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Corporate Social Responsibility at Swisscom: Empowering the Idea of Sustainability and Transforming Individuals’ Realities

Lauper, Britt LU (2015) HEKM50 20151
Human Ecology
Abstract
With corporate social responsibility becoming more important to powerful companies, analyzing how the idea of sustainability circulates in a company and influences actors is key to understanding the potential and limitations of corporate social responsibility as companies’ strategic approach to sustainability. Individuals in a company act upon ideas and together form a shared reality. This thesis, based on six months of fieldwork, in-depth interviews and a focus group meeting with the corporate social responsibility team as primary mediator of sustainability, offers an ethnographic account on how sustainability is circulated and made powerful at Swisscom, a Swiss telecommunication company. From a social constructivist perspective, I will... (More)
With corporate social responsibility becoming more important to powerful companies, analyzing how the idea of sustainability circulates in a company and influences actors is key to understanding the potential and limitations of corporate social responsibility as companies’ strategic approach to sustainability. Individuals in a company act upon ideas and together form a shared reality. This thesis, based on six months of fieldwork, in-depth interviews and a focus group meeting with the corporate social responsibility team as primary mediator of sustainability, offers an ethnographic account on how sustainability is circulated and made powerful at Swisscom, a Swiss telecommunication company. From a social constructivist perspective, I will show that the team’s, and with that the idea’s significance, results from a dialectic relationship between the team, the remaining company and external actors. I will further show that the team, to enhance its significance inside and outside the company, employs strategies to approach other actors. Finally, this thesis suggests that, with regard to sustainability, more research is needed to better understand how ideas circulate and influence individuals in their actions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Lauper, Britt LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM50 20151
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
cultural change, Swisscom, organizational ethnography, CSR, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, circulation of ideas, business anthropolog, telecommunication company
language
English
id
5385643
date added to LUP
2015-06-25 15:31:15
date last changed
2015-06-25 15:31:15
@misc{5385643,
  abstract     = {{With corporate social responsibility becoming more important to powerful companies, analyzing how the idea of sustainability circulates in a company and influences actors is key to understanding the potential and limitations of corporate social responsibility as companies’ strategic approach to sustainability. Individuals in a company act upon ideas and together form a shared reality. This thesis, based on six months of fieldwork, in-depth interviews and a focus group meeting with the corporate social responsibility team as primary mediator of sustainability, offers an ethnographic account on how sustainability is circulated and made powerful at Swisscom, a Swiss telecommunication company. From a social constructivist perspective, I will show that the team’s, and with that the idea’s significance, results from a dialectic relationship between the team, the remaining company and external actors. I will further show that the team, to enhance its significance inside and outside the company, employs strategies to approach other actors. Finally, this thesis suggests that, with regard to sustainability, more research is needed to better understand how ideas circulate and influence individuals in their actions.}},
  author       = {{Lauper, Britt}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Corporate Social Responsibility at Swisscom: Empowering the Idea of Sustainability and Transforming Individuals’ Realities}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}