Barnes, L R and Croker, N (2013) The relevance of the ISO 26000 social responsibility issues to the Hong Kong construction industry. Construction Economics and Building, 13(3), pp. 37-50. ISSN 2204-9029
Abstract
CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR), the responsibility of a corporation for theimpacts of its decisions on society and the environment, originated as a termin the 1950's (Carroll 1999). However, ISO 26000 (ISO 2010)"Guidance on Social Responsibility" published in November 2010, redefines "SocialResponsibility" ("SR") broadly, by reference to SR principles, core subjectsand issues. The Hong Kong Construction Industry ("HKCI") sector is critical to Hong Kong's economy, accounting for5.6% of the GDP and 9.2% of employment in 1999 (Tang 2001). In 2011, the gross value of constructionwork by main contractors amounted to HK$128.53 billion and contributed HK$65.4 billion (HKGov 2013)to the total GDP of HK$1,823.2 billion (3.6%) (HKTDC 2013). The aim of this research is toinvestigate which ISO 26000 CSR issues are relevantto HKCI firms. Theprinciple findings are that: the reported level of HKCI CSR activity relativeto the 7 core subject of ISO 26000 is a function of company size; many SME'sconsider that many of the ISO 26000 SR issues are irrelevant to them; but forthe large construction contractors, reputation, legislation and or regulation andcorporate culture are drivers of improvements in CSR in the HKCI.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction industry; corporate social responsibility |
| Index terms: | corporate social responsibility, construction contractor, accounting, social responsibility, employment, construction industry, legislation, ISO, main contractor, Hong Kong, society, regulation |
| Subjects: | health safety and environment, Geography, practitioner, management, communities and social development, legal systems, industry analysis, political science, economic analysis, standards development |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Human Resources, Quality Management, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Governance, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here