CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)
The corporate social responsibility is a voluntary commitment made by business organizations in order to perform a responsible management and ethics inside their organization in respect of individuals. In this way, an added value for its contribution to the improvement of the environment, the economic growth and the social welfare arises.
The goal of the corporate social responsibility is to introduce a new mode of legal operation regarding the business organization’s management according to the specific needs of the interested parties for whom it is aimed, assuming the present and future consequences. Thus, possible negative factors of the business organizations can be detected and prevented. The instruments contributing to the socially responsible practice are ethical codes, behavioral codes, management rules, social responsibility reports and socially responsible investment reports.
In relation to the basic principles, the commitment to contribute to the development or improvement of the social environment is taken into account. The different scopes of action inside the business organizations are social, environmental and economic. In the social scope, all factors related to the satisfaction of the social environment, suppliers, customers or workers are included, carrying out actions such as introducing good practice on the employment, equality, social integration, workers training or their relatives’ education. As for the environmental scope, all actions on the energetic consumption, the use of resources and any rendered service internally or externally with an impact on the environment are encompassed. Regarding the economic scope, issues of ethics and good administration are tackled along with the possibility of innovation in the business organization as well as the organization’s acts of transparency and openness in social actions.
Corporate social responsibility in the world
The way of understanding the corporate social responsibility, also called CSR, depends on a series of factors such as the culture of a country, the degree of socioeconomic development or the business organization dimension.
Generally in Europe and particularly in Spain, the CSR is focused on the educational development, the youth employment, the responsibility, the quality of life, entrepreneurship, the environment, and individuals’ disabilities and dependency. The big companies in these countries have been making a great progress for the last years carrying out and improving their CSR plans. However, in small and medium-sized enterprises (PYMES) there is still a lack of sensitiveness toward CSR, mainly due to the lack of human and economic resources and the lack of knowledge of what CSR implies, according to them. In this last aspect, it needs to be mentioned that CSR does not imply that much the need of human or economic resources, since it will ultimately depend on the willingness of the business managers to take actions on it. Besides, the economic impact of CSR on the organization must be highlighted, since it may be very positive if it is well managed.
In Latin-America, CSR corporate plans focus on covering the basic services and needs of the individuals. In Central America and South America, CSR sometimes act as a NGO on the sense that it carries out real efforts to help local individuals cover those basic needs such as the access to potable water, children education, adults’ learning and training, basic health services, food aid, prevention of mistreatment and abuse, etc. On the other hand, the good work in supporting the CSR projects need to be mentioned, as it has been carried out by the state, regional and local authorities in Latin-American countries to the extent that some have made CSR a legal obligation for the enterprises.
Corporate social responsibility as an instrument of internationalization
Xplora Solutions, a Spanish consultancy company, has been pioneer in the development of CSR projects, involving enterprises and public administrations from different countries.
The participation in a CSR international project by several business organizations from different countries implies benefits for all the parties involved in the project. Generally, the members of a CSR international project are the following:
1) Local or regional public administration in countries of origin.
2) Enterprises and entrepreneurs associations in countries of origin.
3) State, regional or local public administration in countries of destination.
4) Individuals, associations and enterprises in countries of destination.
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
GENDER EQUALITY
CORPORATE SOCIAL LIABILITY
