‘Consuming Responsibility: The Search for Value at Laskarina Holidays’

Journal of Business Ethics · 2006 · Volume 64 · Issue 1

Abstract

This paper provides an alternative theoretical conceptualisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to further our understanding of prosocial organisational behaviour. We argue thatconsumptionprovides a perspective that enables theorists to escape the confines of existing CSR literature. In our view the organisation is re-imagined as an arena of consumption where employees are engaged in a quest for value, constructing and confirming their identities as consumers. Using the award-winning tour operatorLaskarina Holidaysas an illustrative case, it is suggested that CSR can provide combinations of functional, social, emotional, epistemic and conditional value. This new perspective on CSR facilitates the coexistence of a plurality of values that are relativistically constructed and narrativised by organisational stakeholders. Our consumption paradigm provides a thought provoking means of reconciling divergent perspectives and encourages further interdisciplinary research. We argue that future research should begin, not by asking the question of why organisations assume responsibility, but by contemplating the notion of why organisationsconsumeresponsibility.

Keywords

corporate social responsibility, consumption, theoretical reconciliation, multiple and coexistent values, qualitative research, interpretive case study

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