Proceedings

PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY – A EUROPEAN AND NATIONAL
APPROACH
Eugeniu ŢURLEA 1 , Aurelia ŞTEFĂNESCU, Mihaela MOCANU,
Monica DUDIAN & Adriana CALU
Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania
ABSTRACT
The analysis of the current state of the public sector reveals the dependence on political
changes, the interaction of a great number of actors, the gap between offer and demand, a
chronic deficit of financial resources and failure in the efforts to achieve performance. By
means of fundamental research, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is integrated into the
equation of performance of public sector entities. The research endeavour consists of a
synthesis of the literature in the field, as well as of the relevant regulations. The present paper
defines the CSR concept, identifies the characteristic features of the public sector as argument
for implementing CSR in this sector and proposes a CSR framework for the Romanian public
sector. Moreover, we point out how CSR issues are disclosed and perceived in the public
sector of the European Union countries, with reference to the particular case of the
healthcare system.
KEYWORDS: corporate social responsibility, public sector, performance, Romania,
European Union, public healthcare system
INTRODUCTION
The current environment dominated by repeated changes of governmental policies,
significant decrease of public resources, impairment of the public service quality, and
reduced capacity of the public sector to respond to the expectations of the community
require that the performance of public sector entities is approached from the
perspective of corporate social responsibility. Starting from the variety of
connotations of the corporate social responsibility present in the relevant literature,
from the characteristic features of the public sector of European Union countries, as
well as from the way corporate social responsibility is perceived in the public sector
of the Member States, we propose a general corporate social framework for the public
sector of Romania. We consider that such an approach strengthens the commitment of
public sector entities to the benefit of society, environment, and economic welfare and
contributes to improving public sector performance.
The research is interpretative in nature and consists of three dimensions: conceptual
clarifications of corporate social responsibility (CSR), characteristics of the public
1
Correspondence address: Eugeniu TURLEA, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania;
email: eturlea@yahoo.com
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