Mapping the linkage between corporate social responsibility and organizational performance along with examining the moderating effect of ownership

Environmental and social initiatives taken by organizations under corporate social responsibility (CSR) have attracted stakeholder's attention and global resonance in the recent times. Alike Western countries, the concept of corporate social responsibility is not new in India rather it has been imbibed in the tradition of Indian society to donate voluntarily for social causes. As a result, a paradigm shift has been noticed where “voluntarism” in CSR has got replaced with a mandatory obligation. This has been made mandatory through an amendment of new Companies Act, 2013. The current study through empirical observations emphases on examining the impact of CSR related activities on the organizational performance with the moderating effect of organizational ownership. A model is proposed and tested using SEM through AMOS. Data were collected from 265 respondents including senior CSR managers and other working professionals of select organizations. The results show a significant and positive relationship between CSR activities and organizational performance. It is also found that organizational ownership has no moderating effect on the relationship between activities conducted under CSR and the performance of the organizations. The analytical finding of the study has a practical implication for the managers of various organizations in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, India.     

Identity,citizenship, and mobiIization: The Nationalities Branch and World War Two

Abstract: A perennial theme of Canadian political debates is the nature of Canada's national identity. It is becoming increasingly clear that this issue is intimately bound up with the question of citizenship, since contemporary identity claims are often couched in the language of rights and the contemporary Canadian state actively encourages identity through citizenship development. The few existing studies on modern Canadian citizenship policy tend to locate its origins in the 1960s, or at best in the 1946 Citizenship Act. This article shows that the questions of identity, citizenship and mobilization were addressed first during World War Two in an agency called the Nationalities Branch of the Department of National War Services. While contemporary policy certainly differs from these origins, the Nationalities Branch nonetheless was the parent of all subsequent administrative organs devoted explicitly to citizenship development. The article shows that citizenship policy first developed around the question of ethnic identity, that “identity formation” through citizenship policy is a coherent field of government activity that pre-dates the Citizenship Act, and that mobilization is an equally coherent field of government practice, even in a liberal-democratic state such as Canada. Sommaire: La nature de I'identité nationale du Canada constitue I'un des thèmes éternels des débats politiques canadiens. De plus en plus, il ressort que cette question est intimement liéeà celle de la citoyenneté, car les revendications contemporaines d'identité sont souvent exprimées dans le langage des droits et car I'État canadien contemporain encourage activement la quête d'une identité par le biais de I'acquisi-tion d'une citoyenneté. Les rares études qui existent sur les politiques modernes de citoyenneté canadienne retracent généralement les origines de ces politiques aux années 1960, ou au mieux à la Loi sur la citoyenneté de 1964. Cet article montre que les questions d'identité, de citoyenneté et de mobilisation ont retenu pour la première fois I'attention durant la Second Guerre mondiale, quand un organisme appelé la Direction des nationalités, au ministère des Services nationaux de la guerre, s'est penché sur elles. Certes, les politiques contemporaines diffèrent des politiques d'origine, mais la Direction des nationalités reste la source de tous les organisms administratifs qui furent créés par la suite pour traiter explicitement de la citoyenneté. Cet article indique que les politiques de citoyenneté sont nées tout d'abord de la question d'identité ethnique, que la formation d'une identité par le biais d'une politique de citoyenneté est un champ cohérent d'activités gouvernemen-tales, antérieur à la Loi sur la citoyenneté, et que la mobilisation est également un champ cohérent d'interventions gouvernementales, même dans un État libéral-démocratique comme le Canada.     

Reviews

Laszlo Csaba (ed.), Privatisation, Liberalisation and Destruction (Recreating the Market in Central and Eastern Europe). Aldershot and Brookfield, NY: Dartmouth Publishing Company Ltd, 1994.

Iliana Zloch‐Christy, Eastern Europe in a Time of Change: Economic and Political Dimensions. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994, xvii + 143 pp.

