Attitudes toward counterproductive behavior in business and corporate social responsibility

Abstract

A lot of literature was published describing the reasons of the global economic and financial crisis; unethical behavior was one of them. This increased the awareness to business ethics which is one of the components of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vary from picturing it as the conformation of an organization with the requirements of the law to others that consider CSR as an approach by organizations to report the effect of its activities on the different stakeholders. This study, explores whether university students (MBA) who place value on socially responsible behavior of organizations favored ethical behavior in businesses more that those who did not place value on socially responsible behavior. By investigating the types of counterproductive behaviors that are considered less unethical by the students, the researcher found that they are habitual misbehaviors and not real tangible theft and fraud, The researcher linked the results of this study with the effects of the cultural, social, and historical environment in a developing country that experienced long periods of internal conflicts, mainly Lebanon. The researcher suggests increasing the awareness of students about CSR through academic and extracurricular work at universities and schools, and strict application of regulation and holding employees and mangers accountable for their misbehaviors to enforce ethical behavior