See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241908701

Corporate Social Responsibility in a Total

Quality Management Context: opportunities for
sustainable growth

Article in Corporate Governance International Journal of Business in Society December 2003

DOI: 10.1108/14720700310497104

CITATIONS READS

75 699

2 authors:

Rodney Mcadam Denis Leonard

Ulster University Business Excellence Consulting
190 PUBLICATIONS 4,592 CITATIONS 74 PUBLICATIONS 488 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: Denis Leonard
letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 14 November 2016
Corporate Governance
Emerald Article: Corporate social responsibility in a total quality
management context: opportunities for sustainable growth
Rodney McAdam, Denis Leonard

Article information:
To cite this document: Rodney McAdam, Denis Leonard, (2003),"Corporate social responsibility in a total quality management
context: opportunities for sustainable growth", Corporate Governance, Vol. 3 Iss: 4 pp. 36 - 45
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14720700310497104
Downloaded on: 14-11-2012
References: This document contains references to 25 other documents
Citations: This document has been cited by 15 other documents
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
This document has been downloaded 3887 times since 2005. *

Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: *

O. Sallyanne Decker, (2004),"Corporate social responsibility and structural change in financial services", Managerial Auditing
Journal, Vol. 19 Iss: 6 pp. 712 - 728
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02686900410543840

Lance Moir, (2001),"What do we mean by corporate social responsibility?", Corporate Governance, Vol. 1 Iss: 2 pp. 16 - 22
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005486

Maria Lai-Ling Lam, (2011),"Challenges of sustainable environmental programs of foreign multinational enterprises in China",
Management Research Review, Vol. 34 Iss: 11 pp. 1153 - 1168
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409171111178729

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY BOZEMAN

For Authors:
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service.
Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit
www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in
business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as
well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is
a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive
preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.
Corporate social responsibility in a
total quality management context:
opportunities for sustainable growth
Rodney McAdam and Denis Leonard
Rodney McAdam, is Reader in
Management, School of Business,
Organisation and Management,
Faculty of Business and
Management, University of Ulster,
Jordanstown, Belfast, UK.
Tel: 028 90 36816; E-mail:
r.mcadam@ulster.ac.uk and
Denis Leonard, is a Lecturer at
the University of Wisconsin, USA
PAGE 36
| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003, pp. 36-45, MCB UP Limited, ISSN 1472-0701
Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore how quality management can act as a foundation
and key catalyst for developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) within organizations. CSR
is an emergent discourse within organizational research and praxis. It has parallels to sustain-
able development, environmental protection, social equity and economic growth. Although
some organizations consider CSR to be a peripheral and sector specic issue, it is becoming
increasingly mainstream, supported by government legislation. Key questions arising are, is
there a conict between prot earning and CSR? How can CSR be implemented without
impairing business performance? Can CSR build on existing quality management based
business initiatives from a philosophical and practical manner? The critique and case study
analysis within this paper shows how the ethical basis of quality management can be used to
develop CSR within organizations. Quality management models and methodologies established
on the broad principles of quality are seen as a foundation and catalyst for effective CSR in
organizations.
Keywords Quality management, Social responsibility, Organizations
Introduction
The continual hegemony of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has led to the area
being covered by various descriptors as the eld continues to grow and widen: sustainable
development, environmental protection, social equity and sustainable economic growth. Some
organizations treat CSR as a peripheral issue, while others assume the issue is sector specic.
They conclude that it is only applicable for organizations involved in activities such as oil, gas
or logging, where environmental hazards and impacts need to be considered and managed
carefully and therefore represent a signicant proportion of costs. Conversely, CSR may be
perceived as being the preserve of philanthropists, building libraries or contributing to socially
deprived areas.
Ethics in business are not merely philanthropy but an essential foundation upon which
businesses are founded and through which business improvement can be achieved and better
communities developed (Moir, 2001). Similarly, total quality management (TQM) is founded on
ethics, which lead to business improvement theory and practice (Zairi and Peters, 2001). Thus,
it can be argued that CSR has always been a major inuence in business and that it is now
growing more rapidly. CSR has a strong afnity with the principles of quality management.
There is a responsibility for quality practitioners and researchers to ensure that the ethical basis
DOI 10.1108/14720700310497104
of quality is not overlooked and that quality management takes a leadership role in promoting
ethical business practices. This approach will avoid deploying an excessive number of initiatives
and conicting harmful stand-alone approaches to change.

