CSR managers as hybrid professionals: managing at the intersection of coexisting logics

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is evolving, with new sustainability issues and related tasks emerging as priorities for large hotel groups. Within this institutionally complex environment, the role of CSR manager (a relatively new professional role) is becoming ever more diverse and contextualised. We unveil how CSR managers advance their work amidst logic plurality in the early stages of institutionalising CSR. Through interviews (with eight senior managers responsible for sustainability and eight sustainability experts) and pattern-inducing interpretive analysis of the resulting data, we gain a practical understanding of CSR under four institutional logics: corporate, market, professional and sustainability. Three micro-level strategies - anchoring, switching and interlinking - allow individuals to advance organisational CSR work where multiple logics are pertinent for legitimate actions. Adherence to a single frame of reference (e.g. one logic) guides most organisational practices, with managers rarely switching between logics to adapt to situations and audiences, or linking practices enacted from different logics. This results in low problematisation of the work of CSR managers, and avoidance of tensions. Implications are discussed for organisations engaging in CSR, including the organisational advantages and risks that emerge as CSR managers evolve to become hybrid professionals.