This article examines how local organizations respond to the global norm of corporate social responsibility (CSR), focusing on the case of workplace gender diversity in Japan. Though many global institutional investors have declared their commitment to CSR principles, whether and how their investments actually improve local practices has yet to be examined. We hypothesize that changes implemented by local firms in response to pressure from global institutional investors are shaped by political dynamics among competing professional groups in organizations. Through interviews with CSR managers and consultants in Japan, we find that CSR managers push for gender diversity only in the upper ranks of their organizations. This helps managers limit resistance from human resources managers, who want to maintain the traditional employment system, while still gaining support from investor relations managers, who support changes that are visible to investors. Our findings from panel data analysis further document this change above the glass ceiling. Analyzing more than 800 Japanese firms between 2001 and 2009, we show that both foreign investment and the within-firm influence of CSR and investor relations managers significantly increased the number of women on boards and in managerial positions but did not improve the lot of those in non-managerial or entry-level positions. Our study contributes to research on diffusion and organizational change by illuminating interprofessional politics in the local implementation of global norms.
AbbottA.1988The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2.
AckerJ.2006“Inequality regimes: Gender, class, and race in organizations.”Gender and Society, 20: 441–464.
3.
AggarwalR.ErelI.FerreiraM.MatosP.2011“Does governance travel around the world? Evidence from institutional investors.”Journal of Financial Economics, 100: 154–181.
4.
AguileraR. V.Cuervo-CazurraA.2004“Codes of good governance worldwide: What is the trigger?”Organization Studies, 25: 415–443.
5.
AguileraR. V.RuppD. E.WilliamsC. A.GanapathiJ.2007“Putting the S back in corporate social responsibility: A multilevel theory of social change in organizations.”Academy of Management Review, 32: 836–863.
6.
AhmadjianC. L.RobbinsG. E.2005“A clash of capitalisms: Foreign shareholders and corporate restructuring in 1990s Japan.”American Sociological Review, 70: 451–471.
7.
AhmadjianC. L.RobinsonP.2001“Safety in numbers: Downsizing and the deinstitutionalization of permanent employment in Japan.”Administrative Science Quarterly, 46: 622–654.
8.
AibaK.WhartonA. S.2001“Job-level sex composition and the sex pay gap in a large Japanese firm.”Sociological Perspectives, 44: 67–87.
9.
AllisonP. D.1982“Discrete-time methods for the analysis of event histories.” In LeinhardtS. (ed.), Sociological Methodology: 61–98. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
10.
AllisonP. D.1995Survival Analysis Using SAS: A Practical Guide. Cary, NC: SAS Institute.
11.
AllisonP. D.2005Fixed Effects Regression Methods for Longitudinal Data Using SAS. Cary, NC: SAS Press.
12.
AmentaE.CarruthersB. G.ZylanY.1992“A hero for the aged? The Townsend movement, the political mediation model, and U.S. old-age policy, 1934–1950.”American Journal of Sociology, 98: 308–339.
13.
AngristJ. D.PischkeJ.2009Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
14.
AnsariS. M.FissP. C.ZajacE. J.2010“Made to fit: How practices vary as they diffuse.”Academy of Management Review, 35: 67–92.
15.
AokiM.1988Information, Incentives, and Bargaining in the Janapese Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
16.
AsakuraM.1999The New Era of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (Kintōhō no shinsekai). Tokyo: Yūhikaku.
17.
Avent-HoltD.Tomaskovic-DeveyD.2014“A relational theory of earnings inequality.”American Behavioral Scientist, 58: 379–399.
18.
BaronJ. N.BielbyW. T.1980“Bringing the firms back in: Stratification, segmentation, and the organization of work.”American Sociological Review, 45: 737–765.
19.
BaronJ. N.MittmanB. S.NewmanA. E.1991“Targets of opportunity: Organizational and environmental determinants of gender integration within the California Civil Service, 1979–1985.”American Journal of Sociology, 96: 1362–1401.