J. Michael Waller, Secret Empire. The KGB in Russia Today. Oxford: Westview, 1994 x + 390 pp., £42.50 h/b, £13.50 p/b.

James M. Goldgeier, Leadership Style and Soviet Foreign Policy. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, x + 169 pp., £29.00.

Vladimir Andrle, A Social History of Twentieth‐Century Russia. London: Edward Arnold, 1994, xi + 289 pp., £40.00 h/b, £14.99 p/b.

Graeme Gill, The Collapse of a Single‐Party System: The Disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, xi + 255 pp., $35.00 h/b, $14.95 p/b.

John J. Stephan, The Russian Far East: A History. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994, xxiii + 481 pp.     

The political economy of voluntary public service

We characterize the voluntary public service policy that minimizes the expected cost of delivering a public service (e.g., jury or military service). We then examine whether a majority rule voting procedure will implement the voluntary public service policy (VPS) whenever it entails lower expected cost than mandatory public service (MPS). We find that majority rule often favors MPS in the sense that majority rule implements MPS when VPS would secure the requisite public service at lower expected cost.

     

An Appreciative Assessment of Prison Quality for Australian First Peoples of the Kimberley Region in Western Australia

In an attempt to understand the meaning of prison quality for Australian First Peoples, the authors examine the aspects of prison considered to be positive and negative for First Peoples serving sentences of imprisonment in the Kimberley Region in Western Australia. The meaning of prison quality as experienced by First Peoples is compared with the meaning of prison quality as defined by an existing measure of the quality of prison life. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with 25 prisoners and staff members from West Kimberley Regional Prison and Broome Regional Prison, seven key aspects of prison as experienced by First Peoples are identified. Six of these key aspects, respect and courtesy, staff-prisoner relationships, bureaucratic legitimacy, fairness, family contact, and personal development, are consistent with dimensions previously identified as pertaining to the quality of prison life. An additional culture-traditions dimension was also identified. The findings show that the differences between prison quality as experienced by First Peoples and non-Indigenous peoples are influenced by aspects relevant to the culture and traditions of First Peoples. The authors highlight the importance of considering culture and traditions in understanding the meaning of prison quality for First Peoples.     

Adolescent Girls’ Experiences and Gender-Related Beliefs in Relation to Their Motivation in Math/Science and English

Although the gender gap has dramatically narrowed in recent decades, women remain underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This study examined social and personal factors in relation to adolescent girls’ motivation in STEM (math/science) versus non-STEM (English) subjects. An ethnically diverse sample of 579 girls ages 13–18 years (M = 15) in the U.S. completed questionnaires measuring their academic achievement, ability beliefs, values, and experiences. Social and personal factors were hypothesized to predict motivation (expectancy-value) differently in math/science (M/S) and English. Social factors included perceived M/S and English support from parents and peers. Personal factors included facets of gender identity (felt conformity pressure, gender typicality, gender-role contentedness), gender-related attitudes, and exposure to feminism. In addition, grades, age, parents’ education, and ethnicity were controlled. Girls’ M/S motivation was positively associated with mother M/S support, peer M/S support, gender-egalitarian beliefs, and exposure to feminism; it was negatively related to peer English support. Girls’ English motivation was positively associated with peer English support as well as felt pressure from parents; it was negatively related to peer M/S support and felt peer pressure. The findings suggest that social and personal factors may influence girls’ motivation in domain-specific ways.     

Enhancing Excellence: Socially Motivated Private Schools of Nepal

Social motivation can promote efficiency of public service delivery though its role in providing schooling is little understood. We provide both theoretical and empirical insights as to why not-for-profit private schools could enhance excellence in schooling, using Nepal as a case study. Results suggest that socially motivated trust schools outperform all other types of schools irrespective of whether we consider standardised test scores, absolute or relative to school expenditure per student. Results are robust and highlight that trust school’s social objective, coupled with private financing, ownership, and management that minimises its agency costs, is key to their value for money.