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8 - Multinational Companies as Responsible Political Actors in Global Business

Challenges and Implications for Human Resource Management

from Section III - Accountability: Linking Corporate Social Responsibility, Employee Relations, and Corporate Political Responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2023

By
Andreas Georg Scherer  and
Christian Voegtlin
Edited by
Thomas P. Lyon
Thomas P. Lyon
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Summary

Multinational corporations (MNCs) assume political responsibilities by contributing to national and global governance, influencing their legal and moral environments, and addressing sustainability issues. Scholars have developed various frameworks, most prominently corporate political activity (CPA), corporate citizenship (CC), political corporate social responsibility (PCSR), and corporate political responsibility (CPR), for theorizing the political role and responsibility of the corporation. This chapter analyzes the challenges of MNCs, advances their political responsibility, and explores the implications for theorizing about human resource management (HRM). We propose HRM should be extended to include a political agenda along two functions: as a “steward” taking care for the wellbeing of the firm’s work force and as an “enabler” making organizational members competent for helping others. On that basis, we offer a perspective on how political HRM can be conceived of in the CPR approach and contribute to its development.

Keywords

Corporate political activitycorporate citizenshippolitical corporate social responsibilitycorporate political responsibilityhuman resource managementglobalizationglobal governance
Type
Chapter
Information
Corporate Political Responsibility , pp. 216 - 244
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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