“… a truly international consensus on what social responsibility means and what core subjects need to be addressed to implement it. … [ISO 26000] is based on broad stakeholder input, including from developing countries, business, government, consumers, labour, nongovernmental organizations and others.”
Prior Newsletters have documented the complicated political negotiations that led us to this point (see Strategic CSR - ISO 26000, January 25, 2010). Integral to the five-year long process has been the broad, multi-stakeholder, multi-national participation, which can be seen both as its strength (inclusive and widespread adoption) and also its weakness (ambiguity and compromise):
“At the last meeting of the ISO/WG SR, in July 2010, there were 450 participating experts and 210 observers from 99 ISO member countries and 42 liaison organizations involved in the work.”
The resulting document and convoluted rhetoric reflect the complex negotiations. For example, in spite of many participants pushing for ISO 26000 to be a certifiable standard (like the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management systems), due to political disagreements among participants, the ISO 26000 is instead a “guidance standard” that is intended to be a broad guide, rather than a certifiable standard.
Confused? You should be.
In spite of this confusion, the claims accompanying the guidance/standard are ambitious:
“ISO 26000 provides guidance for all types of organization, regardless of their size or location, on:
1. Concepts, terms and definitions related to social responsibility
2. Background, trends and characteristics of social responsibility
3. Principles and practices relating to social responsibility
4. Core subjects and issues of social responsibility
5. Integrating, implementing and promoting socially responsible behaviour throughout the organization and, through its policies and practices, within its sphere of influence
6. Identifying and engaging with stakeholders
7. Communicating commitments, performance and other information related to social responsibility.”
An overview of the guidance is presented graphically by ISO (and is not as difficult to follow as it first appears):
It will be interesting to see how ISO 26000 is implemented in practice. While many are concerned it will become a de facto standard if it becomes widely adopted and firms begin expecting compliance from suppliers, others are concerned that the document is insufficiently precise to be of value in implementation.
Have a good weekend
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment (2e)
© Sage Publications, 2011
Instructor Teaching Site: http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: http://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
ISO Multimedia News Release
ISO launches ISO 26000 guidance standard on social responsibility
November 2, 2010
American National Standards Institute
The U.S. Certification body ANSI's U.S. press release about ISO 26000 is at:
