What Does A Culture of Corporate Social Responsibility “Look” Like? A Glimpse into a Brazilian Mining Company

Abstract

Based on an exploratory study carried out in 2008 on a Brazilian mining corporation, this paper contributes to the field of business anthropology by applying the notion of organizational culture within the specific context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It is based on the assumption that organizations that consciously embrace values such as social justice and environmental sustainability develop rich “CSR cultures” over time with specific structures, practices and symbolic manifestations. This type of organizational culture shapes the company’s identity, purpose, and outlook, generating unique histories and meanings. The first part of the paper defines the notion of CSR culture and describes the conceptual framework used in the study; the second discusses the qualitative methodology used to gather and interpret the data, and the third maps the key features of the CSR culture in a Brazilian mining company, according to the proposed framework.