Corporate Social Responsibility : Implementation and Integration

Corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) needs to be moved from theory and aspiration into practice through a proactive program of implementation and integration within the organization and throughout its stakeholder sphere of influence. The United Nations Global Compact, which has been described as the largest policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with universally accepted principles of CSR, has issued guidance on implementation and integration of CSR that noted that in many ways implementing CSR is like any other management task and called for defining CSR goals, taking into account the issues and ideas that should have been identified during stakeholder engagement; implementing programs with a view toward achieving the goals in a timely manner; checking to make sure that the goals are being achieved through some sort of assessment or auditing process; and dealing with problems and non-conformance to goals through quality management techniques (i.e., “Plan-Do-Check-Act)”. The UN Global Compact also referred to an alternative systems-based approach to continuous CSR improvement that included assessment, strategy, implementation and communication, arguing that such as an approach was useful to ensuring that CSR was fully integrated into all aspects of the organizational strategy as opposed to simply being viewed as a “nice to do” add-on. As with most other aspects of CSR and sustainability, there is no universal standard for CSR implementation and integration; however, there does appear to be convergence around certain steps that should be taken. To provide context and ideas for the development of an effective and appropriate CSR implementation and integration process, this chapter begins with a brief survey of various frameworks for CSR implementation that have appeared in the literature and in guidance provided by well-known voluntary initiatives focusing on various aspects of CSR. The chapter then continues with a discussion of suggested steps for implementation and integrating that have been selected based on the survey and which include actions such as assessment, selection of appropriate voluntary CSR initiatives, developing a CSR strategy, launching various actions to integrate CSR throughout the organization, setting up processes for CSR reporting and communications and regular review and continuous improvement of the organization’s CSR activities