The aim of this chapter is to contribute to the further advancement of theoretical and empirical debate on CSR management by yielding support to the multidisciplinary and ‘context-dependent' nature of the field of managerial leadership of CSR and illustrating the various managerial orientations and attitudes of Iran's auto industry. Whilst there was very considerable evidence of the increased emphasis upon Sharia compliance mandate to regulate individual managers' personal values and orientation, there was much less evidence that this had as yet been carried through into similar behavioural and attitudinal changes at organisational and societal levels. Hence, the dominant managerial orientations toward CSR neither brought corporate behaviour up to a level where it was congruent with the prevailing Islamic cultural and societal norms nor it fulfilled the developmental promise of CSR. In a nutshell, the overall trend was incontrovertibly toward more personal/managerial use of CSR and failure to maintain a balance between (normative) developmental and instrumental CSR.
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There has been a growing interest in the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in the advanced Western and developed Asian and emerging countries over the past several decades (Crane et al., 2019; Carroll, 1999; Carroll, 2016; Davidson & Yin, 2019; Fukukawa &Teramoto, 2009; Jamali, 2007; Matten &Moon, 2008). Such a massive amount of attention to CSR practices is largely attributed to its potential business benefits such as increased retention and reduced recruitment and training costs (Bhattacharya et al., 2008), simultaneous achievement of the triple bottom-line measures (i.e. people, plant, profit) (Kanji & Chopra, 2010; The Economist, 2009), favourable image, reputation, and customer retention (Eisingerich & Ghardwaj, 2011; Korschun et al., 2011), effective risk management (Kytle & Singh, 2005), brand differentiation, and a platform to engage with a diverse range of stakeholders (Lai et al., 2010 – see also Carroll & Shabana, 2010; Epstein, 2018; Luo et al., 2015). It has to be recognised, however, that the full realization of the potential benefits of CSR hinges, in the main, upon managerial orientation and attitude towards CSR practices. This importance is essentially that of Agle et al. (1999), Finkelstein & Hambrick (1996), Jamali et al. (2008), Pant & Lachman (1998), Quazi & O’Brien (2000) and Waldman et al. (2006) who lay stress on managerial personal values as prime factor in firm’s engagement in CSR on both performance and ethical grounds (Donaldson & Preston, 1995; Duarte, 2010; Galbreath, 2010; Hemingway & Maclagan, 2004; Petrenko et al., 2016). Despite the acknowledged significance of CSR practice as a catalyst for enhanced perceptions of organizational performance and individual ethics in both advanced industrialized countries and emerging market economies (see Trajkova et al., 2018) the nature, extent and intricacies of CSR Management in the developing countries (e.g. Middle East region) has remained comparatively unresearched (Blowfield, 2007; Blowfield & Frynas, 2005; Jamali, 2007; Jamali & Karam, 2018).