ISO 26000 Guidance on
Social Responsibility
Development Status, June 2009
An Industry View
A Tool to
Check for Effectiveness
David Felinski, Vice-President IFAN (International Federation of
Standards Users) and IFAN Expert to ISO/TMB WG SR, and
Guido Guertler, ICC Observer to ISO/TMB WG SR
Available Slide Series
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The Project
ISO 26000 Contents and Players
Applicability Aspects
ISO 26000 CD Vote by March 2009
Success Criteria
Risk of Failure
Tool: Check for Effectiveness
The present subset is the one marked in bold
Outline
Recognition (awareness), “but”…
 What is the “Effectiveness Matrix”?
 The “Effectiveness Matrix” Logic
 The “Effectiveness Matrix” Example
 Downloadable Documents
 Encouragement

Recognition, but… (1/3)
A most frequent notion about SR is:
YES,
I really
want to do
something!
Can
I?
Where
should I
start…
…and what could I
effectively influence?
Recognition, but… (2/3)



Recognizing what 400+ experts from all
over the world consider important for the
enhancement of organizations’ social
responsibilities, …
Recognizing the overall ISO 26000 goal to
globally promote social responsibility to all
kinds of organizations, …
…there is a small “but”
Recognition, but… (3/3)

Suppose an organization is willing to do more
on social responsibility, the “but” relates to
its real human and financial
resources/abilities to
- transpose the offered guidance into
practice and to
- what degree of effectiveness it can
reasonably expect to attain.
The Effectiveness Matrix helps
identifying possibilities
The Effectiveness Matrix…(1/2)


…is an easy to understand and easy to
use tool to gauge how effective an
organization can reasonably expect to be
in applying SR core subjects and issues
…can be used by „all types of
organizations, regardless of their size and
location“ (to quote the ISO 26000 Scope)
Die Wirksamkeitsmatrix … (2/2)


…does not need any advisors or
consultants external to the organization
…is a good instrument for initiating a
dialogue with stakeholders or any other
parties.
Effectivenss Matrix; Terms (1/2)
Clause 6 of ISO 26000 mentions these core
subject:
 Organizational Governance
 Human Rights
 Labor Practices
 The Environment
 Fair Operating Practices
 Consumer Issues, and
 Community Involvement and Development
Effectivenss Matrix; Terms (2/2)
A “core subject“ is structured by several „issues“:
Core subjects
Organisational Governance
Human Rights
Labor Practices
The Environment
Fair Operating Practices
Consumer Issues
Community Involvement and
Development
issues
1
8
5
4
5
7
7
37
The Effectiveness Matrix; Basic Logic (1/5)
The left-most column reproduces the
ISO 26000 core subjects and issues
Remaining columns ask five
questions in each row
Core
Subjects
and
Issues
Relevance?
Effectiveness?
Activities?
Impact?
Stake
holders?
The Effectiveness Matrix; Basic Logic (2/5)
The actual column headings read as follows:
1 SR Core 2 Is the core
3 What degree 4 What kind 5 What
6 Which
subjects subject or
and issues issue seen as
relevant to the
organization?
of effectiveness
could the
organization
have on this
issue?
stakeholders
to involve are
seen as
useful?
of activities
could the
organization
undertake?
effect/impact
would the
activities have
on the
organization’s
social
responsibility?
Use is from left to right: If an answer in a box is
positive (YES on the next slide) continue with this line, if
it is negative (NO on the next slide) this line is done
The Effectiveness Matrix; Basic Logic (3/5)
Relevance?
Core
Subject A
Issue A1
Issue A2
Issue A3
Issue A...
Core
Subject B
Issue B...
YES
ActiviEffectiveness? ties?
continue with
issues of Core
Subject A
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
Go to issue A3
yes
yes
continue with
Core Subject C
no
Impact?
no
Go to
issue A2
yes
yes
yes
yes
Stakeholders?
yes
no
Effectiveness Matrix; Basic Logic (4/5)
Relevance of a core subject
 Question: is the core subject relevant
to my organization?
 If NO, go to next core subject
 If YES, continue with checking whether
the issues of this core subject can
effectively be dealt with
Effectiveness Matrix; Basic Logic (5/5)
Relevance of an issue
 Question: is the issue relevant to my
organization?
 If NO, go to next issue of this core
subject
 If YES, continue with checking the next
of the five questions on this “issue”;
if one check is negative, the line is
done; go to next issue
Effectiveness Matrix; Example (1/6)


The following represents the practical
application of the „Effectiveness Matrix“ by
a 30-person software developing company
in Germany.
The complete matrix (Word document) is
downloadable from
http://www.26kestimation.com/html/english.html
Effectiveness Matrix; Example (2/6)
“Anticorruption”
1 SR Core
2 Is the core subject 3 What degree of
4 What kind of
5 What
6 Which
subjects
and issues
or issue seen as
relevant to the
organization?
effectiveness could
the organization
have on this issue?
activities could the
organization
undertake?
effect/impact
stakeholders to
would the activities involve are seen as
have on the
useful?
organization’s social
responsibility?
some
relevance
This is part of
6.6 Core
subject
Fair
operating
practices
Anti–
corruption
We include this Is beneficial Customers,
to our general employees
both national issue into
relations with
image
law and our
our customers
understanding
and act
of our company
accordingly
Effectiveness Matrix; Example (3/6)
“Climate Change”
1 SR Core
2 Is the core subject 3 What degree of
4 What kind of
5 What
subjects
and issues
or issue seen as
relevant to the
organization?
activities could the
organization
undertake?
effect/impact
stakeholders to
would the activities involve are seen as
have on the
useful?
organization’s social
responsibility?
Climate
change
mitigation
and
adaptation
YES
effectiveness could
the organization
have on this issue?
Very little
Sponsor
Enhance our
actions that
good image
increase public
awareness;
include
measures into
communication
material
6 Which
none
Effectiveness Matrix; Example (4/6)
“Health and Safety at Work”
1 SR Core
2 Is the core subject 3 What degree of
4 What kind of
5 What
subjects
and issues
or issue seen as
relevant to the
organization?
effectiveness could
the organization
have on this issue?
activities could the
organization
undertake?
effect/impact
stakeholders to
would the activities involve are seen as
have on the
useful?
organization’s social
responsibility?
Health
and
safety at
work
Not
relevant;
Not
Applicable
Not
Applicable
all covered by
regulation, we
run very
normal
office
workplaces
Not
Applicable
6 Which
Not
Applicable
Effectiveness Matrix; Example (5/6)
Spezific Result


ISO 26000 offers guidance for 37 issues
5 issues can be effectively dealt with:
- Sustainable resource use
-

Anti-corruption
Promotion in the own sphere of influence
Education and culture
Employment creation and skills development
32 issues can
not be effectively dealt with
Effectiveness Matrix; Example (6/6)
Summary

To work through the matrix is a relatively
easy and efficient process to
select those core subjects and issues,
where “my” organization can try to
enhance its social responsibility
- substantially;
- effectively;
- reasonably; and
- in a sustainable manner.
Encouragement

Feel free to try the „Effectiveness Matrix“
with your own organization!
It can be downloaded from
http://www.26k-estimation.com/html/english.html


Any proposals on further development of
this tool, or on creating additional ones for
an effective use of ISO 26000 are more
than welcome!
Please send your ideas to [email protected]