Corporate social responsibility in construction firms operating in the UK

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been conceptualised in a variety of ways and interest groups have approached the subject differently. CSR theorists and practitioners have attributed the lack of a consistent approach to CSR to the absence of uniformity in the manner in which the meaning of CSR has been articulated. This has meant that organisations have operationalized the concept differently. Evidence of this can be seen in the way construction firms in the UK have reported on CSR. Construction firms operating in the UK have been found to vary in terms their scope, content and extent of their CSR reporting. CSR reporting and practices of UK construction firms have come under increased scrutiny after the sector has been plagued by ethical issues in the form of bribery, employment of illegal migrants and health & safety negligence to name a few. The effects of such unethical practices can be seen to haVing a detrimental impact on construction firms. As a result of this construction firms have been increasingly keen to demonstrate their commitment to CSR. The prevailing literature privileges establishing a positive link between corporate performance and CSR engagement. However, commenters are beginning to focus on how organisational actors interpret the concept of CSR to suit their organisational requirements. Collective sensemaking was adopted as the theoretical lens for the multiple case study design to interrogate the empirical data from the document review and semi-structured interviews. The unit of analysis for the case studies is the construction firm. The findings show how the process CSR strategy development is initiated, structured and managed by key actors within the firms. The case studies show the variations in the use of management structures for CSR strategy development and the different contextual features that shape and characterise each firms' CSR strategy.