Beyond (But Including) the CEO: Diffusing Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the Organization through Social Networks

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/basr.12036
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Author: Kathryn J. L. Jacobson,Jacqueline N. Hood,Harry J. Van Buren
• Published date: 01 September 2014

Beyond (But Including) the

CEO: Diffusing Corporate

Social Responsibility

throughout the Organization

through Social Networks

KATHRYN J. L. JACOBSON, JACQUELINE N. HOOD, AND

HARRY J. VAN BUREN III

ABSTRACT

Chief Executive Officers and other organizational leaders

can affect how corporate social responsibility initiatives

are perceived in their organizations. However, in order to

be successful with regard to promoting CSR, leaders

need to have strong network competencies and to move

beyond charismatic leadership. In this paper we offer a

critique of charismatic leadership as it relates to CSR,

posit that the intellectual stimulation brought about by

transformational leadership is more important in this

regard, propose that internal and networking is a lead-

ership competence highly relevant to CSR, and empha-

size the importance of working through highly credible

opinion leaders in promoting CSR.

Kathryn J. L. Jacobson is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Anderson

School of Management, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. E-mail: kjacobson

@unm.edu. Jacqueline N. Hood is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Anderson School

of Management, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. E-mail: jnhood@unm.edu. Harry

J. Van Buren III is a Professor of Business and Society at Anderson School of Management,

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. E-mail: hjvb3@unm.edu.

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Business and Society Review 119:3 337–358

© 2014 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.,

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.

Corporations face a variety of demands from their stake-

holders, among which are demands for socially respon-

sible behavior (Freeman et al. 2007). Corporate social

responsibility (CSR) is important in organizations for a number of

reasons: It enhances relationships with various stakeholder

groups (De Roeck and Delobbe 2012; Perez-Batres et al. 2012) in

large part because of its effects on perceived legitimacy (Johansen

and Nielsen 2012). CSR responds to the societal expectations

increasingly being placed on firms (Scherer and Palazzo 2011)

and is theorized to enhance the long-term competitiveness

and profitability of corporations (Carroll and Shabana 2010).

Organizational leaders in particular are expected to play a leading

role in inculcating ethical behavior at all levels of their organiza-

tions and clearly do play a significant role in this regard (Groves

and LaRocca 2012). However, no CEO can promote CSR by him or

herself. For organizations to be truly socially responsible, CEOs

must work through other people.

CEOs, through their communications (Marais 2012), have

effects on the CSR climates of their organizations. Personal attri-

butes, such as educational experiences, affect their actions in this

domain (Huang 2013). Waldman et al. (2006) argue that models of

leadership overemphasizing the personal charisma of CEOs, a

characteristic housed within transformational leadership theory,

fail to account sufficiently for the CEO’s role with regard to

intellectual stimulation within the organization. As such, there

are real limits to the charismatic power of CEOs, especially with

regard to promoting greater CSR. For CSR to take hold in an

organization, leaders must motivate members of the organization

to engage in CSR initiatives that promote the organization’s inter-

ests. On this point, Waldman et al. (2006, p. 1710) note that

“followers may be more motivated and energized to implement

strategies that have strong CSR elements, and it may be impera-

tive for leaders to intellectually stimulate followers by showing

how corporate social performance goals can be melded with CSR.”

Further, to be effective at this sort of intellectual stimulation, the

CEO must also be aware of what stakeholders of the corporation

expect with regard to CSR (Freeman et al. 2007).

How can CEOs convince other members of the organization

that CSR is in its best interests? We propose that a CEO’s

network competence with regard to internal and external con-

338 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW