How do personal values about Corporate Social Responsibility affect Human Resource Management Practice?

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 72 (with distinction), Queen Mary University of London, course: International Human Resource Management, language: English, abstract: AbstractLittle research has been conducted into corporate social responsibility and its implications forhuman resource management, in particular with regard to application and recruiting process. Thestudy recognizes the importance of CSR in current management practice and strategy and examinesthe way in which personal values regarding CSR affect application and recruitment practices inGermany. To this end the study explores how individuals understand and define CSR and askswhich factors influence this. Moreover, the findings show what role individual understandings ofCSR play in the application and recruiting process. The research seeks to understand the externalenvironment that decisions are taken within and thus highlights the impact of socio-economiccontext on personal values regarding CSR in general and in specific regarding the first point ofcontact between job applicant and targeted company. The theoretical lens applied makes use ofCarroll s (1991) pyramid of CSR and Festinger s (1962) theory of cognitive dissonance. The studyis qualitative and includes an analysis of 16 semi-structured interviews with business students andHR-managers working in companies in Germany. The results are used to present a complex andmultifaceted model that reflects the variety of factors that should be taken into consideration duringthe application and recruiting process.