Acceptance of the Importance of CSR to Organization Effectiveness: The Impact of Cognitive Processes

“Doing well by doing good” is of increasing interest and attention has turned to the role of business schools in producing socially responsible business people. Critics argue that business schools produce amoral and unethical business people, and accreditors and schools are responding by incorporating greater levels of ethics and social responsibility training. This study investigates the moderating effects of students’ cognitive moral development and personal moral philosophies on the change in attitudes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) after taking a required, standalone CSR course. In a pre/post survey of graduate and undergraduate students taking a required CSR course, this study found that students at the Conventional level of cognitive moral development experienced a more positive change in attitudes to CSR than students at other levels. This relationship is further moderated by idealism and unaffected by relativism.