Today, organizations worldwide have to take into account their effect on society both inside and outside of the company – critical consumers demand ethical products on the store shelves, and employees demand a healthy work environment and motivating jobs. This is the reason why words such as Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Social Responsibility are on the agenda of almost every large corporation. This also applies for Denmark and one of the nation’s biggest companies, Danfoss. Since 2002, Danfoss has worked with Corporate Citizenship in its current form, which means that the company defines itself as a citizen with responsibilities towards the world’s population and itself. A successful Corporate Citizenship profile depends on motivated employees, who live by the values and ethics made by Danfoss, and who are proud of their workplace. This master thesis has therefore set out to examine the strategic role of employees in Danfoss’ Corporate Citizenship profile, how they are portrayed, and finally the effect this has on the employees’ motivation.
Danfoss is a global corporation with 30.000 employees worldwide. Thus, the company has a great task ahead of them – to attract and maintain the many employees, while making sure that the employees live up to Danfoss’ standards. Every employee in Danfoss is seen as a stakeholder with a great influence on Danfoss’ image amongst the public. The company uses their Corporate Citizenship profile to promote their employees and the work environment, which for example is shown in their annual Corporate Citizenship reports. In these reports, the employees are portrayed as qualified and motivated individuals. According to Danfoss, it is furthermore the employees, who saved Danfoss from the economic crises. Both rhetorical and visually they are portrayed as being happy and satisfied, which gives the reader a sense of Danfoss as a good workplace, where everybody is a part of a big harmonized group. The reports form a very positive portrait of the employees, and at the same time Danfoss informs the readers of how they expect their current and future employees to behave. It is most likely the management has made the descriptions of the employees, because the descriptions are very positive and shows the employees, as the management wants them to be seen. Among the employees these positive portraits can therefore be seen as misleading, if they do not feel that they have been described accurately.
Every individual is different, and these descriptions can have both positive and negative effects on the employees’ motivation. Corporate Citizenship can provide the employees with a sense of community, and the positive thoughts and portraits from Danfoss’ management can rub off on the employees, so they themselves think positive concerning their job and their performance. This can eventually make them more motivated and efficient. By setting demands to how the employees shall act, the management risk meeting defiant employees, who are not willing to change behaviour, which will ultimately lead to a decrease in motivation. The portrait of the employees can therefore also be used to control the employees, because many of them will be afraid of losing their job, so they compromise themselves and change behaviour.
Based on the analysis throughout the master thesis, it can be concluded that Danfoss has a lot of focus on the wellbeing of their employees and the importance of having a good work environment, because the employees are a great source for branding the company and attracting new and qualified employees.