Organizational structure as a factor of development of corporate social responsibility in Romanian companies

The role of corporate social responsibility for the development of fundamental basis of social-economic interaction on sustainable development basis is significant for the existing corporate relations in the global economy. Corporate social responsibility means a voluntary initiative of separate corporations to implement a system social policy in the interests of society in general through the implementation of socially significant obligations established by laws, ethical standards, adopted rules of behaviour. In this regard the importance to study the corporate social responsibility phenomenon is that corporations with their socially significant behaviour predetermine social values in society in general and determine the vector of its socio-economic development. Considering the fact that the system of corporate social responsibility is based on labour relations incorporated into social-economic mechanism of a corporation and the mechanism in its turn is based on a company’s organizational structure the impact of an organizational structure on the corporate social responsibility practice is investigated in the research. The purpose of the article is to assess the impact of organizational structures of a company on the development of the systems of corporate social responsibility and to reveal differences in the corporate social responsibility systems of companies with different types of organizational structures. To achieve the aim of the study a theoretical review of approaches to understanding the essence of organizational structures and models of corporate social responsibility has been made. To analyse organizational structures we have used a synthetic approach that differentiates the structures into two types: mechanistic (with a high level of hierarchy and division of labour) and organic (flexible and better adapted to the rapid change of external conditions, including the emergence of new technologies). The hypothesis of the research is the assumption that companies with organic organizational structures are more progressive in the development of corporate social responsibility systems and the introduction of the principles of corporate social responsibility into their business practices. The study is based on social and ecological reports of Romanian companies that have more than 249 employees. The case-study method, interviewing, the tools of economic-mathematical analysis of data have been used in the research. While analyzing the contemporary status of the corporate social responsibility in Romania and 87 results of the questioning of the representatives of the Romanian companies we have come to the conclusion that despite the type of the organizational structure the key factors of the development of the system of corporate social structure are a company image and its reputation at the market, practice of purchasing (e.g. the compliance of the ethical code of a company by business partners and suppliers), the assessment of human rights in the company by business partners and industry trends of sustainable development. At that, the hypothesis that companies with mechanistic and organic organizational structures differently assess the role of the factors of corporate social responsibility. Thus, for companies with mechanistic organizational structures, image and reputation at the market, assessment of human rights by business partners, procurement practices, motivation and competence of personnel, and the absence of discrimination in remuneration of men and women are of fundamental importance in the development of corporate social responsibility systems. Companies with the organic type of organizational structure significantly appreciate the image and reputation at the market, as well as the level of internationalization of a company, the use of ECO labels, industry trends of sustainable development and production efficiency. As regards the advantages of the introduction of corporate social responsibility principles in the activities of companies, we have discovered that the differences are mainly observed in the average estimates of the analyzed factors in favour of companies with organic organizational structures. Results obtained in the investigation allow us to construct a profile of corporate social responsibility of companies with different types of organizational structures, to identify the advantages of the development of the system of corporate social responsibility and to make strategic priorities of socially oriented activity of a company more detailed. And further studies will be devoted to this aspect