Balancing Organisational Design Principles: A Pragmatic Scandinavian Approach to CSR

One can argue that Scandinavian countries have much of the essence of CSR incorporated in their culture and society. We use Norway as an example for this argument, by looking at the development of work-life since the 50s. Further, we use one highly industrialised area, Raufoss, as further proof of our claim of the lack of separate popularity of CSR, as it is already covered in the context of society. However, this is not the same as saying that there are no challenges to this model. One of the most challenging topics is innovation: this should be socially responsible innovation. The Norwegian, social model can seem to promote stability, so that people and companies become risk averse. In this chapter, we argue that social-liberal capitalist societies have many of the ingredients of CSR integrated. However, many CSR themes are handled at a society or political level. Tripartite co-operation in Norway exemplifies this, as does the close collaboration between political authorities and companies. In such societies CSR will not be that easily explored, and the popularity of the separate CSR concept is not easily spread. We argue that Norwegian practice has balanced organisational design principles: bottom up and top down, with a focus on efficiency and innovation. These approaches to continuous improvement imply engagement and involvement: presupposing dialogue with employees and communities. Transparency in the company exposes issues such as pollution, negative externalities or unacceptable behaviour. This is a how Norwegian CSR works, without using that term.