Social responsibility of the companies - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The social responsibility of the companies (RSE) is a concept in which the companies integrate the concerns Social are, Environnement ales, and economic S in their activities and their Interaction S with their Recipients on a voluntary basis.

The Social responsibility results from requests of the the Civil society (ONG, Association S) from best taken into account from the environmental impacts and social from the lines of business, which was born, in particular, of the problems of total Environnement met since the Années 1970.

The RSE is the variation for the company of the concepts of Sustainable development, which integrate the three pillars Environnementaux, social, and economic. It was with the day order of the Sommet of the Earth of Johannesburg in 2002, in which took part of large companies, in particular French, of the sectors of the Environnement and the energy.

The RSE tends to define the Responsabilité S for the companies with respect to its Recipients, in philosophy “to act local, think total” (Rene Dubos). It is thus a question of integrating the context Mondial and room in the reflection Stratégique. In France and Belgium, the term responsibility sociétale for the companies is used rather than Social responsibility of the companies (direct translation of social English corporate responsibility ) which could omit the pillar Environnement Al

Theoretical and practical definition of the RSE

The European definition. The bond between this macroeconomic objective and the satisfaction of the Recipients of the company are however rather complex, the more so as the Sustainable development does not depend exclusively on the companies but on the whole of the economic agents.

Stakes, governorship, typology of the criteria

Stake X

The implementation of the Responsabilité Sociétale is the occasion for the Entreprise to define a new strategy: is

which opportunities and the threats related to the changes of its markets? is
which the forces and the weaknesses of the company?

The Enjeu X can be analyzed compared to waitings and Intérêt S of the Recipients of the company.

See on this subject: SWOT and Recipient.

Governorship

The RSE is translated or should be translated various manners:

the definition of an ethical , formalized in a Charter,
the installation of programs of Management of the Risk S,
an heightened surveillance of the principles of Safety,
a Day before, in particular sociétale,
of the projects of Knowledge management in support with the Innovation which also imply several types of Economic agents: public actors Territorial of the Teaching and the Research (Poles of competence).
of the programs of quality assurance, with the implementation of news Standard S,
a Communication intern and external

etc

Approach RSE can make it possible to implement, inter alia, of new regulations and better a Gouvernance of company, than the company is large, average or small, in the countries known as developed, as in the Developing country. Its advantage will reside in the introduction of a better economic “contextualisation” of the activities S of the companies, a better structuring of the relations with the Recipients, and theoretically better a Gouvernance of company. Each company adapts this step to its rate/rhythm and according to its culture

Typology of the criteria

The RSE is based on four types of criteria which are directly related to those of sustainable development:

- Environmental criteria;

- Social criteria;

- criteria economic S;

- criteria of Governorship.

Indeed, the Sustainable development is pressed on the three pillars which are the Environnement, the Social, and the economic . These three pillars are capped by the Gouvernance of company which can integrate in parallel and in a way quite as transverse of the principles ethical or of Déontologie of the businesses.

A good management or good practice of the RSE requires for the managers of undertakings and their recipients more and more:

a multi-field Day before thorough on the questions which revolve around the founders criteria,
an appropriation of Information S while resulting,
a rigorous analysis of the Usage S of the Information, which can be the subject of an internal and/or external validation in particular by the Auditors of methodologies employed,
finally, a multiannual action plan declined by criterion and adapted to the selected stakes or objectives which will be followed by indicators concrete and reliable, quantitative and qualitative.

Socially responsible investment

The RSE is sometimes related to the socially responsible concept of Investissement (ISR).

For some, the ISR is even the financial and speculative variation of sustainable development

The Investisseur S which proclaim this step - financial Banques, financial institutions and other funds (retirement, salary savings, etc) - generally define their own engagements as regards RSE with a dedicated communication RSE (RARE cf Rapport 2006 on the banking environment). The Interaction between the concepts of RSE and the ISR, so much on the side of the company which calls upon the saving than side of that which brings this public saving resides primarily in their conceptual convergence which remains to be shown on a case-by-case basis.

