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This paper aims to explore the potential relationship between internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the decline of organised labour in countries of the global North. Given the opposing trends since the late 20th century and the widespread adherence of internationally recognised labour standards in CSR codes, standards, and reporting frameworks, questions arise about the disparity between CSR rhetoric and practice regarding the collective rights of in-house employees. The paper further explores the tendency in CSR scholarship to overlook violations of collective rights for in-house employees in the global North.

To examine whether there is an elective affinity between the rise of CSR and the decline of organised labour, the paper uses a discursive institutionalism approach, providing a meta-theoretical analysis of academic literature on internal CSR. A scoping review methodology was used to identify relevant literature and compile it into an empirical corpus for a metatheoretical analysis. The empirical corpus, consisting of 38 articles, was generated through a Google Scholar (GS) search guided by the following questions: (1) What are the dominant conceptual framings of internal CSR? (2) What are the dominant roles and practical aspects of internal CSR?

The paper identifies two key disparities in the literature: (1) between rhetoric and practice regarding the collective rights of in-house employees in the global North and (2) between the extensive CSR research on violations of collective rights of value chain workers and the limited attention to in-house employees’ collective rights. The analysis highlights two factors contributing to these disparities: the integration of internal CSR into the corporate managerial toolbox and the distinction in CSR discourse between core labour standards and workplace issues. The analysis shows that internal CSR has an elective affinity with the decline of organised labour.

While scoping reviews are often standalone studies, this paper used the methodology for its stated purpose. Limitations include the broad span of internal CSR across various academic fields and reliance solely on GS. Measures taken to enhance inclusivity were unlimited review period, refined inclusion criteria and keywords during the selection process and cross-checks of cited articles.

Considering the implications of the decline of organised labour on workers’ collective voice, poverty and the distribution gap in wealth and income, this paper suggests that for CSR to play a significant role in advancing sustainable social justice, scholars and practitioners should look at ways to reduce the disparity between rhetoric and practice regarding employees’ voice and collective rights.

The paper lays the foundation for a better understanding of the potential links between internal CSR and the decline of organised labour. It addresses a gap in the literature on the interrelations between CSR and organised labour in the global North and proposes root causes of this gap. This contribution enriches the scarce literature exploring the potential elective affinity between CSR and transformations in the global economy and labour markets since the late 1980s. Finally, the paper deepens the understanding of the implications of CSR for employees’ collective rights and voice as well as for organised labour.

By focusing on the intra‐organization dimension of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this paper aims to offer an ethnographic analysis of the way Coca‐Cola integrates its re‐branding and marketing strategies with CSR and the processes through which this strategic agenda is diffused into the company's national franchise in Israel.

The research is based on a combined qualitative methodology of interviews with managers and employees on all levels of the organization; participant observations of formal meetings, company events and informal gatherings; and document evaluation.

This paper shows how the CSR program is purposefully and rationally designed to meet the standards of a business case approach to CSR and that, accordingly, company managers integrate it into the activities of departments and divisions such as sales, marketing, and human resources (HR). The paper further shows that the cause‐marketing and product‐branding goals underlying the global re‐branding strategy of Coca‐Cola have been mediated through employee volunteering projects that are based on the recruitment and mobilization of the physical bodies of employees not only as “bodily‐corporate‐producers”, but also as “bodily‐corporate‐ambassadors”.

The in‐depth empirical research that focused on a single corporation enabled the author to reach a better understanding of the intricate organizational processes involved in the implementation of CSR programs and their effects. At the same time, the research plan lacks a comparative examination of similar processes in other corporations. In this regard, this paper delineates the theoretical and empirical contours for future studies on the actual effects of implementation processes of the business case model for CSR.

The paper enriches a missing part in the literature regarding empirical examination of the impact of CSR at close range and at the level of individual firms.