Organizational culture and social responsibility

Résumé du document

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), is a concept in which companies integrate economic, social and environmental preoccupations in their activities and in their interactions with their stakeholders. CSR is the result of different requests from humanitarian and environmental organizations. In fact, this kind of organizations, wanted a better consideration of environmental and social impacts of corporate activities. In 1960, the concept of CSR began to appear in business literature. Since that time, CSR have been developed by several English and French researchers. Nowadays, CSR for companies is the declination of sustainable development, and tries to define companies' responsibility towards their stakeholders. Those stakeholders are any players inside or outside the company which are involved in its operation in terms of social responsibility.

They can be: executives, employees, customers, suppliers, intermediaries (banks, fund managers ...), insurance companies, community's citizens where the company operates, shareholders and investors… These days, Corporate Social Responsibility become more and more important in business. Indeed, 93% of executives (Philippe Delaroche , 10/27/2011) see CSR as essential for the development of companies. An organizational culture in which CSR is integrate, is a culture in which organization's members share the same views and beliefs about the importance of balancing social equity and environmental accountability.

Extraits

[...] A company like all organizations is in constant development. Therefore, this is essential for it to appraise its performance, but also evaluate the investment of its staff to see if it goes in the right direction and if CSR integrates the organizational culture. Others informal practices that we have encountered, aim to create an impulse for changes. I.e. lead the company to the nearest of its objectives, and develop new ideas, new projects, and new process in relation to CSR. [...]

[...] A company with this type of policy encourages the establishment of a long-term organizational culture on CSR access. Moreover, the introduction of new policies involved the positioning of CSR in corporate culture. Also the achievement of objectives is easier if they are precisely described and the standards and procedures can lead to these goals. The following practices reveal how to integrate CSR into the corporate culture by including it: in the company's strategy, in the current processes, in producing system, and by developing new functions. [...]

[...] Develop this definition with stakeholders can develop their relationships and mark sustainability. In addition, specialized working groups for analyzing the changes allow to build a logic set between what the company is now, and what it wants to become. Moreover these groups will trigger innovation, and members will increase their knowledge therefore CSR will integrate the organizational culture To conclude this section, informal practices described below allow to respect current commitments (related to sustainable development). On the one hand we have actions that are trying to promote engagement (trying to establish and reinforce the importance of sustainability to the organization) and applications that attempt to give impetus for changes (describe how to maintain a sustainable culture of innovation, how the company can join goals and how employees can be enrolled in this dynamic). [...]

[...] Company's product is the reason for its existence. Integrating CSR into production is a way to integrate this concept to this existence and thus distributed to all employees. The company should seek to reward the achievement of objectives and to develop techniques for measuring progress. For this, the company must include employees' involvement in sustainable development in the assessment criteria and therefore review bonuses, benefits and promotions to congratulate this involvement. In the same way, employees have to know their new assessment system. [...]

[...] But to improve these practices, an organization can also use external help. It may invite experts to train or advise on housing sustainable places possible. It can learn and study stakeholders' processes, developments and what is new (related to CSR). Indeed, specialized associations, Consulting groups, consultants can give lot of information about practices of other organizations and can provide new ideas based on company's skills. Be helped by external persons allow to apply new thinks in interior and sustainably integrate CSR into organizational culture. [...]