Corporate Social Responsibility and the ten principles of the UN World Covenant
Introduction
In the current economy, the company plays an important role in society, due to the impact it has on our lives, it has been in need of changing the way to link with the community that surrounds it. Based on the previous idea, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Chacón and Rugel (2018) is born as a tool focused on all areas of a company that analyzes the impact it generates on the environment in which it develops at the levelof ethics, environmental care and human rights. Additionally, Cueto and De la Cuesta (2015) point out that the implementation of this practice is carried out voluntarily and majority in private sector companies.
In relation to those exposed it is possible to know the contribution in the current context that this practice has. In order to promote this new way of doing business, initiatives have appeared that seek the increase in socially responsible companies, by private or state organizations, as an example, at the annual meeting of the 1999 World Economic Forum, the former Secretary GeneralFrom the UN, Kofi Anann, announces the world pact, which materializes on July 26, 2000 (Alba, Herrero and Platero 2017).
(REPM, 2016) The United Nations World Pact is an initiative that aims to sustain business and align private economic activity with the fulfillment of ten principles, which are:
- Companies must support and respect the protection of fundamental human rights, internationally recognized, within their field of influence.
- Companies must ensure that their companies are not accomplices in the violation of human rights.
- Companies must support freedom of affiliation and effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
- Companies must support the elimination of all forms of forced or coercion work.
- Companies should support the eradication of child labor.
- Companies must support the abolition of discrimination practices in employment and occupation.
- Companies must maintain a preventive approach that favors the environment.
- Companies must promote initiatives that promote greater environmental responsibility.
- Companies must favor the development and dissemination of technologies respectful of the environment.
- Companies must work against corruption in all their forms, including extortion and bribery.
CSR is a practice that aims at the benefit of society, the environment and that tries to mitigate the negative impact of the company;However, this trend is done in a generalized and efficient way in developed and developing countries? Is there an element that defines the way it is done?
On the other hand, the world pact is an initiative to which companies voluntarily join, seen in this way. The creation of this initiative has had relevance in the increase in socially responsible companies?
Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America
Canessa and García (2005) recognize Peru, Brazil and El Salvador as pioneer countries for being the first to have promoter institutions, including Peru 2021, the Ethos Institute, and Fundemeas. In order to analyze the situation of CSR in Latin America, one of these advanced countries should be taken as an example, Peru in this case.
The case of Peru
When talking about CSR, the names of large companies or transnationals are usually highlighted, which is why it can be paradoxical that Peru is mentioned since small, small and micro companies represent 99.5 % of the Peruvian business universe (Ministry of Production, 2017);However, what justifies the pioneer qualifier is to be one of the first countries of the region to implement projections towards a more responsible company.
Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility in Peru
One way to deepen more a practice or tendency is the teaching of this, in Peru, higher educational institutions have the training of university social responsibility (RSU), which contributes to constitute the thinking of the socially responsible, Valleys (2016) defines social responsibility as a mode of management that is aware of the impacts it causes in its environment, additionally Martí, Calderón and Fernández (2018) consider that the MSW is important since it is responsible for developing the links between University and Society, CSR does the same between company and society, which is why a socially responsible university can be taken as a start in socially responsible practices in the company. According to studies conducted by Ferré-Pavia and Hiyo (2018), Peru is the Latin American country with more university and postgraduate university studies related to RS in the business sector, which highlights its progress in teaching in this way of doing company. While the university student is trained on this subject, the businessman has the possibility of guiding himself based on models created by national institutions such as Peru 2021, with respect to this program, Canessa and García (2005) indicate that his goal is to provide a toolto the entrepreneur who facilitates the way in which social responsibility is done and understands in the company. In this way it is possible to infer that Peru is one of the Latin American countries that puts special effort on the teaching of socially responsible practices.
Development of Corporate Social Responsibility in Peru
It is known that in Peru of the eighties and ninety a strong economic crisis was suffered;However, Del Castillo and Yamada (2008) clarify that for some companies this was the necessary cause to have a vision of investment in long -term projects that allow company to be done in a different way, it is in this way that the projection towards theRSE, currently there are several cases of socially responsible companies, most of these are large companies or transnationals, despite one of the characteristics that define these socially responsible as incipient corporations is that the Peruvian businessman does not yet recognize the cost-benefit ofThis practice, so that it is responsible for being pressed for the demands of the community or the foreign company (Gutiérrez and Amador, 2015). Now, although Peruvian CSR does not have the same motivations as the foreign company, it still presents the social and economic benefits that this trend brings, social responsibility can be seen at the labor level in companies such as Backus and its relationship with its collaborators and former formerCollaborators, in the environmental field, Cormin Callao and its ISO 14001 certification stand out in responsible environmental management (Del Castillo and Yamada, 2008).
Peruvian company and the world pact
Now that the role of the Peruvian company in the CSR is known, its participation in the world pact can be analyzed, when this initiative entered into force, in Peru there were already socially responsible companies. From the studies carried out by Ferré-Pavia and Hiyo (2018) it is possibleeuros, the only ones to overcome Peru in the number of companies attached are the countries that have the highest GDP, such as Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. From this information it is possible to appreciate the relationship the value of the GDP in each country studied and the companies attached to the UN initiative.
In Peru there is a unique case, because the network that promotes the accession of companies to this international alliance is in turn the main business guild, the National Confederation of Private Business Institutions (CONFIEP), this situation does not occur in othersLatin American countries (Confiep TV, 2017). Thus, this Peruvian guild is focused on the adhesion of the national company to the world pact.
Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe
The company’s responsibility is also something that has varied in Europe with respect to the past, this management model was extended rapidly by the old continent in the last quarter of the last century, being promoted by initiatives such as the World Pact orThe Sustainability Reporting Guidels system by the GRI (Fernández, 2020). The Nordic countries are at the top of the evaluations in CSR (Del Mar Rojas, 2016);However, the case of Spain takes.
The case of Spain
Unlike Peruvian companies, CSR in Spain does not apply due to foreign and social pressure, Bernal, Nieves and Briones (2016) explain that the motivation of Spanish companies to be socially responsible is the generation of intangibles, such as competitiveness,reputation, which translates into advertising, additionally from the Red Sea (2016) adds that the adhesion of Spanish companies to this trend has been an effective marketing strategy in the internationalization process.
Promotion of corporate social responsibility in Spain
The motivation of the owners of the companies to develop the CSR in Peru and Spain is not a similarity that these countries have;However, there is a similarity in the way in which the European country promotes the increase in socially responsible companies through the teaching of this trend in higher educational institutions. With respect to the teaching of the RSU;Martí, Mendes and Campos (2015) highlight their importance, since it forms values and principles that influence future professionals, who could put into practice what they learned in their respective scope of development. Additionally, a more recent investigation prepared by Compte-Pujol, Marca-Franciso and Matilla (2019) clarify that the education of CSR is mainly focused on degree and master studies related to the administration, but also to a lesser extent in careers concerningPublic relations, that is, social responsibility is not only for the company, but for different types of organizations.
Development of Corporate Social Responsibility in Spain
The Spanish company began an internationalization process in the nineties and at the same time was developing in CSR (Alba et al., 2017), this progress is evidenced in the issuance of sustainability memories, which are defined by the GRI (1997) as a report published by an organization in which it declares its social, economic and environmental impacts, in addition to presenting the model ofManagement that will use to reduce them, additionally made advances in the social field through the creation of work commissions or forums (Chumaceiro, Hernández and Velazco, 2015). According to the investigation carried out by Gallén and Peraita de Grade (2016), for 2012, Spain was the second country worldwide with the largest issuance of sustainability memories, from this we can infer that in this country there is a large numberof companies that recognize the negative impact they cause and in turn have a guide on how to reduce this result. Therefore, the progress of Spanish business in the different areas of social responsibility can be highlighted.
Spanish company and the world pact
Spain has the Spanish Network of the World Covenant, which is the association with the highest number of signatories in this initiative (REPM, 2016), however, the only remarkable thing is not only the number of registered, a study conducted by Ayuso and Mutis (2010) demonstrates that Spanish companies attached to the World Covenant effectively comply.
Relationship between corporate social responsibility and the ten principles of the UN World Covenant
Gutiérrez y Amador (2015) consider that literature about CSR is based on four theories, of which the first, called “social action by the company”, highlights that organizations must minimize the negative impacts they have on thecommunity where they carry out their activities, this theory is the one that best defines socially responsible practices. Meanwhile, the world pact seeks that the company develop positive aspects in human rights, work, environment and anti -corruption (REPM, 2016) through the ten established principles, therefore, a direct relationship between the objectives of theRSE and those of the initiative by the United Nations, since both seek development in the contribution with society by the company. Additionally, it should be noted that companies that adhere to this pact do not acquire the benefits for free, the signatory companies are committed to communicating through reports the progress in the fulfillment of the ten principles (Ayuso and Mutis, 2010), in a waythat the UN is aware of the companies that are adequately complying with this alliance, recognizing them as socially responsible and thus prevent the high numbers of registered associates from being a superficiality.
Influence of the World Covenant on Increasing Corporate Social Responsibility
Now that supervision by the UN is known in the fulfillment of its initiative, the question remains, the world pact has influenced the increase in socially responsible companies? Companies seek to raise profits, which is why they seek internationalization, that is, they look for roads that facilitate this goal. The investigation carried out by (Alba, et al., 2017) demonstrates that companies, large companies and also SMEs, claim that having associated the world pact has contributed to their international expansion process, in addition to improving their reputation and competitiveness. Additionally Avendaño, Sierra and Lobo (2015) states that the World Covenant has been key in the promotion of CSR due to its search for a sustainable global market, finally Espinoza (2016) points out that, thanks to the little complexity of the system and recommendationsof the world pact, this becomes the initiative with which many companies become socially responsible. Therefore, it is possible to infer that the world pact is influential in the increase in CSR, since it creates awareness in business about the importance of this vision and the benefits that it brings to develop it.
Benefits of adherence to the world pact
However, it was mentioned that this initiative has benefits, different authors express the utility that companies find in this alliance, for example, Alba, et al., (2017) highlighted the influence of fulfillSuccessful and socially responsible, so a learning process between associated companies originates. Thus, through these studies the benefits are demonstrated and explain why companies decide to sign the world pact.
conclusion
After having analyzed the current state of companies and their practices. It can be concluded that the company is on a road without return called CSR, this trend has had great development with the passing of the decades, the perception of the entrepreneur changes gradually, the greedy group focused on profits at all costs, is currently progressively perceived as an institution that is also aware of the role in society, this awareness does not remain in the owners of the companies, but expands to the community and the governments of the world. This is why both local and international initiatives arise, being the world pact one of the most recognized, not in vain, since it has achieved a notorious increase in the number of socially responsible actions by companies, in addition to the benefits it brings, they have directed the route of companies that seek expansion and recognition, achieving economic growth by the hand of an advance as a society. Perhaps the motivation of entrepreneurs is not intrinsic as sometimes it appears, however, it cannot be denied that it is going along a more human and conscious path, the results are achieved in the long term, in the present, more and more institutionsand people through actions, pacts and initiatives bind to this construction of a better future.
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