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The transformed identity of a banking corporation's employees, 1960s–1980s
Author(s) -
Galia Riki
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of public affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.221
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1479-1854
pISSN - 1472-3891
DOI - 10.1002/pa.1549
Subject(s) - corporation , normative , corporate social responsibility , public relations , social responsibility , identity (music) , sociology , corporate identity , capitalism , social identity theory , organizational culture , ethnography , marketing , business , political science , law , social science , social group , politics , finance , anthropology , physics , acoustics
The current paper discusses one aspect of corporate social responsibility—employee community volunteering—as implemented at an Israeli banking corporation. The literature on corporate social responsibility as a feature of global capitalism has largely ignored the history of corporate philanthropy and its relation to the current model of social responsibility. Moreover, to date, no studies have addressed the relationship between models of corporate social responsibility, on the one hand, and management approaches, on the other. In this historical–ethnographic study, we examine a case in which, we argue, normative management models and advanced marketing approaches combined to shape new conceptions and practices of employee volunteering. We examine how the process evolved over the course of three marketing campaigns initiated by the bank's management between the early 1960s and the early 1980s. In the early 1960s, the models in question helped refashion the employees' identity as service providers ‘empathic’ toward clients. By the late 1970s, their identity was transformed once again, this time to incorporate a ‘humane’ orientation toward the ‘community’. In the process—the results of which are still felt today—the employees became the carriers and disseminators of an organizational culture that emphasized values of philanthropy and social commitment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.