, especially the authoring, telling and re-telling of stories (Boje, 1991; Czarniawska, 1997; Gabriel, 1999). Our research draws on a wealth of literature which suggests that narrative is an appropriate interpretive lens for understanding processes of organizing (Currie and Brown, 2003; Rhodes, 2000), especially individual and collective sensemaking (Brown and Kreps, 1993; Bruner, 1991), identity constructs (Gurney and Humphreys, 2006; Humphreys and Brown, 2002a, b; Ricoeur, 1991) and the exercise of power through language (Clegg, 1989; Westwood and Linstead, 2001). Our case not only demonstrates the value of analyses of shared narratives in efforts to illustrate ‘the diversity and complexity� of processes of organizing, but does so in ways which emphasize ‘the discursive social nature� of complex organization (Barry and Elmes, 1997, p. 40). A narrative approach, we argue, per- Michael Humphreys graduated with a B.Sc from Leeds Uni- versity and took MBA and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Nottingham. He is currently an Associate Professor and Reader in organization studies an Nottingham University Business school. His research interests include ethnographic and narrative approaches to organizational identity in both public and private sector organizations. He has published work in a range of journals including: The Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Organi- zation, British Journal of Management, The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Journal of Organi- zational Change Management and Qualitative Inquiry. Andrew D. Brown took his MA at Christ Church, Oxford, and his M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Sheffield. He held faculty positions at Manchester Business School, the University of Nottingham and the University of Cambridge, before taking up a Chair in Organization Studies at the University of Bath. His principal research interests are centred on issues of sensemaking, narrative and identity. He has published work in a range of scholarly journals, including Academy of Management Review, Journal of Man- agement Studies, and Organization Studies. Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 80:403–418 � Springer 2007 DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9426-0 mits sophisticated analyses of managers� efforts to deploy notions of ‘CSR� in organizational contexts. Corporate social responsibility One problem managers of contemporary Western organizations have is to make sense of the phrase ‘corporate social responsibility� (CSR). Windsor (2006, p. 93), for example, refers to CSR as an ‘embryonic and contestable concept�. Further, cor- porations tend to develop CSR policies using a stakeholder model (Brammer and Millington, 2003) or through an analysis of their market/non-market position (Baron, 1995), with the result that each individual company�s approach tends to be unique. Like other abstract concepts such as ‘justice� and ‘democracy�, the meanings attributed to CSR are part of wider debates about its application (Gallie, 1956). Following Connolly (1983) this may be for three sorts of reasons. First, CSR is ‘appraisive� or ‘valued�, i.e. as few firms would claim to be ‘socially irresponsible� the concept is not (just) an empirical one, but is inherently value-laden. Second, CSR is ‘internally complex� entailing, for example, the balancing of economic, legal, ethical and social responsibilities. Third, CSR has relatively ‘open rules of application� such that it is not easily codified or defined. Moreover, government, business, NGOs, consultants, shareholders, employees and consumers all tend to define CSR in different ways – whether their intention is to endorse, encourage, manage or criticize it. As a topic for research CSR has attracted the interest of scholars working from perspectives as varied as agency theory (Friedman, 1970), corporate social performance (Preston, 1978; Carroll, 1979), stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1994; Jones and Wicks, 1999), resource-based views of the firm (Russo and Fouts, 1997) and corporate ethics (Kornberger and Brown, 2007; Roberts, 2003). As Windsor (2006, p. 111) asserts: ‘It is difficult to disentangle science, interest, and ideology in CSR discourses�. While clearly a contested concept, there is an emergent consensus that CSR actions are those ‘that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law� (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001, p. 117). What is less obvious are the motivations, moral and eco- nomic, that lead organizations to engage in CSR activities, and the implications for them in terms of, for example, financial performance and perceived societal legitimacy (Sethi, 1975; Wright and Ferris, 1997). Scholarly debates on issues of CSR have generally been located within a tradition of examining inter- relationships between business and society (e.g. Carroll, 1999; Wood, 1991). Husted (2005, p. 177) cites Davis�s (1973) claim that CSR refers to ‘the firm�s consideration of, and response to, issues beyond the narrow economic, technical, and legal requirements of the firm... [to] accomplish social benefits along with the traditional economic gains which the firm seeks�. His argument is that corporate social responsibility is a form of investment (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001) which creates opportunities for expansion and growth. Pava and Kraus (1997, p. 345) also take an economic-strategic view of CSR, stating that ‘Financial performance is a key variable in understanding social responsibility� and that as ‘with all corporate decision making, managers must attempt to measure both the short and long run financial impacts�. Knox et al. (2005, p. 7) point out that ‘it is now widely recognised by business leaders that their companies need to accept a broader responsibility than short-term profits�. Yet, they also note that ‘there is little empirical evidence of the range of stakeholders addressed through their CSR programmes�. Indeed, some