Essay About Positive Psychology And Corporate Social Responsibility

On the Relationship of Hope and Gratitude
On the Relationship of Hope and Gratitude
On the relationship of hope and gratitude
to corporate social responsibility
Lynne M. Andersson
Robert A. Giacalone
Carole L. Jurkiewicz
ABSTRACT. A longitudinal study of 308 white-collar
U.S. employees revealed that feelings of hope and gratitude
increase concern for corporate social responsibility
(CSR). In particular, employees with stronger hope and
gratitude were found to have a greater sense of responsibility
toward employee and societal issues; interestingly,
employee hope and gratitude did not affect sense of
responsibility toward economic and safety/quality issues.
These findings offer an extension of research by Giacalone,
Paul, and Jurkiewicz (2005, Journal of Business
Ethics, 58, 295-305).
KEY WORDS: corporate social responsibility, hope,
gratitude
Introduction
With the ongoing scandals in business and government,
organizational scholars continue to struggle to
understand the reasons for a recurrence of socially
irresponsible organizational behavior. Two divergent
approaches, one which posits that the primary
corporate responsibility is financial performance
(Friedman, 1970/1983; Marcoux, 2003), and another
which regards financial performance as but one
aspect of the corporation’s responsibility, have focused
on understanding the goals of socially
responsible organizational behavior. Within the latter
approach, sensitivity to other constituencies such
as employees, customers, the community, generally
referred to as ‘‘stakeholder management’’ (Freeman,
1984; Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics, 1999) or
‘‘multi-fiduciary management’’ (Freeman, 1994) has
directed the dialogue toward a more expansive
collective forum.
But when all is considered, the question of what
constitutes socially responsible behavior is seemingly
embedded within the individual level, where each
person’s perceptions of social responsibility will drive
his/her sensitivity to the myriad concerns that arise
in organizational life (Hemingway and Maclagan,
2004). What is considered a worthwhile individual
and collective outcome thus potentially emanates
both from one’s socialization (Inglehart, 1997) as
well as one’s dispositions (see Snyder and Lopez,
2004).
Within the dispositional tradition, the study of
positive psychology and positive