The Enron related problems and the volatility of the markets have highlighted the need for quality
practices and CSR. There exists an opportunity to examine the role of quality management in
relation to CSR.

The aim of this paper is to explore how quality management can act as a foundation and key
catalyst for developing CSR within organizations. First, the denitions of CSR are discussed.
Second, the ethics in quality are described followed by a discussion on existing quality models
in regard to CSR. Finally an exploratory case study analysis is used to illustrate the combined
CSR/TQM approach.

CSR
The difculties reected in the literature in dening CSR are primarily caused by the relative
emergence of the phenomena in organizations and its integrative effect on other disciplines.
Moir (2001) contends that the denitional complexities are further compounded by a current
dichotomy in the literature, namely, CSR as socially responsive behavior based on ``normative
or ethical considerations'' or CSR as managing corporate image and other business
achievements (instrumental activities).

The international organization, Business in the Community, state that their purpose is to
measure and report their impact on society. The World Council for Sustainable Development
seeks to both develop understanding of CSR and to develop a range of organizational
indicators. Thus, leading CSR organizations cover both sides of CSR, namely ethically driven
behavior and organizational benet.

Wood (1991) and Ullmann (1985) show that there is a long history of CSR entwining these two
purposes. This has resulted in a wide range of issues being incorporated into CSR agendas
such as, workplace (employees), marketplace (customers, suppliers), environment, community,
ethics, human rights and corporate sustainability. Thus CSR creates a pressure for rms to go
beyond the neo-classical and modernist perspectives of wages, taxes, hygiene factors and
employment. There is a need to satisfy ethical considerations, especially in regard to moral and
environmental considerations. Zairi and Peters (2002) view that the moral obligation should
include involvement in non-organizational issues because they have skills and resources and are
therefore obligated at the extreme end of this perspective. One example is large organizations
mentoring smaller unrelated organizations (EFQM, 2002).

In critiquing these approaches Frederick (1994) sees a historic shift from organizational
obligation to that of more dynamic responsiveness in regard to ``humanizing'' and ``economizing''.
In either case he concludes that CSR must have an ``ethical anchor'' if it is to develop
systematically. One way of addressing the need for an ``ethical anchor'' is to consider the need
for stakeholder satisfaction (Nakano, 1999), where stakeholders can be internal organizational
groups such as employees, managers and shareholders and external groups such as society
and pressure groups. In this approach an overall balanced position is reached in relation to
the stakeholders voice (Carroll, 1996). However, it is likely that an organization's stakeholder
analysis will be more instrumental than normative driven (Moir, 2001). Wood (1991) develops
the ideas of corporate legitimacy as ``society grants legitimacy and power to business''. Thus
any ethical anchor for CSR must be grounded in societal legitimacy. Wood (1991) contends that
any embracive denition of CSR must include the principles of social responsibility, the
processes of social responsiveness and the outcomes of corporate behavior.

The ethical foundations of quality

The founders of modern quality management and business excellence, Crosby, Demings and
Juran among others, considered ethics, principles and respect for people as key principles. For
example, Crosby (1986) stated that: ``the company will prosper only when all employees feel

VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003

| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| PAGE 37
 the same way and when neither customers nor employees will be hassled''. Deming's (1986)
14 points highlighted the ``driving out of fear''. He advocated an organizational climate where
dealings between managers, employees and customers were conducted on an ethical basis.
Juran (1993) spoke of a system of values, beliefs and behaviors, individual and team, created
within the organization which are necessary for organizational success. He espoused the view
that TQM should be recognized for its focus on people through the quality of working life and
employee satisfaction. This principled basis of quality is one of the key factors that identies it as
a key area of inuence in CSR.
These principles based or ``ethical anchor'' concepts (Wood, 1991) do not detract from
prot seeking motives, rather they emphasis sustainable performance through valuing people
and the environment. Thus, the right thing for business and the right thing ethically are not
incommensurate (DallaCosta, 1998). Rather, quality provides: ``competitive products and
services of excellent and durable quality, delivered in the shortest possible time to market, at
minimum cost, and in a manner that emphasizes human dignity, work satisfaction and mutual
and long-term loyalty between the organization and all its stakeholders, in particular its
employees'' (Bohdan et al., 1999). This position is adopted by the American Quality Society
(ASQ) code of ethics, which states that quality is ``knowledge and skill for the advancement of
human welfare and in promoting the safety and reliability of products for public use''. Thus,
TQM has a foundational similarity to CSR in that it has an ``ethical anchor'' considered essential
for CSR development (Moir, 2001; Woods, 1991). Companies are becoming more aware of
how customers view their impact in regard to CSR. Thus, using existing TQM conduits of
organizational change to develop CSR in organizations will not compromise the underlying
principles of CSR or TQM (Kok et al., 2001).

