1 Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil, Doutoranda em Administração, e-mail: nagilavilela@gmail.com

2 Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil, Doutorado em Administração, e-mail: ronaldojhr@usp.br

3 Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brasil, Doutorado em Administração, e-mail: psimari@uol.com.br

 

Recebido em: 06/02/2020 - Revisado em: 28/02/2020 - Aprovado em: 05/03/2020 - Disponível em: 01/04/2020

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze Corporate Social Responsibility practices that contribute to the balance between work and family from the perspective of working women in the industrial sector. Such practices in this paper include flexibility in working hours, part-time work, home office, extended licenses, and managerial and social support. Qualitative and descriptive research included field research and interviewed fifteen women workers from three major Brazilian industries and documentary research. Data analysis was done through content analysis. Based on the research findings, it was noticed that Corporate Social Responsibility practices directed at the family of workers are not enough for them to balance their lives between work and family, a result that deserves consideration by employees and employers.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility. Work and Family. Balancing Practices.

 

Resumo

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar as práticas de Responsabilidade Social Corporativa que contribuem para o equilíbrio entre trabalho e família na perspectiva das mulheres trabalhadoras no setor industrial. Tais práticas neste documento incluem flexibilidade no horário de trabalho, trabalho em meio período, escritório em casa, licenças estendidas e suporte gerencial e social. O estudo, de cunho qualitativo e descritivo, incluiu pesquisa de campo, entrevistando quinze trabalhadoras de três grandes indústrias brasileiras e realizou pesquisa documental. A análise dos dados foi realizada por meio da análise de conteúdo. Com base nos achados da pesquisa, percebeu-se que as práticas de Responsabilidade Social Corporativa direcionadas à família dos trabalhadores não são suficientes para equilibrar suas vidas entre trabalho e família, um resultado que merece consideração por funcionários e empregadores.

Palavras-chave: Responsabilidade Social Corporativa. Trabalho e Família. Práticas de Equilíbrio.

 

1 INTRODUCTION  

In recent years, attention to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has grown, regarding both academic researchers and practitioners of organizational strategies (BAUMAN; SKITKA, 2012). CSR can be defined as the way a company guides its business, is considered a partner and co-responsible for social development, considering both the internal public (workers and shareholders) and external public (government, customers, suppliers, and community) (METZNER; FICHER; NOGUEIRA, 2005).

Carrol (1979) argues that social and economic objectives in business are not necessarily conflicting. For the author, companies can achieve their economic objectives considering the legal aspects in which they are involved and, at the same time, respecting ethical social standards, even if they are not regulated by force of law.

In the context of the development of CSR studies, many empirical kinds of research on the subject were conducted from the perspective of stakeholder theory, which suggests possibilities for value creation through CSR (CARROLL; SHABANA, 2010; KIM et al. 2016). Therefore, according to stakeholder theory, companies must satisfy the different groups that make up their business, at the risk of losing the support of such groups (DONALDSON; PRESTON, 1995). The different groups of stakeholders observed in the literature generally include employees, clients, investors, suppliers and communities (KIM et al., 2016). It is noticed, therefore, that there is a great variety in the groups that can be considered legitimate stakeholders for a company. In this article, the focus is on employees, who are key stakeholders for the organization’s survival (FREEMAN, 1984).

Therefore, the objective of this article is to analyze, from the perspective of working women in the industrial sector, CSR practices that contribute to the balance between work and family. It is understood here that such practices may include flexibility in working hours, part-time work, home office, extended licenses, and managerial and social support.

The choice to interview only women was because they are generally more likely (to the detriment of men) to face difficulties in balancing work and family (ÖUN, 2012). This situation is mainly associated with responsibilities with the home and with the children who fall into them (SEVÄ; ÖUN, 2015, SEIERSTAD; KIRTON, 2015, HAGQVIST; GÅDIN; NORDENMARK, 2017). We chose the industry because of its importance to the Brazilian economy. According to the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), the industry contributes R $ 1.2 trillion to the Brazilian economy and represents 22% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF INDUSTRY, 2017). Still, according to CNI data published in 2017, the industry employs more than 10.5 million Brazilian workers, equivalent to 22% of formal jobs.