authors (e.g. Hemingway, 2005) have argued that the increase in overtly labelled CSR activity amongst corporations has often been part of branding and damage limita- tion strategies designed to mitigate the negative impact of such events as oil spills, toxic emissions and financial scandals. The aim, in such instances, ‘is for the corporation to be seen to be taking its social responsibilities seriously... regardless of whether this is actually occurring in practice� (Hemingway, 2005, p. 233). This article adopts a narrative approach to analyse how notions of CSR were discursively constituted in a single case study organization in ways which surface important processes of sensemaking and identity construction and highlight issues of power. First, we provide a brief overview of our focal organization, Credit Line, and give an account of our qualitative methods of data collection and interpretive mode of data analysis. Second, three 404 Michael Humphreys and Andrew D. Brown distinct but related shared narratives centred on aspects of CSR are elaborated. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings and methodological approach for our understanding of processes of organizing centred on CSR. Methodology A narrative approach A recognition that ‘discourse is the principle means by which organization members create a coherent social reality that frames their sense of who they are� (Phillips and Hardy, 1997, p. 181) has led to an in- creased interest in narrative approaches in organiza- tion studies.2 Following Rhodes and Brown (2005) we regard narratives as specific, coherent, creative re-descriptions of the world, which are authored by participants who draw on the (generally broad, multiple and heterogeneous) discursive resources locally available to them. The narrative perspective adopted here treats organizations as socially con- structed phenomena (Berger and Luckmann, 1966) sustained by means of social, political and symbolic processes (Pfeffer, 1981). For us, organizations lit- erally are the narratives that people concoct, share, embellish, dispute and re-tell in ways which main- tain and objectify ‘reality�. As the social processes from which organization emerges crucially involve the dialogical exchange of narratives, so our task as researchers is to analyse adequately the resulting polyphony (Hazen, 1993) or ‘heteroglossia� (Bakh- tin, 1981) of simultaneously and sequentially occurring vocalities (Ford and Ford, 1995). From the standpoint of this article, there are three important corollaries of this position. First, sense- making, i.e. those processes of interpretation and meaning production whereby people reflect on and interpret phenomena and produce intersubjective accounts, is accomplished largely through narrative (Leiter, 1980; Weick, 1995). That is, people are predisposed to think in narratives, and our species is appropriately referred to using labels such as ‘homo narrans� (Fisher, 1984, p. 6) and ‘homo fabulans� (Currie, 1998, p. 2). Second, individual and collec- tive identities are authored within discursive regimes and subjectively available to people in the form of narratives of the self and organization. Our primary interest is in the multiple, often changing, occa- sionally consonant, sometimes overlapping, but of- ten competing narratives that participants tell about their organization (Gurney and Humphreys, 2006; Humphreys and Brown, 2002a, b). Third, and per- haps most importantly, a narrative approach explic- itly recognizes that, in organizations, language is ‘the primary medium of social control and power� (Fairclough, 1989, p. 3), and that the analysis of linguistic practices is key to an understanding of how ‘existing social and power relations� (Fairclough, 1995, p. 77) are reproduced or transformed. Case context Headquartered in the U.S.A., Credit Line was a publicly quoted bank holding company. Founded as an independent entity in 1995, by 2005 it had become a leading player in the U.S. credit card industry, with a global customer base of 49.1 million, and managed loans totalling $81.6 billion. In 1996, Credit Line began operating in the U.K., and in 1998 opened its first major European working HQ in Middletown, a large city in England. Credit Line employed more than 18,000 people worldwide of which 2,000 were in Europe (mainly in the U.K.). In its official communications the success of the company was attributed to its sophisticated use of I.T., and in particular its proprietary Information- Based Strategy (IBS) by which it tailored products and managed customer acquisition and retention. Recognition was also accorded to Credit Line�s employees who were described as ‘the brightest and most talented� (Credit Line web site), and the organization�s culture, at the heart of which were said to be two key values: ‘excellence� and ‘doing the right thing�. Since 2003 Credit Line had received numerous awards and accolades on both sides of the Atlantic, and senior managers used these to represent the organization as high-performing, an excellent place to work, and a good corporate citizen. This research was focussed on the U.K. division of Credit Line in Middletown, which was housed in two newly refurbished, large, adjacent, open-plan buildings in the city centre. The operation was overseen by an European Executive Team (EET) which headed an eight-tier pyramid numerically dominated by ‘Tier Eight� call centre operatives. The Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility at Credit Line 405 several hundred managerial grade staff were divided into discrete functions such as ‘marketing�, ‘com- munications�, ‘HRM� and ‘I.T.