CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ORIENTATION AND TURKISH TOP MANAGEMENT TEAMS
Semra Aþcýgil (Middle East Technical University)
Social obligations of organizations have become an important issue which has
been increasingly discussed mainly after the privatization movement in most
of the economies. With the weakening of the state, corporations have been trapped
between their economic forces and forces for socially responsible behavior.
This necessitated questioning the ideas of Friedman who claimed that the only
responsibility of business is making profits. In their view of "social responsibility"
businessmen have to review the social contract between organizations and the
society to fulfill increasing expectations of societies from corporations. The
emerging paradigm enforced the idea that pure economic criteria should not dictate
managerial decisions whereas a balance between economic and social realities
should be sought for. Research on strategic decision making have highlighted
the relevance of social issues leading to research on the changing priorities
among economic, legal, social and philanthropic concerns.
The claim that corporations and corporate executives must act responsibly implies
going beyond traditional economic function of business organizations towards
legal, ethical and discretionary responsibilities. The four dimensions are taken
as various criteria in managerial decision-making within the context of the
corporate life. The role of business in "accumulation of capital" and "creation
of surplus" all emphasized economic role of business. It is claimed that if
this role is not met, no other responsibility can be met. However, given the
close supervision of government on business, it is inevitable that business
can adopt a policy that by passes legal requirements. On the other hand, with
the interplay between business and other stakeholders i.e. employees, suppliers,
customers, and community, a moral imperative arises. At this point, in order
to resolve conflict of interests, human rights are defended, obligations beyond
legal requirements are questioned. Finally, discretionary responsibility of
business is corporate philanthrophy involving using corporate funds to create
a healthy society and environment.
The survey aims to study social responsibility from various perspectives and
is conducted among top level managers of 300 private firms in Turkey. Social
responsibility is considered as a process initiated by a social responsibility
motive that has implications on decision-making styles of managers. Additionally,
the implications of social responsibility for reporting has been traced through
type of information provided in corporate annual reports. The response to 1100
questionnaires sent has been 192 resulting with 17.5 % response rate. Out of
300 companies in the sample, managers from 40.7 % replied the questionnaire.
The views of executives, assistant general managers and middle management have
been analyzed for comparisons. In addition to motives toward social responsibility,
decision-making priorities are asked. The responses reveal that despite of a
motive towards social responsibility, economic concerns dominates decision making
of the sample. A difference among priorities has not been found among top management
hierarchy in the organizations. Similarly, capital ownership structure is found
to lead to no difference between orientations.
