CSR.M6 Module 6 CSR Measurement
CSR.M6 Module 6 CSR Measurement
CSR.M6 Module 6 CSR Measurement
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
6. CSR MEASUREMENT
Once the definitions of CSR are known, as well as its history, components, groups
involved and the advantages that an adequate CSR management can provide to the
different companies and organisations, it is important to know how CSR can be
measured in order to verify if a company is or is not socially responsible to its
environment.
As De la Cuesta states:
“Once the principles of CSR are known, it is necessary to translate said principles into
measurable variables through the construction of standards and indicators, from
which, and after a process of Social Audit, it can be concluded that a company is
socially responsable”.
Given that today's competition in most sectors is huge, many companies and
organisations carry out a whole process of designing and executing actions and activities
that allow them to differentiate themselves from the rest and obtain a better brand
image and reputation.
It is for this reason that companies establish innovations in the reduction of costs, the
optimisation of resources, the improvement of processes and products, the expansion
of markets, better returns on their investments, etc.
However, often this concern to achieve greater efficiency is not linked to the search for
efficiency in the social field, and that is why there are a whole series of mechanisms to
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determine the degree of social commitment of companies that, after all, will be the one
that will enable the business growth and the improvement of its reputation.
With the Social Balance the impact of the policies of action in the social field is
measured, through various support programmes to social organisations in specific areas
close to a company. The assessment of a company's policies is also applicable internally,
with the implementation of mechanisms to evaluate policies in the field of human
resources, health and safety at work, customer relations and suppliers, and relations
with the Public Administration, among others.
“An instrument to measure and evaluate clearly and precisely the results of the
application of a company's social policy. It is a management tool to plan, organise,
direct, record, control and evaluate in quantitative and qualitative terms the social
management of a company in a given period and against pre-established goals.”
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✓ Human rights
✓ Rights of workers
✓ Environmental Protection
▪ Planning: The Social Balance gives a company the possibility of planning its
management based on the information provided by its methodology. The
updated, analysed and interpreted figures allow a diagnosis of the social reality
of the organisation and a formulation of plans and budgets for later periods in
aspects such as the redesign of policies, the optimisation of resources,
prioritisation of programmes or activities, all in accordance with the strategic
plan of a company, which will help to achieve a more efficient and productive
social management.
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To sum up, it is important to name a series of basic requirements that a company must
meet if it wants to develop a good Social Balance that helps in the planning and
management of activities that in the future will result in a greater benefit, either tangible
or intangible.
▪ Creation of a work team. The work team will be responsible for defining the
action plan, and will be responsible for the development and monitoring of the
entire process. This usually consists of members of the management as well as
those responsible for the different areas of management.
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addition, all this information must be verified, since it will provide a company or
organisation with the greatest credibility.
6.1.2. Accountability
Although there is no exact definition that fits the term of accountability, it is understood
as " the fact of being responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason
for it, or the degree to which this happens ".
Currently, in the globalised world in which we find ourselves, the role of a company has
a double meaning in society. On the one hand it affects its contribution in the social,
economic and environmental sphere, and on the other, it affects the “reason d’être” of
a company itself, that is, its values and mission.
For this reason, all organisations, whether public or private, must find and assume their
role as social actors within a changing society, while the different social actors demand
to be taken into account as an important variable in the decision making of each
organisation.
Each one of the different social actors uses different tools and strategies to face the
same problem, and it is in this context of globalisation where the interrelation of the
different actors arises, generating a more specific dialogue in which the main element is
transparency, understood as a transversal process of all the activities of the
organisation, which the Anglo-Saxons call accountability.
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At the centre of this process is the need for each organisation to reflect on its vision, its
stakeholders and its activities, where each actor asks himself what the others demand
and what he demands of himself.
▪ Accountability approaches:
We must take into consideration the traditional approach and the current one.
Let us see the differences between these two approaches based on accountability
according to Mar Vilanova (2004):
- Process based on responsibility that extends its areas and its stakeholders.
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Thus, the traditional practice is based on the rendering of accounts to very specific
interest groups that had some power over a company, while in the current approach,
any organisation that can be affected or influenced by a company, can request
communication and transparency practices.
