"Learning power" forward the article published by teacher Li Li in the guide Journal of Sustainable Development Economy
In recent years, it is often heard that ISO 26000 is out of date, or ISO 26000 is useless. Is ISO 26000 really out of date? Is it really just a fancy? As a member of the Chinese registered experts who have experienced the ISO 26000 formulation process and participated in the content negotiation in essence, the author believes that although 26000 is not perfect and there are still shortcomings, it is not out of date. On the contrary, it has important guiding significance to all kinds of organizations including enterprises and even our personal responsible behavior. The concept and methodology provided by 26000 are of great significance to the operation of enterprises in various environments, the realization of win-win and sustainable development of their own interests and social interests. However, due to the lack of promotion and communication of ISO 26000 in China, the value of ISO 26000 has not been accurately recognized, nor can it give full play to the role of ISO 26000, so as to better serve China's high-quality economic development, ecological civilization construction and sustainable development in the new era. Therefore, the author thinks that it is necessary to recognize the status and function of ISO 26000.
ISO 26000 is the first international standard of social responsibility in strict sense.
ISO 26000 is the first international standard established by the international organization for Standardization (ISO), which contains social provisions and contents previously only regulated by intergovernmental organizations (such as labor standards). The introduction of ISO 26000 has its profound economic and social development background.
Under the wave of globalization, the direct investment and international procurement of transnational corporations not only bring about economic globalization, but also lead to the globalization of environmental and social problems. The international community pays close attention to the human rights, labor, environment and social issues of transnational corporations' foreign investment and supply chain, which also promotes the rapid promotion of social responsibility in the world, and forms a series of international characteristics Industrial social responsibility initiatives, standards and tools are applied to the investment and supply chain management of multinational companies; these initiatives, standards and tools are numerous, overlapping and complex, and the definitions and standards of social responsibility are different from each other, which also brings difficulties to the application of standards for enterprises. At the same time, consumers are faced with many standards and standards when facing consumption choices Labels are also difficult to make responsible consumption choices.
Under such a background, ISO began to study and formulate the international standard ISO 26000 for social responsibility, in order to form international standards in the field of social responsibility and unify the cognition and practice of social responsibility.
Why is ISO 26000 the first international standard of social responsibility in a strict sense? ISO is an internationally recognized standardization organization. Although it is an international non-governmental organization, its members are national standards groups of all countries. As a class a consulting organization of the United Nations, the standards formulated by ISO are often recognized by WTO as an important basis for judging whether the technical trade barrier adopted by members is in compliance with the regulations.
The definition of corporate social responsibility by ISO 26000 is a global consensus
ISO organization adopts stakeholder participation mode in the process of ISO 26000. ISO is mainly responsible for organizing work. The actual text content is jointly formulated by experts from 99 countries and 42 international organizations or regional organizations with a wide foundation. They represent consumers, governments, industries, labor, NGOs and services, support, research, academic and other (SSRO) ）。
At the end of 2004, ISO formally established the ISO 26000 Working Group on social responsibility (hereinafter referred to as "working group") to formulate the standard. In 2005, ISO officially launched the work of ISO 26000. Brazil as the chairman and Sweden as the Secretary state took more than five years. After eight plenary sessions of the working group, it was finally concluded in 2010, which was the largest and most participated in the history of ISO standard formulation. Although there are some imperfections in the process and mode of ISO 26000, it reflects the consensus of major countries and international organizations on social responsibility.
In the process of formulating ISO 26000 and after its official publication, quite a number of countries and standard setting institutions have revised, formulated or improved their social responsibility initiatives and tools according to ISO 26000 or with reference to ISO 26000, and issued new versions or re formulated their own standards. For example, gri has revised its own standards according to ISO 26000; OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises have been revised with reference to ISO 26000 since 2010, and the latest edition has been issued; the Japan Federation of economic organizations has revised its own social responsibility initiative according to ISO 26000; and the European Union has based on ISO 26000 The definition of 26000 revised its social responsibility policy document to be consistent with ISO 26000; the social responsibility policies of Chile, Sweden and Egypt were also greatly influenced by ISO 26000. Even if the United States voted against ISO 2600, it did not object to the definition of social responsibility, but to the prevention principle, which has an important impact on its interests.
The important value of ISO 26000 is that it provides a set of internationally recognized social responsibility methodology.
