Bridging the Divide Between HR and CSR Functions
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Bridging the Divide Between HR and CSR Functions

A LITERATURE REVIEW DEVELOPED A FRAMEWORK FOR LOOKING AT THE ROLE THAT THE HUMAN RESOURCE FUNCTION COULD PLAY IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Research on human and social sustainability has flourished in the past decade, but the role that Human Resource Management (HRM) department plays (or could play) in facilitating more socially responsible and sustainable organizations has not been examined closely. In fact, there is a big divide between the two areas, according to “The HR Role in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: A Boundary-Shifting Literature Review” by Federica De Stefano (Assistant Professor at HEC Paris), Silvia Bagdadli (Associate Professor Dept. of Management and Technology and Arnaldo Camuffo (Full Professor, Dept. of Management and Technology).
 
The literature review, published in Human Resource Management, developed a framework for looking at the role HR function could play in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. De Stefano, Bagdadli and Camuffo identified 4,000 articles and then restricted the sample to 1,000, which were categorized according to a typology to classify the articles into four quadrants.
 
Most of the literature reviewed looked at what HR could do in terms of systems (HR for CSR quadrant) to move the organization towards sustainability in areas like training or in other HRM systems like compensation. Much of the literature was focused on sustainable human resources management (Sustainable HRM quadrant) and overlapped with the topic of work-life balance. There was a relative scarcity of articles on the external role of HR for the development of sustainable local and global community (HR for community sustainability quadrant) compared to other areas. And few articles made the connection between HR and the development of sustainable enterprise ecosystems (HR for ecosystem sustainability).
 
“We found less on the role of HR for the community, probably because the CSR function is the dominant one for initiatives to sustain the external community,” said Professor Bagdadli in an interview. “So HR has to find a role to empower this function.”
 
Bagdadli said the research led them to several conclusions. “One was that HR should claim a more active role in the area of sustainability, especially in terms of a stakeholder approach,” she said. “We said HR should abandon a conservative internal focus and engage more with external stakeholders to increase the credibility of HR as a sustainability partner.”
 
A closer teamwork between the HR and CSR functions could also be an opportunity to help HR transition to the multistakeholder perspective, looking not only at internal staff and shareholders, but also at the community perspective, she said.
 
De Stefano, F, Bagdadli, S, Camuffo, A. “The HR Role in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: A Boundary-Shifting Literature Review.”  Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:549–566. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21870
 

by Jennifer Clark
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