Corporations increasingly acknowledge the importance of sustainable practices. Corporate social responsibility
is therefore gaining significance in the business world. Since solving corporate social responsibility
issues is not a routine job, every challenge in corporate social responsibility requires its own
approach; and management competencies are crucial for designing appropriate approaches towards the
realization of sustainable solutions. On the basis of seven corporate social responsibility competencies
synthesized from the extant literature, this research provides an empirical analysis of which of these
competencies managers need in order to achieve corporate social responsibility goals within their
specific context; and at which specific stage of the implementation process. The data sources are interviews
with corporate social responsibility managers e whose positions and circumstances share
many similarities e at four large multinational enterprises. The empirical analysis reveals that managers
undertake four corporate social responsibility core tasks: I) orientation, II) reaching common ground, III)
performing pilot projects, and IV) embedding results. Within the context of the analysis, the competencies:
Systems Thinking, Embracing Diversity and Interdisciplinarity, Interpersonal Competence, Action
Competence, and Strategic Management were found to be necessary. The Embracing Diversity and Interdisciplinarity
competence was identified as the most relevant. This study contributes to the corporate
social responsibility (education) literature by introducing an empirical test of which competencies are
considered necessary for managers in various stages of corporate social responsibility implementation.
Linking these competencies to core tasks makes them more concrete and increases the chances of
interpreting them unambiguously, which in turn can aid learning trajectories in both business and
education.