What comes around: the early 20th century American roots of legitimating corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Understanding why explicit, managerial-centred corporate social responsibility (CSR) which first developed in the United States, has recently spread globally requires an examination of the circumstances under which it first emerged. CSR arose out of the success of large American corporations of the early 20th century in preventing unionization or significant regulation of their workplaces, a success that required firms to assume responsibility for employee welfare, not only to promote efficiency and prevent a resurgence of labour activism, but also to reassure traditionalists concerned with new white collar employment relations. Corporate executives discovered that positive publicity with regard to personnel policies helped them manage other controversies, so after World War I, some began to extend claims of being responsible employers to argue for a more comprehensive set of social responsibilities. The onset of the Depression and its aftermath reduced the significance of managerial voluntarism for almost a half century, but the rise of neo-liberalism has revived managerial CSR, although once again it may not survive a global crisis.