20.
BartleyT.2007“Institutional emergence in an era of globalization: The rise of transnational private regulation of labor and environmental conditions.”American Journal of Sociology, 113: 297–351.
21.
BascleG.2008“Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research.”Strategic Organization, 6: 285–327.
22.
BattilanaJ.DoradoS.2010“Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations.”Academy of Management Journal, 53: 1419–1440.
23.
BechkyB. A.2003“Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The transformation of understanding on a production floor.”Organization Science, 14: 312–330.
24.
BerreyE.2014“Breaking glass ceilings, ignoring dirty floors: The culture and class bias of diversity management.”American Behavioral Scientist, 58: 347–370.
25.
BesharovM. L.SmithW. K.2014“Multiple institutional logics in organizations: Explaining their varied nature and implications.”Academy of Management Review, 39: 364–381.
26.
BrammerS.JacksonG.MattenD.2012“Corporate social responsibility and institutional theory: New perspectives on private governance.”Socio-Economic Review, 10: 3–28.
27.
BrintonM. C.1993Women and the Economic Miracle: Gender and Work in Postwar Japan. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
28.
BrintonM. C.MunE.2016“Between state and family: Managers’ implementation and evaluation of parental leave policies in Japan.”Socio-Economic Review, 14: 257–281.
29.
BriscoeF.MurphyC.2012“Sleight of hand? Practice opacity, third-party responses, and the interorganizational diffusion of controversial practices.”Administrative Science Quarterly, 57: 553–584.
30.
BromleyP.PowellW. W.2012“From smoke and mirrors to walking the talk: Decoupling in the contemporary world.”Academy of Management Annals, 6: 483–530.
31.
CampbellJ. L.2004Institutional Change and Globalization. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
32.
CampbellJ. L.2005“Where do we stand.” In DavisG. F.McAdamD.ScottW. R.ZaldM. N. (eds.), Social Movements and Organization Theory: 41–68. New York: Cambridge University Press.
33.
CampbellJ. L.2007“Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility.”Academy of Management Review, 32: 946–967.
34.
ChangM. L.2004“Growing pains: Cross-national variation in sex segregation in sixteen developing countries.”American Sociological Review, 69: 114–137.
35.
ChatterjiA. K.ToffelM. W.2010“How firms respond to being rated.”Strategic Management Journal, 31: 917–945.
36.
CohenL. E.BroschakJ. P.HavemanH. A.1998“And then there were more? The effect of organizational sex composition on the hiring and promotion of managers.”American Sociological Review, 63: 711–727.
37.
CollinsS. M.1997Black Corporate Executives: The Making and Breaking of a Black Middle Class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
38.
CrillyD.ZolloM.HansenM. T.2012“Faking it or muddling through? Understanding decoupling in response to stakeholder pressures.”Academy of Management Journal, 55: 1429–1448.
39.
Czarniawska-JoergesB.SevónG.1996Translating Organizational Change. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
40.
DelmasM. A.Montes-SanchoM. J.2010“Voluntary agreements to improve environmental quality: Symbolic and substantive cooperation.”Strategic Management Journal, 31: 575–601.
41.
DenckerJ. C.2008“Corporate restructuring and sex differences in managerial promotion.”American Sociological Review, 73: 455–476.
42.
DesenderK. A.AguileraR. V.Lópezpuertas-LamyM.CrespiR.2016“A clash of governance logics: Foreign ownership and board monitoring.”Strategic Management Journal, 37: 349–369.
43.
DiMaggioP. J.PowellW. W.1983“The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields.”American Sociological Review, 48: 147–160.
44.
DobbinF.2009Inventing Equal Opportunity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
45.
DobbinF.KellyE. L.2007“How to stop harassment: Professional construction of legal compliance in organizations.”American Journal of Sociology, 112: 1203–1243.
46.
DobbinF.SchrageD.KalevA.2015“Rage against the iron cage: The varied effects of bureaucratic personnel reforms on diversity.”American Sociological Review, 80:1014–1044.
