Corporate social responsibility or corporate social control? A critical discussion of health-related employee initiatives as part of companies’ CSR communication

In recent years, a new type of CSR initiative has gained momentum: employee health initiatives. While creating the best possible settings for ensuring employees’ health sounds immediately appealing, there is a need for further research on potential critical aspects of incorporating health-related employee benefits into CSR programs. Based on the results and data from a previous study on the extent and nature of such initiatives, we here present dichotomies and stages of health-related initiatives for employees within a CSR context before embarking on a critical discussion of the potential negative implications. The mere fact that health has entered the workplace in relation to CSR initiatives could have negative implications for employees in the form of stigmatization and blurred boundaries between work and private life. The question is whether such initiatives are truly corporate social responsibility, or if they could be viewed as corporate social control.