I have seen many enterprise cases mentioned how to use ISO 26000 to mention the work and progress made in the seven core themes and related topics of ISO 26000. It seems that it is related to the vast majority of the contents of ISO 26000 standard text, but in fact it fails to grasp the best part of ISO 26000. ISO 26000 provides the basic principles and methods for all types of organizations to practice social responsibility, which are the two basic practices of understanding social responsibility and the identification and participation of stakeholders.
Understanding social responsibility is the primary premise for organizations to practice social responsibility. If they are not clear about their own social responsibility, how can we talk about practicing social responsibility? In order to accurately identify its social responsibility, an organization needs to understand the environment in which the organization operates, the social and environmental impact of its decisions and activities, especially the impact on stakeholders, and determine which issues are important to the organization and which need to be addressed first. As the internal and external environment of organization operation is constantly changing, the influence of organization's decision-making and activities on society and environment will also change; at the same time, the expectations of the stakeholders of the public, consumers, employees and other organizations on the organization will also change with the change of their cognition and demand. Therefore, the social responsibility of an organization, especially the problems that should be dealt with first, is not immutable, but will change with the change of the organization's operating environment, business activities, the expectations of stakeholders and the whole society. Only in this way can the organization identify the risks and opportunities and realize sustainable development.
The identification and communication of stakeholders is a necessary means for an organization to understand its social responsibility. ISO 26000 defines stakeholder participation as "the activities carried out by an organization to create opportunities for dialogue with one or more stakeholders, the purpose of which is to provide an informed basis for organizational decision-making". In addition, stakeholder participation is also an important way for organizations to respond to the needs of stakeholders and maintain transparency, so it is also an important embodiment of social responsibility.
Correct opening method of ISO 26000
As mentioned above, the essence of ISO 26000 lies in the basic methods it provides, especially the principles of social responsibility and the two basic practices. It clearly tells all kinds of organizations, what the basic principles of social responsibility should be followed and how to carry out practice, but it does not mean that the core themes behind the social responsibility and the contents of social responsibilities should be integrated into the whole organization. These contents are just to help organizations better understand their social responsibility, know what aspects should be considered, and tell the organization what social expectations are in these aspects, what measures can be taken and what work can be carried out. However, these contents do not require the organization to do all of them. It is still necessary to identify important issues and priorities according to the methods provided in the previous basic practice and in combination with the characteristics and needs of the enterprise itself, so as to help the organization achieve continuous improvement.
If we don't consider the basic practice of social responsibility, we will refer to the seven core topics and related topics, that is, we do not correctly understand and use ISO 26000. Because it is very difficult for an enterprise to fully meet the requirements of the seven core topics and related topics listed in ISO 26000. On the contrary, if the Based on the two basic practices of 26000, we can fully analyze the operating environment of the enterprise, the impact it has, and identify the expectations of all parties and the society that have an impact on the operation of the organization. We can better identify the priority work of the enterprise. Combining with the methods provided by integrating social responsibility into the whole organization, we can relatively easily make continuous improvement. This is the only way to open ISO 26000.
Correctly open the value creation brought by ISO 26000
ISO 26000 emphasizes the analysis of the environment in which an organization operates. It emphasizes that the organization should identify the impact of its decisions and activities on stakeholders, including positive and negative impacts, and the expectations of stakeholders on the organization. If an organization understands this information, it can know who its business activities can bring value to, who will support your business, who will have a negative impact on who may oppose your business, and thus adversely affect you. Therefore, it can effectively identify the risks and opportunities that may exist in the business, help enterprises better manage risks, create economic and social value, and realize win-win and sustainable development of enterprises and society.
Specifically, the understanding of social responsibility, especially the determination of important and priority issues, can help organizations to concentrate resources to deal with these issues that have important impact on stakeholders and organization operation, rather than involve every issue like pepper, but each issue has not been substantially improved.
Stakeholder participation can help organizations more clearly identify the real demands of stakeholders, not just on the surface, but also help organizations identify areas that can create value for stakeholders and realize their own business development; at the same time, it can also coordinate the conflicts between their own interests, interests of stakeholders and the overall social expectations, so as to enhance the relationship between enterprises and interests The understanding and understanding between stakeholders can effectively resolve the risk and reduce the operation cost of the organization.
In addition, the organization can improve the transparency through the participation of stakeholders, thus enhancing the credibility of organizational social responsibility. The two-way communication and communication with stakeholders can let stakeholders understand the concept and practice of social responsibility of the organization, and give feedback to them, help the organization achieve continuous improvement, and improve the performance of social responsibility management and the reputation of the organization. (the author is an associate researcher of the University of international business and Economics)
(the original text was published in the Journal of sustainable development economics, September October, 2019)