The following sections are the theoretical framework, methods, followed by the results, conclusions, and references used to carry out the research.

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The interest and possibilities that the CSR theme arouses have led companies and even governments to seek effective ways to guarantee the participation of organizations in solving social issues (SOUZA; DE SOUZA, 2012). More than expecting voluntary participation by companies, there has been an effort to develop legislation and practices that make such participation a reality on a worldwide scale. Therefore, CSR related topics understand that an organization’s purpose is to fulfill societal aspirations as part of a broader social system. In other words, performance needs to be measured not only considering the return to shareholders but also realizing how it achieves its environmental, social and good governance objectives (SCHWAB, 2020).

In this way, considering its possibilities of understanding, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has been widely investigated throughout the last few decades. Nevertheless, researchers and practitioners are still far from identifying a generally accepted and reliable theoretical framework to explain issues related to the activity of a broad range of firms (RUSSO; PERRINI, 2009).

Then, while scholarly definitions of CSR are various (MCWILLIAMS; SIEGEL; WRIGHT, 2006; SHETH; BABIAK, 2010), in this paper, taking into account the definition of Carrol (1979), it is accepted that CSR denotes activities by firms that appear to further some social good, where the activity level is ‘‘above and beyond’’ that mandated by law (CAMPBELL; EDEN; MILLER, 2012).

For this study, it is understood that practices of CSR may include flexibility in working hours, part-time work, home office, extended licenses, and managerial and social support. A small definition of these terms is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Definition of the practices considered in this context

 

continua.........

 

Source: the authors (2020).

 

3 METHODS

 

Concerning the methodological procedures used to carry out the research, some aspects stand out: the approach is qualitative research; in relation to the objectives, it is a descriptive research; the adopted research strategy is the case study with an interpretative orientation; the means of research included field research (through a script-guided semi-structured interview) and documentary (public data available on the Internet); As for the time dimension, the research presented a cross-section; the analysis of the data took place through content analysis.

The research subjects were 15 working women from three large Brazilian industries of different segments. To guarantee the confidentiality of the interviewees, they were identified by the organization name (A, B, C) and numerical order. Thus, the first interviewee of organization A is named here as A1, the second one as A2, and so on. In Table 2 are the profiles of the interviewees of each organization.

Table 2: Profile of interviewees

 

Continua.....

 

Source: the authors (2020).

 

The results obtained in the realized research are presented below and are followed by the conclusions of this study.

 

4 FINDINGS

 

The results are presented in order to highlight the practices of corporate social responsibility aimed at balancing work and family that were identified by the 15 women interviewed.

Regarding flexibility, in the Organization A, the workers mentioned the so-called “Friday flex”, a reduced working day option on Fridays. However, different perceptions were perceived regarding the effective possibility of using this “benefit” without judgment of managers and co-workers, according to the following reports: “[...] once a month we can do ... Friday flex. One or two, I do not know, I do several”(A1). “I have never used Friday flex. [...] is something that was implemented a few months ago”(A2).

In Organization B, flexibility is mainly the possibility of workers in the administrative sector, however, the operative workers stated that there is an understanding on the part of the company in cases in which it is necessary to arrive later at work and/or leave early. A worker’s comment reflects this: “Organization B is a very flexible company, knows how to try to look on the side of the employee and ... in those situations where there is a real demand for the employee to have any health problem or situation more serious to solve, okay? So we always try to look at the person’s side too”(B6).

Similarly, in Organization C the issue of flexibility is present in the administrative sector. However, the workers’ dissatisfaction in this respect stands out: “I think it had to be a bit more malleable, especially since we could leave early, with the consent of the manager, and that depends on the area” (C3). “There’s no flexibility at all. It is completely plastered” (C1).

