CSR Leadership Study

In research and practice, it is increasingly recognized that corporate responsibility – besides positively contributing to society – can be an important source for competitive advantage. Most large companies offer already broad sets of CSR measures. Through corporate reporting as well as CSR ratings, these (operative) measures got much more transparent recently. However, until today, it remains vague, how CSR can be successfully incorporated into the organisation and into its leadership structures, in order to convince stakeholders and to assure a sustainable transformation of the organisation.

CSR Leadership study takes an organisational leadership perspective and investigates corporate leadership instruments (e.g. Corporate Vision; Balanced Scorecard) and their contribution to a greater CSR-alignment of the organisation. Four clusters of instruments are focussed: 1) internal and external stakeholder interaction, 2) performance measurement, 3) incentives and compensation and 4) selection of leaders and leadership development. This research design is based on findings of the “Leadership Excellence” study that analysed leadership structures in 40 multinational enterprises (conducted by our institute in the year 2003).
The goal of CSR Leadership Study is to identify best-practices for the integration of CSR into corporate leadership systems and to develop a reference model for a CSR Leadership System.

The study uses qualitative research in form of narrative interviews and case studies. In the first phase companies with above-average involvement in CSR are identified via desk research. Secondly, one interview is conducted with the CSR Manager (or comparable position) of each company. In the third step, companies with the most-advanced CSR Leadership structures are contacted again for conduction of additional interviews with functional managers (e.g. HR manager) and with the top-management (responsible board member or CEO). The interviews of phase 2 and 3 will be conducted from early 2008 to early 2009. Subsequently, the results will be prepared as report and provided to all participating organisations.

[Download] Project Flyer