The RSE and international agencies

This concept develops in the world industrialized on the initiative of intergovernmental or regional Organizations, on the scale Mondiale or regional. It even results in various levels of obligation S which take the form of recommendations, of voluntary standards are imposed on various degrees in certain national legislations.

Among these intergovernmental organizations:

the the United Nations: the Programme of the United Nations for the environment (PNUE) initiated the Global Reporting initiative and the world Pacte ( compact Global ). ( cfr practical realization Ci below )

At the Summit of the Earth of Johannesbourg in 2002, the topics of RSE were put on the front of the scene by the participation of companies, (in particular French of the sector of the energy) at the sides of the official representatives.

the World Bank or BM: the BM also published recommendations, and proposes a course to sensitize the companies in order to enable them to implement the concept of RSE. This course was already given to 12.000 people everywhere in the world.
OECD: The guiding principles, precursors because written in 1976, revised into 2000 are simple recommendations, guiding lines which the governments address to the multinational corporations. They do not have constraining capacity.
European Union: the European commission defends a political volunteer in the field of the RSE or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) via its Head office undertaken since its first green book in 2001, followed by a communication in 2002 renewed in 2006. The interactive approach between all the recipients is promoted with the installation of a forum dedicated between 2002 and 2004 then of a " alliance". SME from now on are also implied and become actors with whole share taking into account their omnipresence in European economic fabric of the 25 Member States.

With the reading of the last communication of the European commission of 2006, the the European Parliament confirmed in debates which were held the 3/12/2007 that it is on standby of a new partnership.

Development of tools and standards

Standard S

Since the Years 1980, under the impulse in particular of ONG, the concepts of ethical Finance, Equitable trade, Sustainable development had entered the debate of the political authorities. Those called upon the universities and research centres in order to make studies to develop tools to identify the level of Responsabilité companies. Research was concretized for the RSE by the development of Référentiel S international (GRI), of the codes of conduct of the companies (Total compact) or the Certification S, Norme S or labels (SA8000…) until the To that the S social or environmental. In addition, various practical tools exist to facilitate the integration of these standards at various levels in the companies. At the time of the invitations to tender procedure for example, certain companies use today an exhaustive encyclopedia of the clauses of durable purchases.

Since 2000, Europe works to develop tools to set standards concerning the RSE. HTTP: /www.actares.ch/F/glossarF.htm

System of environmental management and audit (EMAS) of the European Union

the payment detailing the procedures for the voluntary participation of the companies in this system of audit on their environmental management and the provision of the public of the results. The Member States make the promotion of EMAS on their level. There exists a logo EMAS.

Other tools and examples

the standard SA 8000 : (in English Social Standard Accountability 8000 )

This Standard was initiated by the Council one Economic Priorities . It is managed by SAI: it relates to the Work conditions, the prohibition of the Travail of the children, of the forced labor… It exists two types of engagement for the companies: the certificate in the event of respect of the standards for the production, the statute member if the criteria are also respected for the dies of suppliers and all the production units.

the standard ISO 14001

This Norme aims at measuring the impact of the activity of a company on the Environnement. Initiated in 1996, revised in 2000. It takes into account significant environmental aspects: emissions in the air, the rejections in water, the contamination of the grounds, the management of waste, the use of the raw materials and the natural resources. (see also the Series of the ISO standards 14000)

Measure, instrument panels

The Undertaken S, within the framework of their programs of Sustainable development, set up instrument panels, containing according to the four types already mentioned: environmental, social, economic and of governorship, until an Indicating hundred of management.

For the design of the instrument panels, to see:

Instrument panel (management)
prospective Instrument panel, when the instrument panel contains tangible and nonmeasurable profits.

In France, when the activity of the Entreprise is Stratégique from the point of view of the Sustainable development (service sector environmental or of the energy), it makes Certifier its Comptes by Auditors.

