The pyramid of CSR - Carrol, 1991

Carroll, A. B. 1991. "The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility: Toward the Moral Management of Organizational Stakeholders." Business Horizons 34:39-48.

Key issue: a CSR model for managers that includes economic, legal, ethical and philantropic responsibilities. Stakeholder management theory is suggested as a way to reconcile economic and social claims. The stakeholder orientation is discussed through a classification of moral types of managers, highlighting the role played by the leadership in the ethical climate of corporations.

In the first part, the search of a definiton is CSR is reviewed: from early definitions to the social responsiveness movement, to Carrol’s (1979) four-part conceptualization, to the Corporate Social Performance.The CSR pyramid model is then presented:

The model entails the simultaneous fulfillment of the four CSR components.

Then, this CSR conceptualization is integrated with the stakeholder management theory. This is based on the identification, prioritization and management of those groups that have a claim on the business. The criteria suggested to rank stakeholders are legitimacy (justifiable right to make a claim) and power (ability to influence). Stakeholder/responsibility analysis is suggested as a way to map a company’s CSR strategy.

Finally, the three major ethical approaches to business (Carrol, 1987) are described and linked to main stakeholders:

• Immoral management
• Amoral management (intentional/unintentioanl)
• Moral management