Unraveling the Competence Development of Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders: The Importance of Peer Learning, Learning Goal Orientation, and Learning Climate

Abstract

The implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives within companies is often managed by a CSR leader or a small team of CSR leaders. The effectiveness of these CSR leaders depends to a large extent on their competencies. Previous studies have identified the competencies these professionals need, yet it remains unclear how these competencies can be developed. Therefore, the aim of this survey study was to reveal how CSR leaders develop their competencies and to explore which learning activities CSR leaders (N = 176) engage in. The results showed that informal learning activities that center on learning with and from peers outside the company are particularly emphasized. In addition, this study examines whether and how dimensions of companies' learning climates (i.e., facilitating, awarding, and erroravoiding learning climates) and CSR leaders' learning goal orientation (LGO) affect the competence of CSR leaders. We found significant interaction effects between the learning climate dimensions. Furthermore, we found an even stronger and positive connection between LGO and CSR competence, highlighting the importance of attracting CSR leaders with a strong LGO for driving the CSR implementation process. Moreover, a supportive learning climate further stimulates CSR leaders' engagement in continuous learning, which is necessary for coping with the complexities associated with implementing CSR.

Values-Based Orientations as a Formation Factor of the Social Responsibility of the Professional Community

“…Thus, at the level of statistical observations we get confirmation of the understanding of the significance of professional social responsibility with localization within specific enterprises and a high status value "own safety and the safety of others" and "well-being of loved ones" in the system of value orientations of professional communities of the region [11,17,29].…”

Shaping Virtues Leadership to Enhance Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. Insights from a Case Study

“…Such a leadership model enhances employees' enthusiasm and creativity, propagates inside and outside the company and generates an attitude to take care of the social, ethical and environmental aspects involved in the 'internal and external' life of the enterprise, such as the welfare of employees, a good working environment, the work-life balance, relationships with the territory (ISVI, 2017). The leadership is centred on moral and action competencies which manifests in particular in terms of attention to people and their human and professional growth, as well as enhancing trust, justice, inducing to find out confidence, courage and strength to overcome the difficulties, positively face challenges, promote change and manages successes (Kaptein, Accordingly, we can argue that corporate sustainable behavior originates from the good character of corporate decision-makers who are searching for the good life, both in their actual living inside and outside the company (Blok et al, 2015), thus leading the authentic CSR and the orientation towards sustainability (Osagie et al, 2017). Moreover, the virtue ethics perspective allows us to acknowledge a moral emancipation and engagement in corporate sustainable behaviour at the individual and organizational level.…”

Social Preferences, Goal Orientation and Team Performance

“…Consequently, task-related feedback is embraced because it is perceived as a resource to help with improvement of the tasks (Tuckey et al, 2002). Generally, a learning orientation is associated with desirable behaviors in organizations, such as corporate social responsibility leadership (Osagie et al 2018) and a growth mindset among entrepreneurs (Alsua and Peterson, 2019). On the other hand, a performance orientation supports an entity view of ability where ability is a fixed, uncontrollable personal trait (Dweck, 1986).…”

“…Although the literature establishes a relationship between SVO (Nauta et al, 2002) and performance and between GO and performance (Roberson and Alsua, 2002), research has not examined if these two constructs relate to each other, nor what role the relationship between learning orientation and a prosocial orientation plays on team performance (Osagie,Wesselink, Runhaar, Mulder, 2018;Dayan, 2010;Gil et al, 2005;van Dick et al, 2009).…”