Environmental quality standards, such as ISO 14000, have helped to develop CSR within
organizations as a development of the more process orientated ISO 9000. Moreover, ISO's
committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO) has begun an assessment of standards for
corporate social responsibility. This committee was initiated to promote discussion of CSR
initiatives. The COPOLCO chairman stated that they became involved because ``an increasing
number of consumers are expressing their concern regarding the social integrity of corporations
in their operations in the global marketplace''. The requirements of the environmental quality
standard state that managers must understand the risk to the company that arises from social
concern about the environment (Dale, 2000) and that environmental risk management plans
must be developed. Organizations which adopt ISO 14000 are thus reecting both ethical and
business perspectives of CSR. This dualism id reected by Burnett (1999): ``ethical and socially
responsible investment is now both mainstream and big business. But the big players are not
going green just to satisfy the minority, they see that the future lies with companies that reect
changing public priorities . . . managers have realized that there is money to be made in heading
for the moral high ground.''

In summary, TQM, both historically and currently, is consistent with both the legitimate
ethical and instrumental sides of CSR. This congruity suggests that CSR could possibly be
incorporated into organizations more effectively and in shorter timescales by using existing TQM
organizational change conduits and processes (Vinten, 1998).

Models and methodology for CSR and TQM

Established models and methodologies of quality incorporate core elements of CSR. The
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award which incorporates CSR under its leadership criteria
1.2 public responsibility and citizenship. This criteria asks the following with regard to
responsibilities to the public:
1. How do you address the impacts on society of your products, services and operations?
2. How do you anticipate public concerns with current and future products, services and
operations and how do you prepare for these concerns in a proactive manner?

PAGE 38
| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003
3. How do you accomplish ethical business practices in all stakeholder transactions and
interactions?

In regard to supporting key communities the Baldrige model and self-assessment process
inquires:
J How does your organization, your leaders and your employees actively support and
strengthen your key communities?
J How do you identify key communities and determine areas of emphasis for organizational
involvement and support?

These model based questions and their context of leadership and aligning directly with
strategic planning underlines the inherent importance of CSR and its place in the everyday
practice of quality. The questions also reect the strategic inuence of CSR. To consider CSR is
to consider communities, employees, customers, products and services, market strengths and
opportunities for improvements.

The importance of CSR is also incorporated in the Business Excellence Model (BEM-EFQM,
2002), which devotes an entire criteria entitled ``Impact on society'' to CSR, similar to that of
Baldrige's ``Public responsibility and citizenship''. In both Baldrige and the BEM leadership is
considered essential in developing and promoting such concepts into organizational culture.
This is reected under the leadership criteria, ``the behavior and actions of the executive team
and all other leaders inspire, support and promote a culture of total quality management''
(EFQM, 2002). Since leaders create the vision and determine the mission it is therefore critical
that the vision supports not just what is good for the company beyond nancial gain, but also to
its employees, local communities and society as a whole (Punter and Gangneux, 1998).

Overall, it can be concluded that existing national and international quality models are
consistent with the principles of CSR and its objectives. However, there is a need for more
coordinated use of these models in regard to CSR implementation strategies.

Wood's (1991) model of CSR (as modied in Figure 1a) covers principles of social responsibility
leading to processes of social responsiveness and ultimately outcomes of corporate behavior.
It suggests a possible way of incorporating CSR within an expanded business excellence or
Baldrige model. Figure 1b shows a development of the CSR model, still consistent with the
``legitimacy'' and ``stakeholder management'' constructs as discussed earlier. In addition, Figure 1
reects the ``people process results'' ethos inherent in the BEM and Baldrige models. For
example, ``principles of social responsibility'' now incorporates legitimate ``leadership'' and
``people'' criteria which are CSR orientated, from these TQM models. These include leadership
in the community in regard to responsible management and in relation to people management
that reects ethical considerations. Similarly in relation to processes, CSR driven agendas in
operational processes are added by considering the voices of multiple stakeholders, as

