CSR or Social Impact??
Omar Shehadeh
Special Envoy of UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs | Strategic Communications, International Diplomacy
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has long been the dominant approach for evaluating and addressing a company's social and environmental impacts. However, growing evidence suggests that more than CSR is needed in today's increasingly complex and interconnected world. To truly understand and address the impacts of a company on society and the environment, it is necessary to move beyond CSR and promote the use of social impact indicators.
One of the main limitations of CSR is that it is typically focused on the actions and initiatives a company takes to address its social and environmental impacts. While these actions can be substantial, they only sometimes provide a comprehensive understanding of a company's overall impact. For example, a company might engage in philanthropy or sustainability reporting, but these activities do not necessarily reflect the company's overall performance regarding its impact on stakeholders.
In contrast, social impact indicators provide a more holistic and objective measure of a company's impact. These indicators can be used to assess a company's performance in terms of a wide range of social and environmental impacts, including economic, social, and ecological outcomes. This allows us to understand a company's overall impact better and make more informed decisions about its performance.
Third-party organizations should manage and monitor social impact indicators rather than by the company itself. This helps to ensure the independence and credibility of the indicators, as they are subject to different biases and pressures than in-house CSR initiatives.
Overall, I think the case for promoting social impact indicators over CSR is strong. What type of indicators should we consider to build a robust framework? Please share them and be part of a positive change
Phenomenologist | Bridging Difficult Spaces in Sustainability, Innovation & Governance | Orchestrating Transformative Change for Quality Growth
2 年I just found out that you were interested in these topics, Omar. CSR / Sustainability has been among my research topics for decades now. I liked your thoughts on the subject of CSR / social impact. One of the things I can add is why companies engage in these practices. Institutional theories offer an excellent analytical framework here. Any company can modify its behaviour through CSR / sustainability practices, disclosure, and assurance following the social environment in which it operates. We call this process of assimilation and integration "isomorphism" to gain or ensure legitimacy. Another aspect to consider when assessing companies' seriousness about impact is whether they walk their talk because disclosure and actions might need to be more consistent. Companies could be building "organisational facades"?without having an actual sustainability attitude/strategy/logic and having this integrated into their core business and not in the periphery of their activities. I can spend hours talking about this as you can see this passionates me.
Government Relations and International Affairs, Investor Relations, International Business Development.
2 年standardisations and agreed norms would be key elements to have an international recognition of such indicators. Which institution or international body would be able to standardize these indicators?