Organizational Learning and CSR Norms in the Mining Sector

1. Organizational Learning and CSR Norms in the Mining Sector Hevina S. Dashwood Brock University hdashwood@brocku.ca

2. Introduction • Part of larger research project: influences on the CSR polices of mining companies • Question: how important have emerging global CSR norms been? • Relevance: growing role of the private sector in the provision of public goods

3. Organization • Context • Assumptions and Methodology • Research Findings • Central argument • Explanation • Conclusions

4. Context • Devolution of state authority • Importance of private sector CSR initiatives • New global public domain (Ruggie)

5. Crisis of Legitimacy • Mid-1990s: • Bad reputation: widely publicized environmental disasters • NGO targeting • Tightening of environmental regulations • Loss of access to minerals, markets and capital

6. Research Puzzle • Mining companies in advanced industrialized economies: all facing these common constraints • But, variation in their response • How to explain this?

7. Assumptions • Firms are responsive to normative shifts within the larger society • Norms: inter-subjective understanding of appropriate behaviour • International relations literature: dismissive of normative influence on firms • Institutionalist approaches: firms situated in larger society

8. Methodology • Case study: Noranda (now Xstrata) and Placer Dome (now Barrick) • Strong commitment to CSR • Early leaders in promoting CSR norms globally

9. Findings • Early 2000s: adoption of sustainable development/sustainability policies- global normative dynamics • Senior management: perceived experience of mining to be most important • Some mining companies taking on a leadership role: not just public relations

10. Central Argument • Role of global CSR norms important…but cannot assign to much weight to their role • Need to look at aspects internal to the companies themselves

11. Three Questions • How do mining executives perceive and interpret the influences around them? • What is the role of cognitive learning in explaining how managers responded to the crisis of legitimacy? • How do past experiences influence how companies develop their CSR policies?

12. Explanation • Three elements: • Strategic adaptation • Cognitive learning process • Norms socialization

13. Strategic adaptation • Interest-based response to environmental and social challenges • Vulnerable to local community opposition • Need for a “social license” to operate

14. Cognitive Learning Process • “unlearning” • Role of “policy entrepreneurs” • “single loop learning” • “double loop learning” • Learning a dynamic, on-going process: requires external interaction and engagement

15. Norms socialization • Where do the ideas come from? • How do companies internalize emerging norms? • Strategic adaptation can lead to conviction • “Prescriptive status” • Institutionalization

16. Conclusions • Companies responsive to larger normative shifts in society • Global initiatives that foster learning of critical importance • Engagement with external actors valuable • Compliance-based versus values-based approaches: the latter is better