Where is the CSR-HRM Nexus? From Different CSR Practitioners’ Experiences

Abstract

As human and social sustainability issues have received increasing attention as grand challenges at a macro-level, corporations have addressed those issues through their corporate sustainability (CS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. In this context, we have observed the emergence of a dedicated CS and CSR function within corporations and, in turn, the emergence of a group of people who work for the organizational CS/CSR agenda—CSR practitioners. Despite a significant increase in research and practice connecting CS/CSR and human resource management (HRM)—the CSR-HRM nexus, we know little about how these emerging practitioners are recruited, developed, trained, and rewarded. Hence, our study sets out to explore CSR practitioners’ perception of the HR practices supporting their roles, which can indicate the status of CSR in organizations. By applying the HR process lens in strategic HRM research, we explore CSR practitioners’ perceptions of the HR practices towards their roles and career and how their perceptions influence behavioral and attitudinal outcomes. We adopt a qualitative research design, involving 68 in-situ interviews with CSR practitioners: in-house CSR managers and external CSR service consultants in South Korea. Through qualitative analysis, we compare how these two types of CSR practitioners perceive four core HR practices: career planning and development, recruitment, training, and compensation. We found CSR practitioners perceived an overall lack of HRM roles in this process and played as boundary spanners for the CSR-HRM nexus.