The idea of corporate social responsibility regarding instrumental and coherent models of rationality

Abstract

The growing competition among enterprises makes them realise two basic values: economic (profit maximisation) and social (satisfying of stakeholders’ needs). The idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is also spreading. However, not all organisations that engage in such activities do this selflessly. The aim of the article is to verify the assumption that the activity in CSR is often instrumental. To achieve this goal the author carried out a complex analysis of the literature and in the activity of companies that engage in the social sphere. The deliberations were based on two models of rationality: instrumental and coherent. The results indicate that CSR instrumentalisation is an expression of tendency, observed in western culture, that regards the increase in instrumental rationality at the expense of a coherent model. The consequence is a gradual termination of development opportunities in the western civilisation.