Credit rating agencies

Created at the end of the Nineties, of the credit rating agencies social and environmental and the companies note evaluate, according to their own methodology. An credit rating agency bases itself on the public documents, of the questionnaires and the results of interview with the persons in charge of company. It must also have a methodology, object of a research task upstream, on coherence between the put questions and the objectives sought taking into consideration Sustainable development (in particular in comparison with the Agenda 21, but more generally, according to the criteria which the investor wishes to support. Basic work was undertaken in France in the years 2001 to 2003 on this point

ONG partnership - sector of the companies and public authorities

Today, for example in France, more half of the French do not make confidence with the companies (Ethicity Study, June 2006): this fracture between consumer and company can be translated in the acts of purchase since 2/3d' between them states to want to firstly buy the products whose company has a true ethics.

added-values of a partnership with an ONG

From the point of view of the companies, ONG bring a guarantee necessary to these steps near the general public and these partnerships can be rich knowledge and of contents. It is via these ONG that the projects are finally guaranteed near the general public.

Some concrete actions, campaigns:

" To consume Charter for Total Business” worked out by International Consumers , ONG gathering 200 consumers' associations
" Clean Clothes Campaign”, countryside clean clothing, a European initiative launched in 1998 concerning textile industry, equipped with a code of conduct
" Ethical Trading Initiative" , in the United Kingdom promoted by a partnership between ONG, trade union and private sector.

In the field of the Equitable trade, also let us quote for example the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations.

Communication with the Civil society

The Communication out of matter Sociétale is a very complex process, which can induce some Risque S, as shows it a study made in the n° 200 of the French Revue of marketing .

The sectoral studies on communication RSE are in hand in particular within the framework of the RARE European program where the first studies concerning the banking environment, petrochemical and of fishing show a profusion of tools for an effectiveness which remains to show even if " increasing the rhetoric attention with the RSE and the corresponding weight given to instruments RSE contributed to some of these changes in practice " (cf p. 22).

The Recipient S potentials of the reports/ratios of Sustainable development being numerous, their Interest S very diversified, there exists a Risque on the informational Patrimoine of the Entreprise, like on possible a bad interpretation, volunteer or not (see cognitive Biais) Information S diffused. Nothing moreover prevents these recipients recutting information at the time of its appropriation and from directly questioning the companies on certain obscure or insufficiently well informed points. the receiver passes then in transmitting mode in the interactivity of the recipients which is asserted in addition in the governorship of the RSE.

An insufficient level of structuring of the Information S of the Entreprise in-house is a Risk factor on the protection of the informational inheritance, of the Connaissance S and Compétence S of the company.

These aspects must be integrated in the Enjeu X of the Knowledge management.

Legal aspects

With the international scales

The RSE remains before a concept of Soft law which cannot engage the legal responsibility of the company directly a priori, moral person since it rests on a voluntary approach. The doctrines observe however that the constraining force of the RSE as a concept umbrella can appear in terms of " hardware law " , since the RSE refers to an obligation resulting from the right of the treaties, of the law even is seen confirmed by the judge as a unilateral obligation which binds its author, the company in fact.

In Europe, Denmark is the first country to have imposed an environmental reporting at its large companies like a legal requirement impossible to circumvent ( hardware law ). France made in the same way (see supra). The United Kingdom and Belgium could also modify to them Company law by introducing an identical requirement of RSE into the documentation of their Actionnaires.

The the European Parliament in its last debate of March 2007 on the RSE following the communication 2006 of the Commission on the subject wished a modification of the directive company law in this direction. As recalled by item 27 of its resolution: the Parliament " reminds the Commission that the Parliament invited it to present a draft amendment of the fourth directive 78/660/CEE of the Council of July 25th, 1978 based on article 54 paragraph 3 pennies G) of the treaty concerning the annual accounts of the certain shapes of companies (18) (fourth directive on the company law) aiming at including social and environmental information beside the financial informations; ". Will one witness a generalization of the obligation for the companies dimensioned in the 27 Member States of the Union?

