Trade union participation in CSR deliberation: an evaluation

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12167
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Author: Andy Hodder,Stephen Brammer,Geraint Harvey
• Date: 01 January 2017

Trade union participation in CSR

deliberation: an evaluation

Geraint Harvey, Andy Hodder and Stephen Brammer

ABSTRACT

Whereas there has been considerable interest in the concept of political corporate

social responsibility (CSR), trade unions have been largely omitted from such

scholarly discussion. This article explores the potential of trade unions as the other

in political CSR and the contribution of trade unions to deliberative democracy with

the firm. We discuss the importance both of the legitimacy and the efficacy of the

other in political CSR. We proceed to assess trade unions as legitimate and effective

deliberative partners with the firm towards CSR, evaluating the contribution of trade

unions to deliberative democracy and also the potential outcomes for trade unions in

adopting this role.

1 INTRODUCTION

Holding contemporary corporations to account for their social and environmental

impacts presents increasingly complex problems, as recent examples of corporate

irresponsibility demonstrate (e.g. the Volkswagen emissions scandal, Deep Water

Horizon, Rana Plaza Collapse) (see Treanor, 2015; Barron, 2012; Reinecke and

Donaghey, 2015). The geographic scope, technological uncertainty and multiple

layers of governance associated with many social and environmental issues make

attributing and enforcing accountability extremely challenging (Ramasastry, 2015).

Such challenges present particular problems for government regulatory agencies

whose role in defining and enforcing appropriate business conduct has been fun-

damentally undermined by the growth of global economic transactions that are

often conducted beyond the legislative ambit of the nation state, so that the

nation state ceases to be the ‘legal and moral point of reference’(Scherer and

Palazzo, 2011: 905). Difficulties in regulating responsible conduct are especially

profound in relation to multi-national companies (MNCs), which have been

subject to particular scrutiny in relation to their global social responsibilities

(Baumann-Pauly et al., 2013). In response, there has been an increase in the range

of business and civil-society led approaches towards improving social respon-

sibility including self-regulatory, partnership and collaborative approaches

(Campbell, 2007). The growth of these phenomena raises significant questions

regarding the composition, organisation and effectiveness of alternatives to formal

❒Geraint Harvey, Andy Hodder and Stephen Brammer, Birmingham Business School, University

of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. Correspondence should be addressed to Geraint Harvey,

University of Birmingham, Business School, University House, Edgbaston, Birmingham B152TT, UK;

email: g.harvey@bham.ac.uk

Industrial Relations Journal 48:1, 42–55

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2017 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd