IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v58y2020i4p816-843.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Unions on CSR: Is There a Trade‐Off Between Employee‐Oriented and Non–Employee‐Oriented Policies?

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Umar Boodoo

Abstract

Strategic managers are consistently faced with decisions of how to allocate a company's scarce resources to meet the demands of shareholders and other powerful and legitimate stakeholders. This article analyses whether higher union density at company level pushes management to engage more in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Drawing from stakeholder theory and the resource allocation approach of CSR as well as union voice and monopoly models, this article finds that companies have to substitute non–employee‐oriented CSR with employee‐oriented CSR as union density increases but is still at low levels. At higher levels of union density, companies can complement both types of CSR. This perhaps represents a reinforcement of mutual interests between management and organized labour, which has implications for managerial prerogatives as well as union positioning in the labour and political process.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Umar Boodoo, 2020. "The Influence of Unions on CSR: Is There a Trade‐Off Between Employee‐Oriented and Non–Employee‐Oriented Policies?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(4), pages 816-843, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:58:y:2020:i:4:p:816-843
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.12530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12530
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/bjir.12530?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra A. Waddock & Samuel B. Graves, 1997. "The Corporate Social Performance–Financial Performance Link," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 303-319, April.
    2. Abowd, John M, 1989. "The Effect of Wage Bargains on the Stock Market Value of the Firm," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 774-800, September.
    3. David S. Lee & Alexandre Mas, 2012. "Long-Run Impacts of Unions on Firms: New Evidence from Financial Markets, 1961--1999," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 333-378.
    4. Olga Hawn & Ioannis Ioannou, 2016. "Mind the gap: The interplay between external and internal actions in the case of corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2569-2588, December.
    5. Erling Barth & Alex Bryson & Harald Dale-Olsen, 2017. "Union Density, Productivity, and Wages," DoQSS Working Papers 17-11, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    6. Vanessa Magness, 2008. "Who are the Stakeholders Now? An Empirical Examination of the Mitchell, Agle, and Wood Theory of Stakeholder Salience," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(2), pages 177-192, December.
    7. Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim, 2012. "What drives corporate social performance? The role of nation-level institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(9), pages 834-864, December.
    8. Ruback, Richard S & Zimmerman, Martin B, 1984. "Unionization and Profitability: Evidence from the Capital Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 92(6), pages 1134-1157, December.
    9. Niklas Egels-Zandén & Peter Hyllman, 2011. "Differences in Organizing Between Unions and NGOs: Conflict and Cooperation Among Swedish Unions and NGOs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(2), pages 249-261, June.
    10. Daniel Bradley & Incheol Kim & Xuan Tian, 2017. "Do Unions Affect Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2251-2271, July.
    11. John T. Addison & Claus Schnabel (ed.), 2003. "International Handbook of Trade Unions," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2705.
    12. Michael L. Barnett & Robert M. Salomon, 2012. "Does it pay to be really good? addressing the shape of the relationship between social and financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1304-1320, November.
    13. David P. Baron, 2009. "A Positive Theory of Moral Management, Social Pressure, and Corporate Social Performance," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 7-43, March.
    14. Jegoo Lee & Samuel B. Graves & Sandra Waddock, 2018. "Doing good does not preclude doing well: corporate responsibility and financial performance," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(4), pages 764-781, September.
    15. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1970. "Wage Bargains, Threshold Effects, and the Phillips Curve," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 501-517.
    16. Jordi Surroca & Josep A. Tribó & Sandra Waddock, 2010. "Corporate responsibility and financial performance: the role of intangible resources," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 463-490, May.
    17. Amy J. Hillman & Gerald D. Keim, 2001. "Shareholder value, stakeholder management, and social issues: what's the bottom line?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 125-139, February.
    18. Jeffrey S. Harrison & Douglas A. Bosse & Robert A. Phillips, 2010. "Managing for stakeholders, stakeholder utility functions, and competitive advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 58-74, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laszlo Goerke, 2022. "Trade unions and corporate social responsibility," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(1), pages 177-203, March.