Next, a diagnosis is made of both the demands and trends of the market as well as its
vision or objectives as an organisation. Then, a specific action plan should be proposed,
specifying both the management indicators and the measurement systems that can be
used when monitoring the implementation of the action plan.
The diagnosis, action plan and battery of indicators implemented in a company include
almost all the information necessary for a company to write and publish reports for its
different stakeholders.
It is necessary to emphasise that it is vital to find a way to verify these reports, either
through independent bodies, or through the approval of the stakeholders. It should be
pointed out that the data obtained must be used at the end of the cycle to return to the
initial point and make a reflection on a company's vision in the field of CSR and its
stakeholder map.
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Although each initiative can indicate, with more or less detail, the issues to be taken into
account, the areas of realisation are common to all of them and contain the following
aspects:
✓ Stakeholder management
✓ Environment
✓ Market practices
✓ Accountability
Regarding the model for the preparation of these accountability reports, we highlight
the GRI as the most accepted and used one.
It is the most traditional measuring instrument, and historically it has focused on the
verification of accounting and financial information; its field of research is the
accounting and administrative control of the organisation.
We can present here three stages and models of the Financial Audit as a management
tool:
This activity is mainly developed in the public sector. It is about controlling all the
information to avoid any error or irregularity.
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It arises when business growth requires a separation between ownership of the entity
and the management of it.
This last stage is not about detecting irregularities or controlling the activity of the
management, although it is necessary to take into account these aspects, but rather
about evaluating and interpreting the information obtained.
In order to finish this section, we will see what the social audit consists of another CSR
tool of management and measurement.
The objectives of the social audit are divided into two groups: general and specific.
▪ General objectives
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▪ Specific objectives
- To deepen the knowledge of the different areas of activity and the consequences
of the activities of the organisation.
- To define, apply and evaluate the social, environmental, human resources, etc.,
policies of the organisation.
- To offer the interested and/or concerned parties reliable information about the
policies and actions of the organisation.
When carrying out a social audit, it is important to take into account a series of
indicators, both internal and external, that will help us to make a good assessment of
the social efficiency of a company or organisation.
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- Description of the path of the entity. From their own action or from their reports,
the evolution of the entity is traced highlighting the milestones that both its
history and its connections in society have marked.
▪ Recipients: it is about specifying the set of recipients of the activity of the entity,
emphasising the recipients of said action, whether individuals, groups or any
other pertinent reference.
▪ Scope: clarifying the orientation of the aims and goals proposed by the
organisation. It is about seeing the initial postulates and the impact that has been
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generated once the actions have been executed, in order to determine what kind
of repercussion their activities have.
▪ Plurality: allows to specify the treatment given to the internal disagreement and
the tolerance mechanisms that are practiced.
▪ Activities: outside the entity, with its periodicity, mood and conditions,
highlighting what kind of world they build with their presence in society.
▪ Standardisation
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▪ Certification
During the last years SRI has been increasing in all its variants and interpretations,
especially these two:
▪ This second vision of SRI appears when one begins to contemplate that CSR could
be an acceptable indicator of quality in the management of a company and,
therefore, an adequate indicator of its future financial evolution.
In 2001 the European Social Investment Forum (EUROSIF) was created in order to
promote and develop ethical investment.
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When deciding what to invest and where to do it, a company or organisation will be
guided through a series of investment criteria called ethical filters. That is to say, it will
be necessary to specify which behaviors companies exclude from the investment plan
and, on the contrary, which are the business practices necessary to carry out said
investments.
These determine selective investment criteria taking into account only if companies
meet certain environmental requirements.
When deciding what and where to invest, a company will also use the results that will
mark the ethical or sustainable indexes.
The most important ethical or sustainable indexes are the Dow Jones Sustainability, the
Social Domini 400 and the FTSE4 Good.
They are a reference to ethical investments. Their main objective is not to provide
companies with greater economic profitability by investing in social improvement
issues. When making decisions related to ethical investment, they aim to take into
account the criteria relative to the set of obligations and legal and ethical commitments,
national and international, derived from the impact that the activity and operations of
the organisations produce in the social, labour, environmental and human rights fields.
Currently, as we have seen, the corporate image and the reputation of companies are
very important, and that is why most of them use this type of investment to make a
difference and earn this intangible value that in the long run will have an impact on the
economic gains.
