ISO 26000: Guiding Companies to Sustainability Through Social Responsibility?

Abstract

This paper begins by examining the history of ISO 26000, ‘Guidance on Social Responsibility’. It then compares it with three other international standards in the field of CSR. After a brief examination of its contents, it offers a short critique of the Standard. The Standard assumes that, by acting in line with social expectations, organizations will contribute to sustainable development, but it never explains how decision-makers are meant to learn what society expects. The paper argues that this can be explained by reference to the history of the Standard. It was first proposed as a Management System Standard, compliance with which could be certified. It would have dealt with the narrower subject of CSR, and its rationale was grounded in the ‘business case’ for going beyond the law. Stakeholders would react to certification in their dealings with corporations and this would enable decision-makers to learn about social expectations. However, as published it merely offers guidance on the broader subject of Social Responsibility, and is applicable to all organizations, commercial and non-commercial alike. It assumes away trade-offs between conflicting interests and simply assumes that decision-makers ‘know’ or ‘can easily learn’ what society expects. This is a serious weakness in the Standard, and raises the question of whether the Standard offers any meaningful guidance to corporations which want to act in a more sustainable way.