Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Leadership in South Africa: What motivates high-level business leaders in South Africa to rive CSR within their companites and beyond

Anette Thum

    Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

    2972 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    The PhD thesis “Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and leadership in South Africa” focused on the question of what motivates high-level business leaders to drive CSR in their organizations and beyond. Next to other elements the support of top executive leaders is known to be highly important for a successful implementation of CSR. The motivational drivers behind this support is therefore interesting to explore.
    The research is based on Social Construction and carried out with a qualitative research approach. It focuses on German speaking corporations based in South Africa. In the first research phase, the interviews with 13 CSR managers and other related experts were based on Appreciative Inquiry aiming to explore the CSR landscape in South Africa and to identify the most impactful research question.
    The second research phase used Grounded Theory to analyse the core interviews with eight selected senior level executives focusing on the motivational drivers for CSR. The analysis identified eight different motives – only one being extrinsic, the other seven being intrinsic motives. The overarching motive from all interviews was “to be connected to CSR,” either through external rules and numbers, or by the identified seven internal motives.
    The recommendation from this thesis is to identify ways to trigger the different motivational drivers to foster a successful CSR implementation; selected suggestions on how to do this can be found in this thesis as well.
    Original languageEnglish
    QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
    Supervisors/Advisors
    • van Dijk, Gerda, Promotor
    • Rijsman, John, Promotor
    • van Eijbergen, R., Member PhD commission, External person
    • Wempe, J., Member PhD commission, External person
    • Marques, J., Member PhD commission, External person
    • Schwella, E., Member PhD commission, External person
    Award date19 Apr 2017
    Place of PublicationS.l.
    Publisher
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

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