Building Bridges Between Organizations & Society; -A qualitative study about organizations’ engagements in social activities diversified areas in

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be described as the relationship organizations and society have among one another. Most CSR literature has focused on a firm's financial performance when working with CSR. How an organization work with CSR is decided by the firm’s mission, vision and stakeholders. In Gothenburg, Sweden, organizations have started to expand their CSR commitment towards including more philanthropic actions in their CSR work to strengthen the community. This qualitative study’s purpose is therefore to investigate what motivates companies to engage in social actives in diversified areas, such as Angered in the region of Gothenburg. The empirical findings have showed that organization’s main motivation for engaging in social activities is to contribute to a better society, while at the same time gaining benefits such as; a more diversified workforce, strengthen organizational culture and a better organizational reputation. The findings further present a sixth step framework on how to work with social activities. This research has been investigated from a company perspective on social activities and therefore one recommendation for future research is taking the viewpoint of the students participating in these activities.