�, were mostly white British males, university graduates and in their 20s and 30s. Credit Line was perceived by employees to be a prestigious place to work, and most intervie- wees spoke enthusiastically of the rigorous and competitive recruitment and selection procedures, which placed great emphasis on academic achieve- ment and analytical (especially numerical) ability. Most people said that while they worked hard they nevertheless enjoyed themselves, that it was a ‘fun� place to be employed, and that their level of iden- tification with Credit Line was both strong and positive. However, a significant minority said that the company�s espoused commitment to being a good employer, and the relatively generous remu- neration packages masked underlying problems in the psychological contract between employer and employees. These people spoke of increasingly intrusive bureaucratic controls, intense peer pressure to work long hours, a lack of opportunities for empathy and friendship at work, and an unforgiving performance appraisal system that resulted in good employees being made redundant.3 Data collection Access to Credit Line was granted by the Executive Vice President (Europe) on the recommendation of the Head of CSR. Our main sources of data were 64 formal semi-structured interviews conducted with employees between March 2004 and June 2005. All the interviews were conducted in Credit Line�s offices. The duration of the interviews varied from 50 to 80 min, with a median length of 62 min. Our questions were broad-ranging, focussing on aspects of organizational identity, identification and CSR. For example, we asked interviewees what they considered to be central, distinctive and enduring about Credit Line, the extent to which they defined themselves in terms of their employing institution, and questions relating to aspects of CSR – e.g. its centrality to Credit Line, their personal commitment to it, and their thoughts regarding the likely future of CSR at the company. The interviews were recorded on to audio tapes and fully transcribed before being subject to analysis. In addition, a substantial number of additional informal interviews and observations made in the same time period, and a range of doc- umentation including internet pages, internal policy reports, marketing brochures and newspaper reports also contributed to our ‘rich picture� (Geertz, 1973) of the organization. The main practical problems we faced arose from the extreme time pressures and tight deadlines to which managers were subject. These meant that interviews were often postponed or cancelled at short notice causing rescheduling problems both for us and Credit Line employees. Data analysis In analysing our data we have been influenced by the ‘linguistic turn� in the social sciences (e.g. Alvesson and Karreman, 2000, p. 136), which has led to a recognition that language is a form of social practice that ‘constitutes situations, objects of knowledge and the social identities of and relationships between people and groups of people� (Wodak, 2003, p. 187). Focussing on how individuals and groups deployed narrative structures to account for their, and the organization�s activities, we subjected our transcripts and other data sources to a form of thematic analysis. Our method was to derive coded categories relating to key protagonists, actions, motivations, events and plots, in an inductive process of interaction and integration of theory and empirical data (e.g. Put- nam, 1983; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The codes, and the data they labelled, were gradually collapsed and refined into three coherent identity narratives that we here refer to as idealism and altruism, economics and expedience, and ignorance and cynicism.4 Narratives of corporate social responsibility In 2001, recognizing a need to be more corporately socially aware, the European Executive Team (EET) created a new position termed ‘Head of CSR�. To this post was appointed Susan Rivers,5 a woman in mid-40s with a background in marketing. To her reported a Community Relations Manager, Carol Wright,6 who had been in post since 1999 and had a substantial budget, and a dedicated secretary. This ‘new� function was located within the Corporate Communications Department, and the Head of 406 Michael Humphreys and Andrew D. Brown CSR reported to the Director of Corporate Com- munications.7 Susan and Carol were given consid- erable latitude to determine their own objectives and means of accomplishing them and they set out a vision of the future in which ‘every associate at Credit Line considered CSR in every decision made� driven by ‘a deep... engagement in CSR principles� and ‘systems and processes that support CSR� (Internal CSR Report, April 2004). In pursuit of this vision they had worked out a 5-year action plan designed to ensure that Credit Line met all legislative requirements, had nationally recognized workplace practices, was a market-leader in one key aspect of social responsibility (yet to be defined), had con- sumer group recognition for good customer prac- tices, an above average industry reputation amongst customers and opinion formers, and was the number one nationally recognized company for community initiatives. The CSR team worked, in part through a ‘Community Committee� which consisted of people sympathetic to CSR drawn from across departments at Credit Line. [CSR will achieve] ...a good corporate reputation, associates who feel proud to work for Credit Line, reduced legislative infringements, improvements in retention/commitment and improved share price (CSR Group Presentation to European Executive Team). In this section, we construct three distinct but related narratives centred on issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) culled from our data: ‘idealism and altruism�, ‘economics and expedience� and ‘ignorance and cynicism�. Together, these narratives provide a rich account of the most significant CSR- oriented stories that were told to us by our respon- dents. They must, however, be understood within the broader context of large scale and pervasive change at Credit Line in the U.K. which had evolved from a small, highly flexible, risk-taking start-up to a large, increasingly bureaucratic and hierarchical operation in which notions of ‘having fun� and a norm of rapid promotion were fast eroding: What has evolved is a more sta