Workplace Well-being: How to Build Psychologically Healthy Workplaces

13 Corporate Social Responsibility and Psychologically Healthy Workplaces

Jennifer L. Robertson¹ and Julian Barling²

¹ Western University, London, ON, Canada

² Queen’s School of Business, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

Over the last several decades, corporations have increasingly been held accountable for their actions and the social and environmental consequences that emerge from them. Much of this has been spurred by the amount of information made available to the public on the Internet. The Internet has provided numerous stakeholders, both internal and external to organizations, with information about the responsible and irresponsible practices and actions of corporations, leading to a surge in accountability (Aguinis, 2011). As a result, top business leaders around the world have implemented an array of ethical, social, and environmentally responsible practices and policies (Porter & Kramer, 2006).

These practices and policies have come to be known collectively as corporate social responsibility (CSR), and increasing numbers of organizations are committed to improving their organization’s CSR performance. Companies such as Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) (MEC, 2012a), The Body Shop (The Body Shop, 2012a), and Interface (Interface, 2008) are well known for their ongoing and intrinsic commitment to social and environmental issues—because they believe that is the right thing to do. In contrast, other companies develop socially responsible practices in response ...