Figure 1 CSR in a TQM context (adapted from Moir, 2001 and Wood, 1991)

Part a Principles and CSR Processes and Outcomes and

legitimacy of CSR Stakeholder Mgmt. behaviours of CSR

TQM Leadership TQM Business TQM Results

and People enablers Process and based on a range of
with CSR Stakeholder Mgmt Stakeholder voices
Part b sub-criterion enablers with CSR e.g. Employee
elements sub-criterion learning based
e.g. leadership in elements results
the community e.g. environmental
processes

VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003

| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| PAGE 39
 consistent with a TQM based process approach (Kok et al., 2001). Finally, Figure 1 shows that
``outcomes'' can be rationalized within the ``results'' sections of the BEM and Baldrige models.
In general, the principles and processes sections in Figure 1 reect the ethical side of CSR while
the outcomes relate more to the instrumental or corporate image side of CSR (Moir, 2001).
While this model is useful it suffers from a lack of evaluation and measurement focus. Greening
et al. (2000) also stress that CSR must be effectively measured if progress is to be made.
Kok et al. (2001) initially assume that the TQM models are acceptable frameworks for
incorporating CSR in organizations with the need for clearer denitions (Nakano, 1999). Their
work focused on developing an acceptable audit system for CSR within the TQM frameworks.
Based on the concept of the ethical anchor and legitimacy, Kok et al. (2001) have established
an audit approach based on a standards approach to CSR (Stahl and Grigsby, 1997). This audit
scale is shown in modied form for CSR in a TQM context in Figure 2.
These levels of attainment range from ad-hoc CSR policy to minimal legal compliance/
transaction ethics, enlightened self-interest/recognition ethics and proactive change/change
ethics. This approach is goal orientated and therefore more consistent with the instrumental
perspective of CSR. However, the ethical basis of the audit scale provides some degree of
balance within Moir's (2001) denition of CSR.
It is suggested that an initial suitable methodology for evaluating CSR, both from legitimate
ethical and instrumental aspects, could include the following steps (as shown in Figure 3):
1. The organization conducts a Baldrige or BEM assessment where additional CSR criteria
have been added to each of the main criteria. The usual scoring process is used and overall
TQM/CSR is evaluated.
2. The CSR related responses are then grouped within the key categories of Figure 1 and the
audit process of Figure 2 is applied to each of the categories using a Likert or similar scale.
Thus a CSR assessment and score is obtained.
Therefore, organizations can either fully incorporate CSR within their TQM models or use the
TQM model process to evaluate CSR. In either case the full scope of the denition of CSR is
maintained.

Figure 2 CSR audit criteria in a TQM context

Ad-hoc approach

Minimal legal compliance- transaction ethics

Audit scale
for CSR
within Self interest and empowerment- recognition ethics
TQM models

Self interest and empowerment- recognition ethics

Outcomes and proactive change- change ethics

PAGE 40
| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003
 Figure 3 An embedded CSR methodology using TQM models

BEM or Baldrige self-

assessment with additional
CSR sub-criteria in each of
the model criteria

CSR ethical and outcome

aspects of the self- BEM or Baldrige self-
assessment mapped on to assessment scoring
the categories of figure 1 procedures applied
part a

CSR scoring audit scale

applied to CSR categories
Overall CSR assessment
obtained

Research methodology
To further explore and deepen understanding in relation to quality management as a foundation
and key catalyst for developing CSR within organizations, an exploratory case research study
was undertaken. The organization was a large regional electrical utility, which has a three-year
learning partnership with the university. Yin (1994) has indicated that research question's,
similar to the aim of the current study, are suited to the broad based qualitative inquiry of a
single case study. Eisenhardt (1989) and Remenyi et al. (1999) indicate that the limitations of
such a study is a lack of generalizability and localized inuences. However, as shown by Yin
(1994) these limitations are offset by increased understanding of the overall phenomena, while
taking due cognizance of the limitations.
The data gathering included ethnography (a ten person joint university/organization study team
and two full time PhD students), focus groups (consisting of 20 managers and employees from
all levels), semi-structured interviews (managers and employees and key account customers
and suppliers and the government regulator) and organizational information and archives.

