Department of Management Studies, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-1-89 Higashisenda-machi, Naka-Ward, Hiroshima City, Hiroshima 730-0053, Japan.

Received 15 October 2008; Revised 10 November 2008; Accepted 9 January 2009.

Abstract

This paper features analyses and critiques two incidents involving questionable corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in leading Japanese companies. The author discusses the condition of collective hyperopia in which managers try to make sense of and give sense to something external, aloof and general by ignoring the reality of internal, immediate and concrete contexts of their own corporations. The author also draws on a Habermasian concept of the colonization of the lifeworld in order to discuss this condition. The illustrative cases include quality control circles in Toyota Motor Corporation and learning practices in West Japan Railway Company. Even though the original purpose of CSR was to guide businesses in managing their responsibilities to society, this paper argues that a distorted interpretation of CSR induced failures in implementation. In conclusion, the author contrasts the condition of collective hyperopia with collective myopia, in which the cognitions of practitioners are trapped by the commonsense operating within companies or industries, as was disclosed behind the ethical bankruptcy of Japanese financial institutions in 1997–1998.