Abstract
This paper investigates the roles that Danish government has played in the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Denmark has emerged as a first mover among the Scandinavian countries when it comes to CSR. We argue that government has played a pivotal role in making this happen, and that this reflects strong traditions of regulation, corporatism and active state involvement. However, there is no unitary “Danish model of CSR” being promoted by government. Although Danish society is often associated with a model of consensus, our claim is that Danish government policy on CSR is characterized by a lack of common direction and that we need to approach it on such terms. In order to provide a critical account of ‘the Danish model’ we apply a governmentality perspective that allows us to stress political difference. We argue that Danish government policy consists of three distinct regimes of practice and show how they subject CSR to different modes of rationalization and action. We conclude that the problem with public policy being split into three is not different as such, but the failure of each regime to recognize the value of the others. As a result, government tends to add to the confusion and opaqueness of CSR.
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Notes
The Copenhagen Centre was established by the Danish government in 1998. It was an independent, international knowledge center that operated as an intermediary between governments, businesses, NGOs and other parts of civil society to promote and inspire discussions about new social partnerships (Andersen and Mailand 2002; Gribben et al. 2001; Kjaer 2003; Nelson and Zadek 2000).
The interests of employers and labor unions have not, however, been evenly distributed among the three pillars. Preventing unemployment and, in particular, retaining employees have been of obvious value as they relate to the maintenance of the core workforce, while the integration pillar to some extent has been associated with costly efforts to integrate personnel with insufficient qualifications (Bredgaard 2004).
The Danish Commerce and Companies Agency was renamed the Danish Business Authority as of January 2012.
The Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs was renamed the Ministry of Business and Growth as of January 2012.
Policies on CSR include considerations of human rights, social, environmental and climate conditions as well as efforts to combat corruption. Accounts of actions include any systems or procedures in use, and comments on results include, if applicable, future expectations in this regard (www.csrgov.dk).
The latest survey on the impact of the new requirements (2010 figures) shows that of the compliant companies, 87 % state that they work with CSR, while 13 % state that they do not. After adjusting for subsidiaries that do not report separately, but refer to CSR information in the parent company’s consolidated financial statement, 95 % of companies report on policies, 89 % report on actions, and 65 % describe the results that have been achieved—and these numbers are up from 2009 (DCCA 2011).
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Vallentin, S. Governmentalities of CSR: Danish Government Policy as a Reflection of Political Difference. J Bus Ethics 127, 33–47 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1703-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1703-5