47.
DobbinF.SuttonJ. R.1998“The strength of a weak state: The rights revolution and the rise of human resources management divisions.”American Journal of Sociology, 104: 441–476.
48.
DoreR. P.1973British Factory, Japanese Factory: The Origins of National Diversity in Industrial Relations. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
EdelmanL.1992“Legal ambiguity and symbolic structures: Organizational mediation of civil rights law.”American Journal of Sociology, 97: 1531–1576.
51.
EdelmanL. B.FullerS. R.Mara-DritaI.2001“Diversity rhetoric and the managerialization of law.”American Journal of Sociology, 106: 1589–1641.
52.
ElviraM. M.GrahamM. E.2002“Not just a formality: Pay system formalization and sex-related earnings effects.”Organization Science, 13: 601–617.
53.
Estévez-AbeM.2005“Gender bias in skills and social policies: The varieties of capitalism perspective on sex segregation.”Social Politics, 12: 180–215.
54.
FoxJ.1997Applied Regression Analysis, Linear Models, and Related Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
55.
FreidsonE.1970Profession of Medicine: A Study of the Sociology of Applied Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
56.
GerlachM. L.1992Alliance Capitalism: The Social Organization of Japanese Business. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
57.
GillanS. L.StarksL. T.2003“Corporate governance, corporate ownership, and the role of institutional investors: A global perspective.”Journal of Applied Finance, 13: 4–22.
58.
GlynnM. A.2000“When cymbals become symbols: Conflict over organizational identity within a symphony orchestra.”Organization Science, 11: 285–298.
59.
GordonJ. N.2007“The rise of independent directors in the United States, 1950–2005: Of shareholder value and stock market prices.”Stanford Law Review, 59: 1465–1568.
60.
GormanE. H.KmecJ. A.2009“Hierarchical rank and women’s organizational mobility: Glass ceilings in corporate law firms.”American Journal of Sociology, 114: 1428–1474.
GreenwoodR.RaynardM.KodeihF.MicelottaE. R.LounsburyM.2011“Institutional complexity and organizational responses.”Academy of Management Annals, 5: 317–371.
63.
HallettT.2010“The myth incarnate: Recoupling processes, turmoil, and inhabited institutions in an urban elementary school.”American Sociological Review, 75: 52–74.
64.
HallettT.VentrescaM.2006“Inhabited institutions: Social interactions and organizational forms in Gouldner’s patterns of industrial bureaucracy.”Theory and Society, 35: 213–236.
65.
HallidayT. C.CarruthersB. G.2007“The recursivity of law: Global norm making and national lawmaking in the globalization of corporate insolvency regimes.”American Journal of Sociology, 112: 1135–1202.
66.
HamadaF.2005“What should be done to reinforce the Anti-Sex Discrimination Act of 1997?” Japanese Journal of Labour Studies (Nihon Rodo Kenkyu Zassi), May: 4–14.
IshidaM.2010“Corporate social responsibility, socially responsible investment and labour law in Japan: The lessons from the Nomura Securities case.”Waseda Law Journal, 83: 1–19.
72.
JacobyS. M.2005The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
73.
JacobyS. M.2007“Principles and agents: CalPERS and corporate governance in Japan.”Corporate Governance, 15: 5–15.
74.
JungJ.MunE.2016“Bending but not breaking? Foreign investor pressure and dividend payouts by Japanese firms.”Sociological Forum, 31: 663–684.
75.
KalevA.DobbinF.KellyE. L.2006“Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies.”American Sociological Review, 71: 589–617.
76.
KanterR. M.1977Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.
77.
KatoT.KodamaN.2017“The effect of corporate social responsibility on gender diversity in the workplace: Econometric evidence from Japan.”British Journal of Industrial Relations, published online ahead of print. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjir.12238/full.
78.
KawaguchiA.2009“Corporate governance by investors and the role of women.”Japan Labor Review, 6: 72–90.
