ABSTRACT
Environmental complexity and uncertainty have bedevilled organizations and organizational actors alike because decision-making is often conducted under muddled conditions. In their seminal work on the ‘causal texture’ of the environment, Emery and Trist (1965) presented a typology of environments through which the notion of turbulence was introduced and the complexity of organizational environment highlighted. As was explained in Chapter 2, ‘turbulent fields’ are produced as a result of causal interconnections among the different parts of the environment within which organizations operate. In this chapter I seek to contribute to the causal texture framework by highlighting the role that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can play as a control, or regulatory, mechanism between a system and its environment in situations of environmental turbulence, as well as by indicating how CSR-based scenarios can help in addressing this environmental complexity and uncertainty. I illustrate this argument by using qualitative data from two case studies – a recently privatized public-service utility and a multinational tobacco company – in which the respective top management teams espoused explicit CSR strategies grounded in stakeholder responsiveness. I will use evidence from the fieldwork to argue that CSR can serve as a stabilizing mechanism for mitigating environmental turbulence by producing a ‘common ground’ among a firm and its various stakeholders. Evidence where the opposite occurs – that is, where CSR practices become a destabilizing mechanism further contributing to environmental turbulence – will also be discussed with regard to a company’s environment and internal processes. Considering these observations, I argue that CSR-based scenarios can be an immense help for decision-makers in organizations in better addressing environmental uncertainty.