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Within these sustainable ethical indices, we highlight ethical stock indices and solidarity
investment funds.
Ethical stock indices are those ethical filters existing in the stock exchange. These
include only those companies that stand out for having a better social or
environmental behavior.
The main ethical stock indices currently available are: Domini Social Index, Dow
Jones Sustainability Index, FTSE4 Good, Aspi Eurozone Indexes, Citizens Index,
and recently created, KLD-Nasdap Social Index and Nasdaq Stock Market.
Solidary investment funds deal with the transfer of part of the management
commissions of the fund to non-governmental entities.
- They provide advanced policies regarding the relationship with investors who
adopt CSR criteria.
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It is up to the public to recognise these efforts, therefore, the establishment and use of
good communication channels that allow valuing the best socially responsible behavior
will become one of the main company’s objectives when it comes to establishing CSR
policies and strategies.
As we have seen, CSR has become a value with a great strategic and communicative
appeal, which is capable of exempting and legitimising companies against society. What
really matters is that the CSR does not remain a mere declaration of intentions, but that
the environment can see and know the achievements and improvements that have been
achieved with the implementation of these strategies and policies.
Let us see then how a company will communicate correctly with public opinion in order
to build a good image.
▪ Corporate Image
According to Herranz, the concept constructed in the mind of each one who
perceives and recognises it is considered by corporate image or public image.
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The CSR strategies and policies that a company carries out, in the long term, can
turn the corporate image into a highly valued asset that will bring transparency
and a good corporate reputation.
It is important to note that if the CSR is not well defined and planned, it will be
translated into a set of actions that only seek short-term notoriety.
▪ Transparency
▪ Corporate Reputation
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- Innovation
Thus, we can state that communicating CSR is an act of transparency to the interlocutors
and, at the same time, it is a communicative strategy that helps us to promote the
corporate reputation among the same interlocutors.
In business communication we can identify the coexistence of two types of public; those
who live inside a company and those who do not live inside it but need it. That is why it
is very important that a company maintains communication with these external
audiences, so that, as with the internal public, they know the company’s progress and
improvement as well as its different activities, especially in CSR material.
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- It should awaken the interest of the media as well as the organisations that a
company has an interest in keeping informed, such as customers, shareholders,
financial entities and state agencies.
- The message presented must be adapted to the target audience, and conveyed
through the appropriate channel.
Linked to this last characteristic, the way of transmitting information abroad can be
done through:
It is important to emphasise that a company must always offer truthful and real
information, and that the continuity and the veracity of information are the two
elements that make up the information transparency. This requires anticipating the
facts, anticipating what may be interesting for the media and offering them to broadcast
it and in return be willing to respond to requests made by them.
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Among the resources that the company uses to publicise its activities:
✓ Open doors days and activities that will help reinforce the culture and business
image at the local, national and international level.
Thus, and finally, it is important to stress the importance that internal communication,
but above all external communication, has in a company in order to improve and take
care of its public image. Taking care of the external image of a company is aimed at
valuing the organisation’s effort to contribute to the social and material progress of the
community.
As we have pointed out in the previous section, there are multiple external
communication resources that companies or organisations might use. In this section we
will talk about patronage and sponsorship since they are the most used resources.
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▪ Business patronage
“Vocation of a company to revert to society part of the benefits it derives from it, in
the form of social benefit since it is a company itself that guarantees its existence. In
this sense, the monetary or in-kind aid through which the patronage materialises has
a high altruistic component on the part of the patron.”
Thus, we can say that it is the financial or material support of a company contributed to
a person or work for the exercise of activities that have a character of general interest.
Currently, patronage is part of many Spanish companies, and since 1992 it has been
focusing on the development of solidarity actions and in the field of the environment.
There are many companies that currently develop sponsorship activities, and many of
them do so through corporate foundations linked.
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▪ Sponsorship
The advantages that a company derives from the implementation of actions and
activities related to patronage are the following:
o There are many companies that carry out this type of action on
operations of general interest in the community trying to counteract the
poor opinion that is sometimes caused in some sectors of society.
o This type of practice allows a company to strengthen ties with its external
audiences outside the traditional market terrain. In addition, it creates
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