Collard, Charline (2020) When searching for meaningfulness helps "save the world": Understanding the micro-dynamics of corporate social responsibility. École Doctorale Sciences de Gestion TSM (Toulouse).

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Abstract

My research aims at better understanding the work experience of corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers and grassroots community entrepreneurs in their efforts to transform organizations for the better good. I carried two empirical studies by interviewing 27 CSR managers, and by doing four years of ethnographic work among members of a grassroots community. This allowed me to gather a great amount of data that helped interpret the meaning that these actors give to their work. Based on grounded theory and participant observation, I went back and forth between the field and an extensive review of the literature, which contributed to critically review some established concepts. This research finds how the search for a responsible and meaningful work helps create new organizational behaviors that are enacted by specific micro-CSR dynamics, contributing to the growing literature in micro-CSR. Within this context, this research contributes to the literature on the meaning of work by deepening our understanding on calling and related ideology infused psychological contract, on emotional complexity, and on the dynamics of meaningfulness over time. In addition, it also informs CSR practitioners on the importance of community support when they perceive — through their sense of calling or emotional meaningfulness, that their organizations are not aligned with their higher purpose, putting them at risk of burnout and leaving their organizations. However, it seems that even when the organization is aligned, and when meaningfulness is fulfilled, these actors still run the risk to exhaust themselves. Yet, self-acceleration seems to help contribute to positive impacts on society despite the strong need for self-expression, which creates conflicts between self-sacrifice and self-care. Further research is needed to better understand the so-called meaningfulness addiction that those actors might fall into, especially when psychosocial risk management has now become a CSR responsibility.

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