Sustainability Seminar Series - Jean-Pascal Gond

Jean-Pascal Gond

Strategizing Corporate Social Responsibility: Institutional Work in Practice.

April 12th, 2012, 14.00 - 15.30, at Kilen, room K4.41

The seminar is free of charge and all are welcome - but please register by writing: lwa.ikl@cbs.dk

 Jean-Pascal Gond is a guest Professor at HEC Montreal and before that he was an assistant Professor at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility of Nottingham University Business School. His research analyzes the socio-political dimensions of CSR, the influence of CSR programs on employees and how theories are transformed into managerial practices. His publications can be found in, for example, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Journal of Managment Studies, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business and Society, and Economy and Society.

Jean-Pascal Gond’s work, among other things, investigate the process whereby a new idea or practice is turned into strategy within an organization. In the paper ”Strategizing Corporate Social Responsibility: Institutional Work in Practice”, Jean-Pascal Gond, Frederic Krikorian and Laure Cabantous rely on the concept of institutional work and the strategy-as-practice perspective to theorize ‘strategizing’ as a double-faced process consisting in ‘making something strategic’ (institutional view) while ‘crafting strategy’ (practice view). The authors use the case of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to investigate empirically the relationships between these two facets of strategizing as they occur within an organization. A longitudinal study within a UK Utility highlights how practitioners have mobilized the discourse of strategy to facilitate the acceptance of CSR and, in so doing, have reshaped organizational strategy. The findings uncover the repertoire of micro-practices that are mobilized in the cultural, political and technical institutional work that support CSR strategizing. They show the dynamic articulation of institutional and practice forms of strategizing.

At the seminar, Jean-Pascal Gond will present this paper and his views on the subject. Also, he will draw upon his prior studies using institutional theory, including his publications; ”Standardization as institutional work: The regulatory power of a responsible investment standard (Rieneke Slager, Jean-Pascal Gond and Jeremy Moon)” and ”Measuring the unmeasured: An institutional entrepreneur strategy in an emerging industry (Frédérique Déjean, Jean-Pascal Gond and Bernard Leca).

 We hope that you will be able to participate in the seminar.