Enhancing Organizations’ Social Responsibility by Workplace Health Promotion?

Abstract

The idea behind the social responsibility of organizations is that firms have responsibilities beyond maximizing profit. They are accountable not only to their owners and shareholders but also to stakeholders, such as customers. In recent years, the social responsibility of organizations has become increasingly important. Models and management systems using the term corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been developed. However, the concept of CSR is not uncontroversial. CSR is criticized as a new trend with no content. CSR programmes are often decoupled from the core business, and they are often only marketing and symbolic gestures. In this paper, we argue that an integration of CSR into other management systems such as human resource management or health promotion may have various positive effects. These effects concern both CSR and the other management systems. Using the example of workplace health promotion (WHP), positive reciprocal effects can be explained as follows. On the one hand, by conducting WHP, organizations show responsibility towards their employees, therefore enhancing CSR. CSR can be improved by considering the WHP structure and topic, such as a focus on interventions. On the other hand, the concepts of CSR can contribute to the spread of WHP. Organizations’ influences on WHP can be extended by the inclusion of other organizations in the supply chain and by networking. In this context, the quality of interactions between the organizations must be considered. The development and use of criteria are needed to guarantee positive effects on both CSR and WHP.