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September 21, 2006
Defining Corporate Social Responsibility
A few days ago I wrote about Corporate Social Responsibility.
Many have coined definitions of CSR, of which we find two particularly workable. The International Standards Organization (ISO) defines CSR as a balanced approach for organizations to address economic, social and environmental issues in a way that aims to benefit people, community and society”. The European Union (EU) defines CSR as a concept whereby firms integrate social and environmental concerns in business operations and in the interaction with their stakeholders in a voluntary basis”. The ISO definition highlights the triangle of economic, social and environmental issues, but focuses on benefiting not the organization itself, but people, community and society. The EU explicitly mentions business operation, but fails to mention that CSR needs to be beneficial.
I think we hit the nail on the head if we combine both:
CSR is a balanced approach for organizations to integrate social and environmental concern in business operations, in a way that aims to benefit the organization and its internal and external stakeholders.”
I failed to take sides in the overview of schools of thought. I fully subscribe to Porters point of view. CSR should be part of the business model, to help figure out how to add value in doing business, instead of extracting value, making the social dimension part of decision management processes. Do you want to know how that works? Contact my colleague Erik Thomsen or myself...
Posted by Frank Buytenkijk at September 21, 2006 9:08 AM
