SocialDialogue.net

Date: 5-5-2003

According to a new report published by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, successful corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the result of open dialogue involving all stakeholders and incorporating their different expectations. The report - Towards a Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility - marks the Foundation's first contribution to the CSR debate. The report looks at restructuring and subcontracting and the effects of corporate involvement in local community and economic regeneration, as well as the promotion of environmentally acceptable practices, and reveals that the inclusion of CSR on the agenda of in-house social dialogue remains limited. The report shows that it is not easy for the traditional players in social dialogue to practice CSR. It suggests that the social dialogue faces different options:

1. The social dialogue remains based on a binary model and excludes any other parties.
2. A dialogue with other stakeholders is developed in parallel to the social dialogue and bridges are built between them.
3. The social dialogue could be opened up to a wide range of stakeholders but runs the risk of reducing employees and their representatives to one stakeholder among many.

The report is the result of two research projects, looking at CSR from the perspectives of living and working conditions, including a series of EU company case studies, examining socially responsible practices. It is based on the notion that the Foundation is in a unique position, due to its tripartite structure, to contribute to the CSR debate where social, economic and environmental issues overlap.

Document's Table of Contents

Section	Page
Foreword v
Introduction	1
1 - Foundation research into CSR	3
Objectives	3
CSR and working conditions	3
CSR and living conditions	4
Methodology	4
2 - Defining and understanding CSR	7
Development of the concept	7
Towards a common framework	7
Changing contexts	9
CSR and selected issues	9
3 - CSR as an interactive process	13
A diversity of stakeholders, motives and expectations	13
Promoting sustainability and credibility	17
A range of economic, regulatory and cultural contexts	20
The impact of company size and sector	21
A variety of approaches	21
4 - Actions for the future	25
5 - Conclusions	29
References	31
Annex 1 Summary of research into CSR in the area of working conditions	33
Annex 2 Summary of research into CSR in the area of living conditions	37

 

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