In France, an obligation of information for the companies with dimensions

A legal requirement

In France, the requirement of RSE led to an article of law for the Entreprise S with dimensions exceeding in theory voluntarist logic, or of a simple recommendation.

Thus, an article (n° 116,) in the law on the New economic regulations (NRE) voted in 2001 request that the Entreprise S dimensioned in Bourse indicate in their annual report a series of Information S relating to the consequences Sociale S and Environnementale S of their activities.

Article 116 of law NRE corresponds to a modification of the Code of the trade, and should theoretically indirectly support by the play of the Transparence the Action and the Interaction of the following Recipients:

Associations of insertion,
Educational establishments,
Defense associations of the environment,
Consumers' associations: to see Code of consumption
bordering Populations.

The report/ratio required of the legislator “ indicates the importance of subcontracting, and the way in which the company promotes near its subcontractors and makes sure of the respect by its subsidiary companies of the provisions of conventions of the International organization of Work. It indicates moreover the way in which the foreign subsidiary companies of the company take into account the impact of their activities on regional development and the local populations. ”

The implementation of this obligation

Methods and limits of the obligation

Each company with dimensions has a whole methodological freedom to fulfill its obligation. This freedom is due to the specificity of each company in the description of its activities and its impacts in qualitative terms which determine the quantitative grid.

The company must thus provide concrete and if possible quantified information:

on the environmental pillar (environmental compatibility, realization of quantitative objectives, etc)
on the social pillar (accidents, fight against discriminations for example, engagements as regards formation, etc).

To reinforce the objectivity of the reports/ratios, of the companies of To that the and social notation were created to check the veracity of these Donnée S and the methods to establish them. The Auditors are also signatories of report/ratio of examination on the social and environmental indicators in addition to the countable and financial indicators making it possible to assess the quality of the brought back Information.

The Loi does not specify in all the cases not the conditions of legal Responsabilité for the leaders in the event of failure to this obligation of Communication taking into account the difficulty which a judge would have appreciated the exhaustive character of such an information; one counts on the requirements of the shareholders and a more general way of the Financial markets via the approach of ISR, the financial information turning oneself more and more on qualitative elements.

In the absolute, it is allowed to doubt the effectiveness practices of a sanction of such a legal requirement, insofar as the immaterial Capital of the companies were not the subject of an identical preliminary structuring. The law requires to communicate Information S in qualitative matter and extremely heterogeneous in their definition beyond the national borders. The new countable standards IAS/IFRS can also produce effects of distortion in the apprehension of this information. However, the information produced by these reports/ratios have the virtue by the effect of transparency and anteriority created of greater information of the recipients and initially of the shareholders for which the socially responsible Investissement is a key criterion.

Experience feedback since 2005

The first experience feedbacks of 2005 indicate that in spite of formats different and hesitations on the informational contents from the environmental and social reports/ratios, the French companies of the CAC 40 (large companies) have in 90% of the case applied the law. To make sure of the reliability of these reports/ratios, more than 53% of them make check by a cabinet of audit. Beyond the legal constraint, the posting of strategically validated objectives can be an economic source of productivity, social effectiveness and environmental éco-compatibility.

In 2006, according to Jean-Denis Errard, director of project of Capitalcom, a regression seems to take shape for this target which constitutes only one share of the companies dimensioned on the effective respect of this obligation. " (...) It acts there of a legal requirement registered in the Code of the trade (article L. 225-102-1). Force is to say that this obligation is still far from being respected. (...) Whereas the groups of the CAC 40 are usually with the point of the quality of the financial information, eleven of them do not satisfy the legal requirements of the Code of the trade . " (cf. Financial communication n°104 of October 22nd, 2007). Thus, only 83% in 2006 would have applied the law.

