La Responsabilidad Social Corporativa como criterio de gestión empresarial

Abstract

The first years of the 21st century has witnessed a far-reaching debate, in all spheres of society, about Corporate Social Responsibility. Even though this debate has been going on for much longer, it was confined to academic circles and very specialised forums. However, the rapid globalisation process of the economy, has led to a notable increase in the companies' transnational activity, which today, and not just in the case of the large corporations, surpasses the sphere of the States in their legal and political economic dimension. This together with the development of the Information Society, which allows these activities to be rapidly known and bring into contact all the subjects involved in or affected by it, explain the interest and the rapid spread of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, as a reaction to the new role of globalised companies in society and its relation with the different groups of interest that are interrelated with it. This dynamic concept is far from being a precise definition and is a concept being constructed, with a high degree of complexity, ambiguous and sometimes contradictory.

This paper, based on the definition of greater acceptance at this time which can be seen in the green paper of the European Economic Community, tries to establish its scope and foreseeable evolution, not as a simple concept of altruistic and voluntary action, but as a management criteria of the companies, which is what will give it importance, beyond passing fashions. On the other hand, if CSR effectively forms part of business management, it will require constant verification and evaluation. It will also need generally accepted criteria and instruments to be developed that enable that. Finally, several considerations are made about the situation of the question in our country.