ISO 26000 - Guidance on Social Responsibility

ISO 26000 - Guidance on Social Responsibility an international guidance standard produced by ISO with its national members and a number of stakeholder group representataives including NORMAPME. The final version of the international standard was approved and launched in November 2010.

Since the start of this initiative in 2004, eight such plenary meetings have been held to focus on the drafting of the text of this guidance standard document. NORMAPME has been actively involved in this process since 2006 and has contributed significantly to the drafting of the proposed standard. NORMAPME has achieved much in adapting the standard to the needs of SMEs (or SMOs - small to medium sized organisations, as they are referred to in the document text) such as the insertion of an SMO Help Box which shows how the guidance standard proposes to cover the activties of SMOs. NORMAPME has persistently highlighted the concerns of SMOs on this proposed standard.

NORMAPME called for the rejection of the current text on the grounds that it fails to address the needs of SMOs, proposing that work should be continued on the text of the standard on social responsibility toward the attainment of one which is more utility driven and practicable for ‘all organisations’ as it claims.

The absence of recognition fo SMOs as an official stakeholder holder group to the process is of considerable concern with regard to the applicability of the guidance standard. SMO's stand for 99% of all organisations; 92% of them being micro-organizations. Micro-organisations (consisting of up to 10 persons) run local operations and are struggling to survive. It unrealistic to expect that an SMO may place undue emphasis on supply or value chain matters, in which SMO influence is relatively non-existent.

Greater efforts must be undertaken to prevent the misuse of ISO 26000 by accredited certifiers or derived standards claiming to be in line with ‘or ‘based on’ ISO 26000. There should be greater public awareness of the unique nature of ISO 26000 as a ‘guidance standard’ which is ‘not’ certifiable.

The proposed guidance standard has been drafted with larger business in mind, and as a result most of the core issues are not of relevance to SMO’s. As a consequence of this, micro-organizations (consisting of up to 10 persons) should be explicitly taken out of the scope of ISO 26000.

An SME does not experience the same social responsibility issues as those addressed in the standard. Small to medium sized organisations do not have the same attributes or societal impact as that of larger business. They do not operate independently of society. SMEs depend on society; their operational ends are achieved through their response to societal needs. The assumption that large companies are the norm and that the solution for the large company can just be transplanted to the smaller firms is a myth. The one size fits all approach for all stakeholders is disproportionate and inapplicable.

Weighing in at 100 pages, the guidance standard remains difficult to understand and use. This presents clear obstacles in light of the resources and capacities necessary in its utility by SMEs. An response to this NORMAPME is obliged to offer its member organisations a standard specific user manual to assist in the interpretation and identification of the relevance of the standard for SMEs. This user manual can be downloaded from http://www.normapme.eu/en/page/45/corporate-social-responsibility

NORMAPME promotes the use of standards by SMEs, and recognises the hard work and collective efforts involved in the achievements of the draft standard to date, however NORMAPME underlines that such standards must be SME friendly and of foreseeable benefit and relevance to SMEs.

For further information on this article please contact:
Mr. Sebastiano Toffaletti - s.toffaletti@normapme.com or +32 2 282 05538