Complexity practices with the implementation of the RSE

Implementation the practical of the responsibility sociétale raises several basic problems, of which here broad outlines:

Aspects communication

The companies can be tried to adopt a surface communication strategy, and not to treat the Risque S in-depth. This attitude can be dangerous in the event of proven threats. The good attitude consists in making a day before on information of the environment, to treat them in a process of economic intelligence and knowledge management, then to be communicated.

For others, the RSE is a new form communication manipulator and cynical cheaply of the companies: the only reason for which the companies would set up projects of RSE would be a utility reason, with a trading profit in the improvement of their reputation near the public and of the governments.

If the communication is made without preliminary structuring of information, that can discredit the company.

cultural Aspects

The implementation of the RSE requires to change certain referents on the attitude compared to the Risque S, in particular ecological and industrial. Certain mentalities can tend to skew this type of approach: one then will note behaviors of the type Sophisme, cognitive Biais, or cultural Biais. In social psychology, resistances met correspond to Even S. The cultural aspects are as much important ones than the RSE applies to a transnational scale.

ethical and legal Aspects

The complexity of the right is a difficulty. The questions which arise are:

Which ethical of the businesses? does
Comment articulate the elements of the right relating to the Droit of the businesses?
Adaptation of the Droit of data processing in the rules of confidentiality for the diffusion of information on Internet is explored still little.
Questions of Legal security.
Engagements of responsibility, in particular in terms of penal Civil responsibility and .

Aspects Macroeconomic S and financial

The implementation of transverse programs in the whole of the companies requires in particular to apply standards, which touch with the structure of the right, the econometrics (National accounting), with the finance of market. This implementation can prove to be complex, and not depend exclusively on the company. The aspects Institutionnel S are very important.

Aspects management

The implementation of the RSE requires a transverse and horizontal approach, therefore a certain strategic culture. One notes in practice a fragmentation of the responsibilities between the quality control engineers (standards), the persons in charge of the day before or of the economic intelligence, the risk managers, the persons in charge of the programs of Knowledge management, the organizations of control of work of the information systems, the lawyers, the persons in charge of the communication, etc Organiser this type of program is very complex.

Aspects Risk S

The Perception of the environment and the Risque S can be blocked by various skews: Oblique cognitive S, Oblique cultural S,…

Aspects Sovereignty

In the sectors of the energy and Environment, or in other sectors of Souveraineté, which are the principal concerned ones, the implementation of the RSE is delicate from the point of view of the Enjeu X of Communication.

A RSE with double face

The RSE is a reality to be discovered within each company. Like Janus with double face, the RSE makes it possible to note on the one hand the paradox of certain actors to create a double language between speech and reality whereas on the other hand, the RSE constitutes for a majority of company an irreversible engagement if each one among it wants to survive of a competitive and demanding environment including on the ground of the RSE.

the paradox created by the double language of certain companies

Certain examples of paradoxes are reported by the media. A “paradox” occurs when on a side, a company begins in an action of RSE, pledges for example concerning sustainable development while other side, accusing and detailed revelations about its practices emergent at the great day. Certain ONG as Christian Aid clearly denounced abuse on behalf of certain great multinationals in certain parts of the world.

For example in the United States, McDonald's illustrates this paradoxical behavior. Emblematic company which always wished to affirm its economic engagements, social even environmental, this company was criticized for nonethical practices of businesses. During the treatment of the Business McLibel by British justice, this one confirmed certain complaints for ill treatment of the workers, abusive publicity and cruel treatment of the animals. February 15th, 2005, the European Cour of the human rights sliced in favor of Helen Steel and Dave Morris, (two militants ecologist S) in their arm wrestling with McDonald's in the business of McLibel. The lawyer of the duet declared: “The European Cour of the human rights considered that violations of the human rights had been made in their opposition - that there had been a procedural inequity in the business and that the adopted procedures were not equitable. ”. Wal-Mart is also a seizing example of double language as regards RSE with heavy dispute in the social domain.

