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Leadership Styles and CSR Practice: An Examination of Sensemaking, Institutional Drivers and CSR Leadership

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Abstract

This article examines the explicit and implicit corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework and its implications for leadership style, in a major banking institution. Evidence for existence of the framework’s key concepts in relation to leadership styles was explored through the self-reported sensemaking of leaders charged with CSR programme introduction. Qualitative data analysis indicated that explicit CSR is linked to an autocratic leadership style, whereas implicit CSR is more closely aligned with emergent and authentic styles. Although our results reinforced key aspects of the explicit and implicit CSR framework, they demonstrated conflicting systems of both CSR and leadership within our case organisation and highlighted the difficulty in categorising such a complex concept as CSR according to specific frameworks. Overall, our data suggest that the leadership styles, needed to successfully implement explicit and implicit CSR programmes, are in conflict. Given our finding that these CSR systems can coincide within one organisation, we suggest that the debating style of transformational leadership may be the required linchpin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Tamsin Angus-Leppan, Louise Metcalf & Sue Benn

Authors
  1. Tamsin Angus-Leppan
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  2. Louise Metcalf
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  3. Sue Benn
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Correspondence to Louise Metcalf.

Appendix

Appendix

Sample interview questions

Describe your job role

How did your job come about?

What is most rewarding about your work?

Whose leadership style do you admire?

What is your leadership philosophy?

How would the people you work with describe you?

How would you like subordinates to describe you?

As a manager, what values are important to you in the workplace?

How do you communicate your vision?

In relation to

  • the CSR issue you work with

  • Your role in the CSR issue

  • the bank

What is most difficult about your work?

How do you overcome resistance?

How do you balance competing interests?

How do you help others solve problems at work?

What type of people skills are necessary in your role?

What type of task skills are necessary in your role?

What are your priorities as a leader?

What are your strengths as a leader?

What would you like to improve about your leadership style?

What is the leadership style encouraged at the bank?

Have you noticed any changes to the encouraged leadership style with the new CEO?

What is the leadership style encouraged in CSR roles?

Do you find any leadership styles annoying or frustrating?

How do you judge success in your role for yourself, for others?

Describe a difficult workmate or subordinate

If you had to choose would you call yourself a passive or active manager?

In your view how important are performance targets in your role at the bank?

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Angus-Leppan, T., Metcalf, L. & Benn, S. Leadership Styles and CSR Practice: An Examination of Sensemaking, Institutional Drivers and CSR Leadership. J Bus Ethics 93, 189–213 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0221-y

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