CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a broad concept that is open to interpretations. The United Nations (UN) explains and defines CSR as:
‘The social responsibility of the private sector goes beyond the sector's day-to-day operation of producing a certain range of products and services in the most efficient and economical manner. The social responsibility of the private sector (also referred to as corporate social responsibility) concerns the relationships of a company not just with its clients, suppliers and employees, but also with other groups, and with the needs, values and goals of the society in which it operates. All these groups can be regarded as stakeholders in the company. Stakeholders can be identified as those individuals or groups of individuals that have an interest, or take an interest, in the behaviour of the company both within and outside its normal mode of operation. They therefore establish what the social responsibility of the company entails or, at least, how they perceive it to be' (UN 2000).
CSR is best seen as a continuum. There is no neat dividing line between its different elements or between it and commercial work, and no clear start and finish. Nelson (2000) identifies three broad stages along this continuum:
1. Compliance - companies should at least comply with national regulations and multinational companies in particular should benchmark their local practices against internationally agreed laws, conventions and standards.
2. Risk minimisation - beyond basic compliance, companies should be aware of their real and potential socio-economic, political and environmental impact. Building on this awareness, they should develop and implement policies and procedures to minimise any damage that might result from their own operations or those of their business partners.
3. Value creation - beyond compliance and doing minimal harm, companies can create 'positive societal value' by engaging in, for example, innovative social investment, stakeholder consultation, policy dialogue and building civic institutions, alone and with other companies.
The private sector is already heavily involved commercially in disaster reduction. Such commercial activity has increased in recent years, especially in emergency management, for two main reasons:
1. The necessary replacement of the old command-and-control style with more integrated, collaborative approaches involving a range of organisations
2. The sheer scale of many international humanitarian crises
Excerpts from:
Twigg John; Corporate Social Responsibility and Disaster Reduction: A global overview;
Benfield Grieg Hazard Research Centre, University College, London; October, 2001
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a broad concept that is open to interpretations. The United Nations (UN) explains and defines CSR as:
‘The social responsibility of the private sector goes beyond the sector's day-to-day operation of producing a certain range of products and services in the most efficient and economical manner. The social responsibility of the private sector (also referred to as corporate social responsibility) concerns the relationships of a company not just with its clients, suppliers and employees, but also with other groups, and with the needs, values and goals of the society in which it operates. All these groups can be regarded as stakeholders in the company. Stakeholders can be identified as those individuals or groups of individuals that have an interest, or take an interest, in the behaviour of the company both within and outside its normal mode of operation. They therefore establish what the social responsibility of the company entails or, at least, how they perceive it to be' (UN 2000).
CSR is best seen as a continuum. There is no neat dividing line between its different elements or between it and commercial work, and no clear start and finish. Nelson (2000) identifies three broad stages along this continuum:
1. Compliance - companies should at least comply with national regulations and multinational companies in particular should benchmark their local practices against internationally agreed laws, conventions and standards.
2. Risk minimisation - beyond basic compliance, companies should be aware of their real and potential socio-economic, political and environmental impact. Building on this awareness, they should develop and implement policies and procedures to minimise any damage that might result from their own operations or those of their business partners.
3. Value creation - beyond compliance and doing minimal harm, companies can create 'positive societal value' by engaging in, for example, innovative social investment, stakeholder consultation, policy dialogue and building civic institutions, alone and with other companies.
The private sector is already heavily involved commercially in disaster reduction. Such commercial activity has increased in recent years, especially in emergency management, for two main reasons:
1. The necessary replacement of the old command-and-control style with more integrated, collaborative approaches involving a range of organisations
2. The sheer scale of many international humanitarian crises
Excerpts from:
Twigg John; Corporate Social Responsibility and Disaster Reduction: A global overview;
Benfield Grieg Hazard Research Centre, University College, London; October, 2001