    2. Lu, Jintao & Guo, Shuaishuai & Qu, Jiaojiao & Lin, Wenfang & Lev, Benjamin, 2023. "“Stay” or “Leave”: Influence of employee-oriented social responsibility on the turnover intention of new-generation employees," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    3. Nancy D. Ursel & Ligang Zhong, 2022. "Unionization and CEO turnover," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 53-70, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boodoo, Muhammad Umar, 2016. "The influence of unions on companies’ CSR profiles: more internal policies and programs, but not always at the expense of external endeavors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67558, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Kamini Gupta & Donal Crilly & Thomas Greckhamer, 2020. "Stakeholder engagement strategies, national institutions, and firm performance: A configurational perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(10), pages 1869-1900, October.
    3. Gangi, Francesco & Meles, Antonio & Monferrà, Stefano & Mustilli, Mario, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility help the survivorship of SMEs and large firms?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    4. Patrice Laroche, 2020. "Unions, Collective Bargaining and Firm Performance," Post-Print hal-03058266, HAL.
    5. Jordi A. Surroca & Ruth V. Aguilera & Kurt Desender & Josep A. Tribó, 2020. "Is managerial entrenchment always bad and corporate social responsibility always good? A cross‐national examination of their combined influence on shareholder value," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 891-920, May.
    6. Franck Brulhart & Sandrine Gherra & Bertrand V. Quelin, 2019. "Do Stakeholder Orientation and Environmental Proactivity Impact Firm Profitability?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 25-46, August.
    7. Iordanis Kalaitzoglou & Hui Pan & Jacek Niklewski, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility: How much is enough? A higher dimension perspective of the relationship between financial and social performance," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 306(1), pages 209-245, November.
    8. Milind Kumar Jha & K. Rangarajan, 2020. "Analysis of corporate sustainability performance and corporate financial performance causal linkage in the Indian context," Asian Journal of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-30, December.
    9. Jacob Brower & Peter A. Dacin, 2020. "An Institutional Theory Approach to the Evolution of the Corporate Social Performance – Corporate Financial Performance Relationship," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 805-836, June.
    10. María del Mar Miras‐Rodríguez & Amalia Carrasco‐Gallego & Bernabé Escobar‐Pérez, 2015. "Has the CSR engagement of electrical companies had an effect on their performance? A closer look at the environment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 819-835, December.
    11. James J. Cordeiro & Ambra Galeazzo & Tara Shankar Shaw & Rajaram Veliyath & M. K. Nandakumar, 2018. "Ownership influences on corporate social responsibility in the Indian context," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 1107-1136, December.
    12. Ngoc Phu Tran & Co Thi Huyen Dinh & Hien Thi Thu Hoang & Duc Hong Vo, 2022. "Intellectual Capital and Firm Performance in Vietnam: The Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-13, October.
    13. Mª de la Cruz Déniz-Déniz & Mª Katiuska Cabrera-Suárez & Josefa D. Martín-Santana, 2020. "Orientation Toward Key Non-family Stakeholders and Economic Performance in Family Firms: The Role of Family Identification with the Firm," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 329-345, May.
    14. Truong, Yann & Berrone, Pascual, 2022. "Can environmental innovation be a conventional source of higher market valuation?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 113-121.
    15. Wafa Sahraoui & Rimvie Enoc Kabore, 2021. "The relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and performance: the moderating effect of financial leverage," Working Papers hal-03503462, HAL.
    16. Elena Platonova & Mehmet Asutay & Rob Dixon & Sabri Mohammad, 2018. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure on Financial Performance: Evidence from the GCC Islamic Banking Sector," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 451-471, August.
    17. Olivier Meier & Philippe Naccache & Guillaume Schier, 2021. "Exploring the Curvature of the Relationship Between HRM–CSR and Corporate Financial Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 857-873, May.
    18. Bill Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Liuling Liu & Haizhi Wang, 2019. "Employee Treatment and Contracting with Bank Lenders: An Instrumental Approach for Stakeholder Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(4), pages 1029-1046, September.
    19. Ghaly, Mohamed & Kostakis, Alexandros & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos, 2021. "The (non-) effect of labor unionization on firm risk: Evidence from the options market," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    20. Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Beibei Shen, 2020. "Cross-border acquisitions: Do labor regulations affect acquirer returns?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(2), pages 194-217, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:58:y:2020:i:4:p:816-843. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.