Case analysis
The case analysis was used to deepen the conceptual models and to act as a vehicle for
illustrating an application of the models developed. This approach is similar to what Yin (1994)
referred to as ``analytical generalization'' where case based data is compared with theory
building constructs. The organization employed circa 2,000 people and had recently been
privatized. It was chosen as it was a best practice TQM organization (as identied by the EFQM,
2002) and had applied TQM to all areas, was involved in a highly dynamic change environment
and were committed to a learning based approach rather than mechanistic quick xes. The
organizations basic strategy was to reduce costs in the regulated part of the organization and to
grow unregulated income in the organization. Throughout this change the organization had a
commitment to CSR, not least through customer outcomes as specied in annual targets by
the regulator.

VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003

| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| PAGE 41
 Initially the change team applied the BEM throughout the organization. The BEM self-assessment
process was modied at sub criterion level to suit the uniqueness of the organization and its
environment. This approach is similar to that suggested by Burnett (1999). If changes are made
at full criterion level the model becomes less effective as a benchmarking model. The changes
made to each of the sub criteria reected the principles and practice of CSR for all parts of the
model. Thus, the tailored BEM could be used in the dual role as suggested in Figure 3, namely
overall TQM selfassessment and CSR self-assessment. This discussion primarily covers the
CSR self-assessment as referred to in Figure 3.
The ndings from the BEM self-assessment were analyzed based on Figure 1, where CSR is
identied within a TQM context (adapted from Moir, 2001 and Wood, 1991). All of the self-
assessment ndings were examined and recategorized, as appropriate, into the three key
classications shown in Figure 1. Examples of the ndings for the case organization are shown
in Figure 4. Each of these headings was subsequently used to structure the discussion on the
case analysis, as follows.

Principles and legitimacy of CSR

After privatization the management team choose to ``ground'' their TQM based improvement
efforts on values that were ``legitimized'' within society (Wood, 1991; Moir, 2001). For example,
the value of employee emancipation, consistent with societal based emancipation was developed
by share option and improved company pension schemes. When downsizing was required due
to market pressures the management team offered systematic retraining, secondments and
enhanced voluntary severance packages to minimize the effect on employees. Thus, CSR was
``ethically anchored'' in the legitimacy of societal requirements; equally business goals were not
compromised. On an annual basis the organization reviewed its values in line with society
norms and subsequently reviewed policy and strategy for consistency with the espoused
values. Consistency of practice has proved to be a problem with organizations which ``take the
moral high ground'' in regard to values (Reeves-Ellington, 1998) Thus, the case organization
has retreated from its initial position of widely publicizing the values statement within the
organization. To develop the value centered approach to CSR the organization recruitment
process reected comprehensive testing and interviewing in regard to the values as part of an
ethical approach to CSR.

Figure 4 Examples of CSR in a TQM context (adapted from Moir, 2001 and
Wood, 1991)

Principles and CSR Processes and Outcomes and

legitimacy of CSR Stakeholder Mgmt. behaviours of CSR
Case examples: Case examples: Case examples:
Values driven Defined key Excellent category
leadership. business processes on the BEM model.
Values within with CSR elements Top proactive
appraisal and (e.g. customer care change CSR rating.
recruitment. process). Range of results
Employees Processes linked to satisfying targets of
given time for Stakeholders with key stakeholders.
charitable activities. defined Stakeholder Awards include
Contributions to requirements. Business in the
a range of charities Examples of defined Community award
and socially Stakeholders are and charitable
deprived areas. customers, society, awards.
Help with learning community, Achievement of
difficulties and Regulator and Environmental
exclusion in schools employees Standard (IS0 14001)

PAGE 42
| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003
In support of the principles and legitimacy of CSR the case organization supported a wide range
of activity with incentives and time allocations for employees to become involved. For example,
teams of employees have been deployed to charitable relief teams in socially deprived countries
where natural disasters have occurred. There is a special award scheme for disabled people
in the community and in the organization to encourage integration in society. Moreover, the
organization uses its meter reading access to check on those requiring critical care in the
community. Staff are specially trained in this role. In terms of legitimate ethical sustainability as
part of CSR the organization supports a number of primary schools in teaching disadvantaged
children and supplying computer equipment.
The organization worked with a range of society based organizations to promote and support
legitimate ethical concerns including The Princes Trust, the New Deal jobs program for young
people and the Pathways to Excellence program (mentoring of small organizations in regard to
TQM methodologies). Finally, the organization (corporately), the managers and the employees
were noted for sponsoring a range of events and activities, especially underfunded areas of
the arts.
In summary, the legitimate ethical approach to CSR, as suggested within Figure 1, and derived
from the CSR modied BEM self assessment, have shown that the case organization includes
an ethical approach to CSR as opposed to solely that of a business case or output based
approach. Therefore, as suggested by Greening et al. (2000), the organization's commitment to
CSR is more likely to be sustained.

