MULTILEVEL CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: A COMPARISON OF GANDHI’S TRUSTEESHIP WITH STAKEHOLDER AND STEWARDSHIP FRAMEWORKS

Abstract

Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi discussed corporate responsibility (CR) and business ethics over several decades of the 20th century. His views are still influential in modern India. In this paper, we highlight Gandhi’s cross-level CR framework, which operates at institutional, organizational, and individual levels. We also outline how the Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, has historically applied and continues to utilize Gandhi’s concept of trusteeship. We then compare Gandhi’s framework to modern notions of stakeholder and stewardship management. We conclude that trusteeship has strong potential to help firms and their stakeholders achieve shared value by: (a) considering the interactions between individual, organizational, and institutional factors and; (b) paying attention to a range of multi-level (reciprocal) stakeholder obligations.