According to Schein, there is no organization without values (Schein, 2004). They are always present and manifested in organizational artifacts, behaviors, processes, structures, etc. Organizations and their members build hierarchies of values depending on their significance for the company, which means that some values take precedence over others (Gandal et al., 2005; Tuulik et al., 2016). Values that are important to people tend to affect the types of decisions they make, the way they perceive their environment, and their actual behaviors. Value is one of the fundamental concepts of axiology (the science of values) that defines everything that is desirable, worthy, and valuable for an individual, i.e., what constitutes the goal of human endeavor. Value is an ambiguous concept; there are many perceptions of the concept, which is evidenced by numerous studies and reflections on this subject. The extreme significance of values in the life of every human being and in social life is not even suppressed by a dispute that has been unresolved for centuries. It concerns the way values exist (they exist in an absolute or relative way), the nature of values (they are subjective or objective), and the classification of values (they are autotelic or instrumental) nor their antinomianism (conflict character) (Filek, 2020, p. 8).

This study is an attempt to present the ways of defining and classifying values; it aims to propose an original definition of value from the perspective of the CSR concept. A review of the literature and a discussion on this subject is a starting point for further considerations on the impact of these values on the broadly perceived activity of organizations and people. The authors are aware, however, that it is impossible to capture in just a few pages, the entire complexity of various phenomena that contributed to the contemporary understanding (misunderstanding) of values. This is because each epoch had its theories, and each theory had its “own” interpretation of values, arising from the concepts and models forming the system(s) that existed in this theory.

Various sciences underlie the value definition. They are not discussed in this chapter as widely as they deserve; however, it is worth emphasizing that value as an abstract concept receives a meaning (interpretation) in a specific context. Over hundreds of years, many concepts of fundamental values shaping the perception of the surrounding reality and naming what is valuable have been formulated. They often had an abstract dimension and were related to people, their system of values, and attitudes. With monetization, values became increasingly quantified and calculated. The hierarchy of values also changed. What was profitable and what was valuable in an economic sense was increasingly significant. This can be seen from the perspective of the development of economic thought, where Adam Smith's classical theory laid the foundations for economic thinking. It should be emphasized, however, that in his considerations he combined the idea of a free market with morality, responsibility, and ethics. Yet, it seems that his observations have been narrowed over the hundreds of years, so that with the development of economies, globalization, development of financial instruments, etc. these issues have failed to be combined. The topic of social sensitivity and common value has been severely limited over the centuries, not to say marginalized; the focus was rather on understanding the principles and laws of the functioning of the market described in the book “Research on the nature and causes of the wealth of nations”. Meanwhile, the “Theory of Moral Sentiments” by A. Smith includes the issues of social justice and public good.

The 20th century brought a dynamic development of the theory of economics and management. The industrial revolution, war, the reconstruction of economies and formation of new social systems (e.g., the development of the working class) after World War I, the development until the Great Depression in the 1930s and again – destructive World War II – are epochal events that shaped societies and economies. After World War II, the balance of power and the areas of influence in the world changed, and a new social and economic order was being created. This accelerated the processes of rationalization of economic processes, which included estimating where and how to invest, where to obtain raw materials for the development of technological innovations, and, finally, what is profitable for shareholders. The emergence and development of corporations, whose activity covered the entire territory of the country or that operated on an international or global scale, caused new problems. Corporations gained significant power of impact also outside the economy – on various spheres of social life. As Epstein indicates on the example of enterprises in the USA, corporations had economic, social, cultural, and technological power, as well as power over the natural surroundings, which enabled them to shape relations with the environment (Steinmann & Schreyögg, 1998, p. 63, after: Epstein, 1973).¹ This power was associated with the influence on the individual representing an employee, shareholder, member of the local community, etc., as well as with the impact on the processes of forming opinions about the role of the individual in the society. According to Epstein, the use of these types of power solely for the purpose of achieving economic goals, such as increasing the company's value, without considering the implications for the environment, caused destructive phenomena, satisfying only management and owners with the achieved financial results.

Thus, what brought an increase in (economic) value became valuable, whereas other accompanying values, usually unmeasurable, were marginalized. This phenomenon started to be opposed already in the 1950s, and Bowen's publication on the role of managers and their responsibility in a situation when they lead organizations with a significant impact on entire societies and economies was a significant voice in this discussion (Bowen, 1953). On the other hand, according to M. Friedman, there is only one type of social responsibility on the part of the business world. It is using one's resources and undertaking activity in order to increase its own profits as far as it is consistent with the rules of the game … (and) accepting open and free competition, without deceptions and cheating (Friedman, 1993). It is the responsibility of managers to conduct business in accordance with the expectations of the owners, which basically means generating as much money as possible in accordance with social principles, legal regulations, and ethics (Ingley, 2008, also: J. McClaughry, 1972).

According to Friedman, business does not need additional declarations concerning honesty, legality, or acting in accordance with moral principles, because they are the basis of every activity, not only the economic one. But economic abuses and crises, lack of observance of human rights, negative effects of globalization for developing parts of the world as well as progressive human-induced climate change contradict this. They believe that allowing this way of thinking and acting becomes destructive for present and future generations.

As a result of the growing discussion and intensive research on the impact of organizations on the environment and the role of employees in the organization, a serious discussion on the subject of values – their essence, types, hierarchy, and the impact on business decisions – was undertaken. The trend of strategic management focused on strategies aimed at building value and the company, as well as competitive advantage, based on resources (competences) and in relation to competitors (strategic positioning). The value chain model created by M. Porter (1980) meant that value began to be perceived not as the end result of the company's activity, but as the sum of partial contributions to the creation of value of individual functional areas, departments, and units of the organization (1980). This model developed for the industry drew attention to the possibilities of improvements that can be introduced to upgrade the functioning of the company and to control costs. It is worth noting that it was modified after 30 years. Porter and Kramer created a new model of the value added (shared) chain, in which, in addition to economic value, social value is created. Undoubtedly, this change in the shared added value chain was important in the light of the growing importance of the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. This model was widely criticized and triggered a serious ongoing debate (Beschorner & Hajduk, 2017; Menghwar & Daood, 2021).

Economic history therefore proves that along with the changing (mainly due to breakthroughs) technological economic determinants, the views, schools and economic doctrines prevailing in particular periods also change (…) (Mączyńska, 2011). As Zboroń (2020) writes, “there is the need to rethink/revise the concept of economic success, which is derivative of the unrest associated with the growing presence of social, political and economic problems in the world (…)”.

In pursuit of the purpose of the study presented at the beginning of this chapter, the authors attempted to organize the resources of knowledge about values in the context of CSR. For this purpose, they have conducted an integrative review of the literature. The analysis of the literature covered the basic concepts concerning the undertaken topic of “values”. It allowed for the presentation of views and research in the analyzed field. The authors focused on the review of available publications in three most commonly cited databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and Emerald. The resources of the PUE/UEW library database (as of January/February 2021) were the source of the data. The years 2010–2021 were adopted as the time range for the analysis. The year 2010 was adopted as the starting year due to the publication of the international ISO 26000: 2010 standard containing guidelines for social responsibility. The following search terms were adopted for the analysis:

The results of the review of the number of pub...