79.
KawaguchiA.2013“Equal employment opportunity act and work–life balance: Do work–family balance policies contribute to achieving gender equality?”Japan Labor Review, 10: 35–56.
80.
KelloggK. C.2009“Operating room: Relational spaces and microinstitutional change in surgery.”American Journal of Sociology, 115: 657–711.
81.
KelloggK. C.2012“Making the cut: Using status-based countertactics to block social movement implementation and microinstitutional change in surgery.”Organization Science, 23: 1546–1570.
82.
KelloggK. C.2014“Brokerage professions and implementing reform in an age of experts.”American Sociological Review, 79: 912–941.
83.
KimE.-H.LyonT. P.2015“Greenwash vs. brownwash: Exaggeration and undue modesty in corporate sustainability disclosure.”Organization Science, 26: 705–723.
84.
KurtulusF. A.Tomaskovic-DeveyD.2012“Do female top managers help women to advance? A panel study using EEO-1 records.”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 639: 173–197.
85.
LeichtK. T.FennellM. L.1997“The changing organizational context of professional work.”Annual Review of Sociology, 23: 215–231.
86.
LimA.TsutsuiK.2012“Globalization and commitment in corporate social responsibility: Cross-national analyses of institutional and political-economy effects.”American Sociological Review, 77: 69–98.
87.
LincolnJ. R.KallebergA. L.1985“Work organization and workforce commitment: A study of plants and employees in the U.S. and Japan.”American Sociological Review, 50: 738–760.
88.
LockeR. M.2013The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
89.
LounsburyM.2002“Institutional transformation and status mobility: The professionalization of the field of finance.”Academy of Management Journal, 45: 255–266.
90.
MarantzE. A.KalevA.Lewin-EpsteinN.2014“Globally themed organizations as labor market intermediaries: The rise of Israeli-Palestinian women’s employment in retail.”Social Forces, 93: 595–622.
91.
MargolisJ. D.WalshJ. P.2003“Misery loves companies: Rethinking social initiatives by business.”Administrative Science Quarterly, 48: 268–305.
92.
MarquisC.QianC.2014“Corporate social responsibility reporting in China: Symbol or substance?”Organization Science, 25: 127–148.
93.
MarquisC.ToffelM. W.ZhouY.2016“Scrutiny, norms, and selective disclosure: A global study of greenwashing.”Organization Science, 27: 483–504.
94.
McAdamD.1982Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
95.
McDonnellM.-H.KingB. G.SouleS. A.2015“A dynamic process model of private politics: Activist targeting and corporate receptivity to social challenges.”American Sociological Review, 80: 654–678.
96.
McPhersonC. M.SauderM.2013“Logics in action: Managing institutional complexity in a drug court.”Administrative Science Quarterly, 58: 165–196.
97.
MeyerJ. W.BoliJ.ThomasG. M.RamirezF. O.1997“World society and the nation-state.”American Journal of Sociology, 103: 144–181.
98.
MeyerJ. W.RowanB.1977“Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony.”American Journal of Sociology, 83: 340–363.
99.
MunE.2016“Negative compliance as an organizational response to legal pressures: The case of Japanese equal employment opportunity law.”Social Forces, 94: 1409–1437.
100.
NemotoK.2016Too Few Women at the Top: The Persistence of Inequality in Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
101.
Nihon Research Institute2013“Movement surrounding CSR: Support for women’s advancement (CSR wo meguru ugoki: jyosei no katsuyakushien).”March1. https://www.jri.co.jp/page.jsp?id=22806.
102.
Nikkei Weekly2009“Dearth of SRI could hit Japan firms.”Dec. 28.
103.
OgasawaraY.1998Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
104.
OlcottG.2009Conflict and Change: Foreign Ownership and the Japanese Firm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
105.
OliverC.1991“Strategic responses to institutional processes.”Academy of Management Review, 16: 145–179.
106.
OnoH.2007“Careers in foreign-owned firms in Japan.”American Sociological Review, 72: 267–290.