Processes and stakeholder management

Figure 4 shows some examples of the case organization's approach to CSR processes and
stakeholder management. Rather than identify specic CSR processes the organization chose
to identify key business processes and the key CSR elements within those processes (Punter
and Gangneux, 1998). This approach ensured that there was a strong business focus on CSR
to compliment the ethical approach to CSR. This balanced approach is consistent with Moir's
(2001) denition of CSR. Examples of CSR elements include the sourcing of sustainable
environmentally derived products from key suppliers as part of the organization's supply
processes. Also there is a process to supply communities with stand-by generators in times of
outages as part of the repair and maintenance process. The organization's overall approach to
processes is rated as excellent within the BEM framework.
One of the main parts of business processes is at the start of the process where the voice of the
main stakeholder or recipient of the process outcomes is reected (Wood, 1991). To support
this approach and in line with the stakeholder management view of CSR processes (Figure 1),
the case organization has an identied list of key stakeholders. These stakeholders are
systematically linked to processes and outcomes. For example, a key designated stakeholder is
the regulator. Throughout the customer satisfaction and complaint processes the regulators
voice (concerns) is imputed in the form of procedures and actions to ensure that the process
outcomes meets the regulator's targets. Similarly, there are regular focus groups with customers
(domestic and business) to ensure that customer processes meet CSR driven targets.
In summary, the case organization's process and stakeholder management approach to CSR
ensures that the approach to CSR is balanced between legitimate ethical and business
considerations. As suggested by Moir (2001), this dual approach is more likely to sustain CSR
activity and avoid polarized and unbalanced CSR efforts.

Outcomes and behaviors

Overall, the case organization is in the excellent category (Dale and Lascelles, 1997) when using
the BEM, which represents a score in excess of circa 700 points. Similarly when rated using the
CSR approach (Figure 2) the organization is in the proactive change category. These aggregate
overall outcomes reect a series of contributory outcomes. For example, the organization has
won the Business in the Community Special Award for Social Responsibility, while at the same
time winning the National and European Business Excellence Awards. Thus, the organization's
balanced approach to CSR is reected in a balanced set of outcomes or awards.

VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003

| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| PAGE 43
 The organization has also won the UK Utility Week Award for community involvement with
primary schools. It has received numerous other accolades and awards from charitable
organizations for support in terms of money, skills and equipment. These outcomes do not have
an underpinning rationale in business alone. They reect a balanced view of an organization
having both a legitimate ethical and business approach to the sustainability of CSR.

Conclusions
The emerging role of CSR has been found to be multifaceted, covering areas such as employee
welfare, environmental issues and corporate sustainability. Within this broad remit two key
perspectives have emerged. First, CSR can be dened in terms of legitimate ethics or
acceptable ethical behavior in current society at large. From this standpoint CSR is found to
have a strong ``ethical anchor''. Second, CSR can also be viewed from an instrumentalist
perspective where corporate image and goals are of prime concern.
This duelist denition of CSR was found to have considerable congruence with TQM, which
is already established within the theory and praxis of business and management. TQM is
shown to also have a strong ethical focus while at the same time contributing to organizational
goals and measures. Thus, CSR can be advanced more rapidly in organizations if it can be
incorporated in already established TQM models, methodologies and change programs.
An existing CSR model (Moir, 2001) based on both aspects of CSR was developed along TQM
model lines (business excellence and Baldrige models). It was found that CSR closely aligned
with the leadership, people, processes and results sections of these models (Figure 1).
Furthermore, it was found that Kok et al.'s (2001) audit for CSR in a TQM context could be
adapted to self-assess CSR within both the BEM and the Baldrige model. Thus, it was possible
to develop a CSR methodology based on TQM models, which can assess both the ethical
foundation and organizational improvement aspects of CSR. The methodology as shown in
Figure 3 is comprised of:
1. A Baldrige or BEM assessment where additional CSR criteria have been added to each of
the main criteria. The usual scoring process is used and overall TQM/CSR is evaluated.
2. Grouping of the CSR related responses within the key categories of Figure 1. The audit
process of Figure 2 is then applied to each of the categories using a Likert or similar type
scale. Thus, an overall organizational CSR assessment and score can be obtained.
The analysis of the exploratory case study organization showed that the CSR model and
combined CSR and TQM methodology enabled the approach to CSR and TQM to be evaluated
in terms of a legitimate ethical standpoint, CSR based process and stakeholder management
and outcomes. The ndings showed that it is possible to balance both sides of CSR, namely the
ethical anchor and business side, without compromising the organization's position relative to
its key stakeholders. The combined CSR and TQM approach also enabled the organization
to avoid applying successive unrelated change initiatives, thus demonstrating progress on the
``quality journey'' (Dale and Lascelles, 1997). There is a need for broader and deeper studies to
see if organizations can retain a balanced approach to CSR in relation to other factors, such as
adverse market and nancial conditions and less developed TQM systems.