As for the partial work, most of the women stated that they would like to have this alternative. This practice was perceived only in Organization A and is only practicable on the employee’s birthday, where the employee may choose to work part-time or not to work. Aspiration for part-time work by women, as noted, may be related to the following factors: (1) small children are the cause of greater conflict for their parents (RUPPANNER, 2013); (2) the greater the number of hours worked, the greater the likelihood of work-family conflict experience (COOKLIN et al., 2014); (3) a way of reconciling work and family is the partial work (LEWIS; CAMPBELL; HUERTA, 2008; ROSA; LORGA; LYONETTE, 2015); and (4) part-time work is a good solution to avoid work-family conflict (CHAMBEL et al., 2017).

The home office is another practice that was only perceived in Organization A. However, there is an inconsistency between what is said by Organization A in the form of disclosure/exposure on the Internet and what is actually practiced. On a day-to-day basis, this policy is associated with a few specific jobs and days. Interviewees of the three organizations have expressed their willingness to work at home sometimes: “I would like to be able to do the home office in a few moments, to have more time to take care of my home and to raise my children in the future” (A3). “Sometimes I wish I had the chance to work from home. [...]. If I had a tool like an email, the firm system at home, I could work from home”(B3). “Sometimes we think like this: God, if I could take this and do it at home it would be good, right?” (C5).

Since maternity leave is legally established in Brazil through Law No. 8,861 (1994), it is considered here as a practice of corporate social responsibility only the extended maternity leave, since the latter is optional for each organization. The extended license is practical only in Organization A. Respondents commented on the importance of the organization’s support before, during, and especially after the leave period. That’s because women often go back to work in fear of being fired and unsafe about whether to take a new leave if they choose to have another child: “We are very insecure. Together with maternity, we are already very vulnerable. So, in a way, when we come back, people think, ‘Wow, what’s going to happen? Am I going to get fired in a month? ‘”(C2).

In addition to the extended maternity leave, the extended paternity leave is also occurring in Organization A. In other organizations, licenses and other benefits are strictly permitted under legislation (CONSTITUIÇÃO DA REPÚBLICA FEDERATIVA DO BRASIL DE 1988). In particular, the women of Organization C comment on the need to extend the leave to accompany children in medical consultations (both regarding the days of absence and the age of the child), since, by law, the worker may be absent only once a year to accompany the child up to six years of age.

Finally, management and social support were identified as a CSR practice. For the interviewee A2, the practices mentioned above only succeed when there are an example and consent of superiors. For the interviewee C3, the non-performance of social assistance reveals itself as a lack of support from the organization, which is related to social support. Such support is focused on collaborative problem solving and information sharing, reassessment of situations and advice (BROUGH; PEARS, 2004), and is essential to help workers manage conflicts resulting from work activities and the family (ACHOUR et al., 2017). On the other hand, when employees perceive supervisors to be concerned with their family obligations, they may qualify their labor affairs as less threatening, reducing conflict and stress at work (MANSOUR; TREMBLAY, 2016). This is the case of some interviewees such as A1, B1, B2, B3, C4, and C5.

 

5 CONCLUSIONS

 

From the results of this research, it can be seen that CSR practices aimed at worker’s families have not been enough for them to balance their lives between work and family.

In this sense, the practical contributions of this research cover employees and employers. For employees, the contribution consists of the reflection generated about work and the family, especially about how the organization has collaborated or not so that these two spheres are reconciled. For employers, it is expected that in possession of this information be sensitized to the needs of workers, offering more generous benefits and compatible with the needs and difficulties of these individuals.

With regard to theory, this work contributes to analyzing, from the perspective of working women in the industrial sector, practices of corporate social responsibility that contribute to the balance between work and family. However, the research possibilities are not exhausted. Future research may seek the relationship between CSR practices related to the family of workers and factors such as job satisfaction, performance, turnover, average time, among others. In addition, it is possible to broaden the research subjects, including, for example, service sector workers.

 

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