In the same way, a European company as Shell largely took part as a pioneer “carry-flag” of the RSE but while missing however into 2004 bringing back to its shareholders a reliable evaluation of its oil stocks which founded its accounting value.

Another illustration, the way in which one asks for an international reporting on territorial anchoring, with work groups made up as a vast majority of companies and ONG, without any participation of regional elected officials, raises the question of the legitimacy of information such as it is handled by the company at ends of communication.

To betray its engagements RSE, it is for the company to create a potential systemic risk worthy of a sword of Damocles

The engagement of the company as regards RSE obliges it to be more transparent in the social contract than it with the other actors. It creates its own sword of Damocles, other authors mentioned a “mortal risk” by the mediatization of its actions.

Failing to honor this engagement, it takes a media risk of reputation even of confidence by an effect of " boomerang ". This risk will come in the event of abuse expresses early or late to remember with force to the good memory of all those which would ill-advisedly wish to handle the other recipients and the shareholders initially. The legal sanction can double of a stock exchange sanction faster and frightening and sap in fine the dearly and patiently acquired reputation ( media sanction ). A RSE " paradoxale" " will be paid; cash". Enron and Parmalat is two counterexamples emblematic which show in the only compartment of the RSE relating to the Gouvernance of company (or government of company) on the two sides of the Atlantic, the fatal outcome of attempts at handling which it is about a liberal or family capitalism, American or European.

a requirement concretes from now on impossible to circumvent for the majority of the companies which want perdurer

For the defenders of the RSE, the social request is such from now on for the large companies as for SME, which they cannot cut of this new requirement of RSE which influences directly their sale and their profitability in the medium and long term. The request for a number of solvent consumers with the rise to power of the ethical purchase or of durable consumption, imposes little by little a transparency and a traceability of the carried out actions.

The leaders of the company must consequently show a performance long-term including on the social field and environmental. This engagement makes it possible to measure the adaptability of its model which cannot be limited only to purely financial and economic considerations in a too simplistic logic of maximization of the short-term profit. In a strongly globalized and competing economy, the adaptability of the company to any relative data with its environment becomes the key of its strategy even of its survival.

In Europe, the character of social economy of market and engagements concrete in the sustainable development taken in particular by the European Union indicate a strong propensity of the european companies to show in the future their capacity to work out an equation RSE gaining on the Triple bottom line or triple P, signs of their performances as regards " People ", " Planet " and " Profit ".

The multiplication of the concrete experiments of RSE in particular in Europe but also in the world states from now on that it is more than one irreversible basic movement of qualitative management integrated that about a media effect of momentary mode into only the relents.

Key challenges

Among the key challenges which the RSE must face:

the implicit rule of the Business S which wants that the top executives are prevented from being implied in an activity which could reduce the profits,

For some, such or such of the Recipients can be in dominant position and privilege its own objectives.

the RSE is contrary so that some regard as the " dogma of the profit" : In fact the key of the operation of the companies is to find customers, if not it cannot exist, the profit, or rather the anticipation of profits, is thus not the main objective but a secondary condition to find investors. --either reformulation or lack ref. school, etc to see objective generals in the article undertaken - setting in comment -->

the usual mechanisms are designed to manage the essential problem of the economic agents, the such countable vision, stocks options, the performance evaluation, the attribution of dependant compensations as all the other mechanisms which aim at increasing their follow-up with the shareholders.

For that, it becomes obvious that the step of RSE can be only carried out in general in its shutters in social and environmental matter, provided this step does not prevent the profits; from where the slogan RSE, " doing well by doing good " (to make well while making well). That supposes that the resources exempted as regards RSE must have a return on investment more raised than of other resources which could produce such an output by other manners and which are of as many frequently followed strategies (for example, investment in capital, productive, tax matter lobbying, subcontracting, offshore oil rig externalisation , fight against the trade union movements, risks lawful or of marché").

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