References
Bohdan, W. and Przasnyski, Z. (1999), ``Total quality requires serious training'', Quality Progress, October,
pp. 63-73.
Burnett, T. (1999), ``Without ethics there is no quality'', Quality World, December, pp. 40-1.
Carroll, A. (1996), Ethical and Stakeholder Management, South-Western Publishers, OH.

Crosby, P. (1986), Quality Without Tears: The Art of Hassle Free Management, McGraw-Hill, NY.
Dale, B. (2000), Quality Management, Blackwell, London.
Dale, B. and Lascelles, D. (1997), ``Total quality management adoption: revisiting the levels'', The TQM
Magazine, Vol. 9 No. 6, pp. 418-32.
DallaCosta, R. (1998), The Ethical Imperative: Why Moral Leadership is Good Business, Peruses Books, NY.

PAGE 44
| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003
Deming, W.E. (1986), Out of The Crisis, MIT Press, NY.

Eisenhardt, K. (1989), ``Building theories from case study research'', Academy of Management Review,
Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 532-50.
EFQM (2002), The Business Excellence Model, The European Foundation for Quality Management,
Brussels.

Frederick, W. (1994), ``From CSR1 to CSR2'', Journal of Business and Society, Vol. 33, pp. 150-66.
Greening, D., Turban, D. and Daniel, B. (2000), ``Corporate social responsibility as a competitive advantage
in attracting a quality workforce'', Business and Society, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 254-81.
Juran, J. and Gryna, F. (1993), Quality Planning and Analysis, McGraw-Hill, NY.
Kok, P., van der Wiele, T., McKenna, R. and Brown, A. (2001), ``A corporate social responsibility audit within
a quality management framework'', Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 285-97.
Moir, L. (2001), ``What do we mean by corporate social responsibility?'', Corporate Governance, Vol. 1
No. 2, pp. 16-22.
Nakano, C. (1999), ``Attempting to institutionalise ethics: case studies from Japan'', Journal of Business
Ethics, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 335-43.
Punter, L. and Gangneux, D. (1998), ``Social accountability: the most recent element to ensure total quality
management, Journal of Total Quality Management, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 197-201.
Reeves-Ellington, R. (1998), ``Leadership for socially responsible organisations'', Leadership and
Organisational Development Journal, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 84-98.
Remenyi, D., Williams, B., Money, A. and Swartz, E. (1998), Research in Business and Management, Sage,
London.
Stahl, M. and Grigsby, D. (1997), Strategic Management, Total Quality and Global Competition, Blackwell,
NY.

Ullmann, A. (1985), ``Data in search of a theory: a critical examination of the relationships among social
performance, social disclosure, and economic performance of US rms'', Academy of Management
Review, Vol. 10, pp. 540-57.
Vinten, G. (1998), ``Putting ethics into quality'', The TQM Magazine, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 89-94.

Wood, D. (1991), ``Corporate social responsiveness revisited'', Academy of Management Review, No. 16,
pp. 691-718.
Yin, R. (1994), Case Study Research, Sage, London.
Zairi, M. and Peters, J. (2002), ``The impact of social responsibility on business performance'', Managerial
Auditing Journal, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 174-8.

VOL. 3 NO. 4 2003

| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
| PAGE 45