Experiencing to Engage: How Paradoxical Tension Surfaces in Corporate Social Initiatives
Research Seminars
Academic Areas Organisational Behaviour
Garima Sharma , Doctoral Candidate in Organizational Behavior, Case Western Reserve University
November 22, 2013
| 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | Friday
AC 8 conference room (8113), Level -1, Hyderabad, India
For ISB Community
Experiencing to Engage: How Paradoxical Tension Surfaces in Corporate Social Initiatives
Paradoxical tensions are inevitable in organizations but remain latent until made salient. Despite this, much of the research treats them as given implying that all actors entering the situation will experience the tension. Nowhere is this more evident than in the context of social projects of for-profit organizations. Businesses are created to pursue the goals of profit, but their social projects are geared toward stakeholder benefit. There is potential for the tension between social and profit goals to become salient. Extant research addresses this by not only assuming that the tension is somehow resolved in phrases such as ‘the business case for social responsibility’ but more importantly it ignores an important pre-requisite of resolving the tension- the opportunity to experience it.
Full Text
Paradoxical tensions are inevitable in organizations but remain latent until made salient. Despite this, much of the research treats them as given implying that all actors entering the situation will experience the tension. Nowhere is this more evident than in the context of social projects of for-profit organizations. Businesses are created to pursue the goals of profit, but their social projects are geared toward stakeholder benefit. There is potential for the tension between social and profit goals to become salient. Extant research addresses this by not only assuming that the tension is somehow resolved in phrases such as ‘the business case for social responsibility’ but more importantly it ignores an important pre-requisite of resolving the tension- the opportunity to experience it.
Full Text