107.
OnoH.2010“Lifetime employment in Japan: Concepts and measurements.”Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 24: 1–27.
108.
PacheA.SantosF.2010“When worlds collide: The internal dynamics of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands.”Academy of Management Review, 35: 455–476.
109.
RamirezF. O.SoysalY.ShanahanS.1997“The changing logic of political citizenship: Cross-national acquisition of women’s suffrage rights, 1890 to 1990.”American Sociological Review, 62: 735–745.
110.
ReskinB. F.McBrierD. B.KmecJ. A.1999“The determinants and consequences of workplace sex and race composition.”Annual Review of Sociology, 25: 335–361.
111.
SauderM.EspelandW. N.2009“The discipline of rankings: Tight coupling and organizational change.”American Sociological Review, 74: 63–82.
112.
SharkeyA. J.BromleyP.2015“Can ratings have indirect effects? Evidence from the organizational response to peers’ environmental ratings.”American Sociological Review, 80: 63–91.
113.
SiegelJ.PyunL.ChunB. Y.2010“Multinational firms, labor market discrimination, and the capture of competitive advantage by exploiting the social divide.”Harvard Business School Working Paper 11–011.
114.
SingerJ. D.WillettJ. B.2003Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence. New York: Oxford University Press.
115.
SrivastavaS. B.ShermanE. L.2015“Agents of change or cogs in the machine? Reexamining the influence of female managers on the gender wage gap.”American Journal of Sociology, 120: 1778–1808.
116.
StaigerD.StockJ. H.1997“Instrumental variables regression with weak instruments.”Econometrica, 65: 557–586.
117.
StrangD.MeyerJ. W.1993“Institutional conditions for diffusion.”Theory and Society, 22: 487–511.
118.
StrykerR.1994“Rules, resources, and legitimacy processes: Some implications for social conflict, order, and change.”American Journal of Sociology, 99: 847–910.
119.
SuzukiK.TanimotoK.KokkoA.2010“Does foreign investment matter? Effects of foreign investment on the institutionalisation of corporate social responsibility by Japanese firms.”Asian Business and Management, 9: 379–400.
120.
TakabaM.MoscardiM.2014“ESG country report: Indentifying key ESG risks in Japan.” Tokyo: MSCI ESG Research.
121.
TakeishiE.2007“Support of work–family balance and women’s careers.”Japan Labor Review, 4: 79–96.
122.
TanakaT.2015“Foreign investors and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from the career advancement of women in Japan.”Applied Economics, 47: 3510–3524.
123.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW.1999“Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958–1990.”American Journal of Sociology, 105: 801–843.
124.
TilcsikA.2010“From ritual to reality: Demography, ideology, and decoupling in a post-Communist government agency.”Academy of Management Journal, 53: 1474–1498.
125.
Tomaskovic-DeveyD.1993Gender and Racial Inequality at Work: The Sources and Consequences of Job Segregation. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
126.
TownsendA.2003“Ethical funds told to shun Nomura over sex bias.”The Independent, Dec. 28: 22.
127.
UphamF. K.1987Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
128.
VasudevaG.2013“Weaving together the normative and regulative roles of government: How the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund’s responsible conduct is shaping firms’ cross-border investments.”Organization Science, 24: 1662–1682.
129.
VillarrealA.YuW.2007“Economic globalization and women’s employment: The case of manufacturing in Mexico.”American Sociological Review, 72: 365–389.
130.
VogelD.2005The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
131.
WeberK.RaoH.ThomasL. G.2009“From streets to suites: How the anti-biotech movement affected German pharmaceutical firms.”American Sociological Review, 74: 106–127.
132.
YoshikawaT.GedajlovicE.2002“The impact of global capital market exposure and stable ownership on investor relations practices and performance of Japanese firms.”Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 19: 525–540.
133.
YuW.2009Gendered Trajectories: Women, Work, and Social Change in Japan and Taiwan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
