The Relationship between Action Logics of Business Leaders and CSR Behaviours in the Ready Made Garment Sector of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study focuses on understanding the inner psychological (intrinsic) motivations that influence local business leaders in adopting CSR behaviours. The inner motivations are hereby considered as the mind-sets of individuals, the human capacity to interpret reality. According to the constructive developmental theories, individuals experience several stages of consciousness development, as a consequence of their deeper understanding of reality, wisdom and ego awareness. More specifically, building upon the Action Logics framework of Rooke and Torbert (2005), it can be considered what type of action logics relate to advanced forms of CSR behaviours. One of the main contributions of this study to the leadership and CSR literature is to describe each action logics as specific intrinsic motivation and clarify empirically the relationship between action logics of local business leaders and different stages of CSR behaviours, in a specific local context. An inductive research strategy is applied. Nine local business leaders participated in this research and triangulation was applied based on in-depth interviews, observations and company reports to determine CSR behaviours and how they are related to action logics. Template analysis was used for coding the findings. The study resulted in four distinctive patterns about the relationships between action logics and CSR behaviours. The study indicates that: (1) Higher action logics are needed to be engaged in more advanced stages of CSR practices; (2) It is at the achiever action logic level when leaders start moving towards advanced stages of CSR behaviours; (3) Lower action logics cannot induce advanced stages of CSR behaviours; (4) Business leaders with higher action logics can still apply practices of the full range of CSR stages. Based on these findings this paper provides recommendations for future research and managerial practice.