Corporate social responsibility, human resource management and corporate family responsibility. When a company is “the best place to work”: Elica group, the hi-life company

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to examine the relation-ship between Corporate Social Responsibility poli-cies, and Human Resource Management, particularly focusing on Corporate Family Responsibility. How do CSR practices impact on employees, their work, and their family life? How effective are these practices and how can they positively impact on the difficult “work-life balance”? With the aim to answer to these questions, the study combines the deductive and in-ductive approach. After presenting the theoretical framework, the second part of the paper analyzes the case of Elica Group, a large, multinational Ital-ian family company that has been named one of the “best places to work” in the national and European contexts. The points of reflection that emerge from this study are centered on the factors that induce the company to adopt such policies, and the factors that impact their effectiveness. The results reveal that a robust ethical foundation on the parts of the com-pany’s founder and of its management, as well as their commitment to sharing values and objectives with the entire organization, are keys to Elica’s suc-cess based on a holistic development (economic, so-cial and environmental development).