Attitudes of Managers toward Corporate Social Responsibility

Past studies as well as the opinion of some top executives have suggested that inertia or outright resistance from operating management often thwarts the good intentions of top management in defining and implementing policies of corporate social responsibility. On the basis that managerial attitudes may reflect or give rise to such inertia or resistance, a study was done among a sample of Fortune 500 executivesboth operating-level and top-level managers. As contrasted to some previous research and speculation, differences between the attitudes of operating managers and top managers were found to be surprisingly infrequent and small in magnitude. The results suggest that, as a result of several recent developments, the attitudes among managers at both levels have reached a high degree of consensus.