Responsabilidade corporativa: institucionalização e ideologia

Abstract

In recent decades Corporate Responsibility has spread in the business world, and appears as a subject of growing interest in media, academia, government and civil society, in Brazil and worldwide. However, the concept of corporate responsibility has undergone complex changes in meaning over the years. Thus, we argue that the development of the concept of corporate responsibility should be analyzed in itself. In this context, sociology, particularly sociology of organizations, can be very useful in broadening the understanding of this phenomenon. This study aims at refining the discussion on corporate responsibility by addressing the characteristics and changes in meaning of this concept, especially its institutionalization process, as an ideology of management. The theoretical framework used to interpret corporate responsibility was the institutionalist approach of the sociology of organizations. The central thesis of this approach is that institutional environments build and compel organizations, its structure, actions and behavior. Besides the theoretical basis of sociology, the work was composed of two other sections. First, we explored the elements that constitute the ideology of corporate responsibility at different stages of institutionalization, thereby addressing the changes of meaning the phenomenon went through. The aim was to analyze the different logics guiding the phenomenon in its various manifestations over time and along the process of institutionalization. Finally, in light of the sociological literature and of the issues raised in the analysis of the change and institutionalization process, we analyzed corporate responsibility reports of Brazilian companies considered leaders in the field of corporate responsibility. In these reports, we selected the most explicit presentations of the ideology of corporate responsibility in each company, and then jointly assessed the institutionalization and what the concept means for this group of companies today. By considering together these clarifications, we got a picture of the current institutionalization of the ideology of corporate responsibility in leading companies on the issue in Brazil.