Employers organisations (EO) in the UK were generally defined as an under researched topic by Barry and Wilkinson in 2011. Relatively recently some EOs have begun to propagate codes of conduct to their member firms – targeting their corporate social responsibility (CSR). However until present, this relationship remains unexplored. Two of my research questions may therefore be:

1. What are the functions, workings and effects of codes of conduct from EOs in the UK that address the CSR performance of their member firms?
2. What are the “determinants of success” of EOs’ CSR codes, and the conditions under which these codes tend to be successful/unsuccessful?

I intend to explore this topic with the help of a case study of a large EO called Business in the Community (BitC). My principle research methods my include interviews with representatives of the BitC and discourse analysis of the BitC documents.