An Investigation of ISO 26000 and Social Responsibility Practices Applied in IT Companies

Abstract

Social Responsibility (SR) concerns the way in which organizations achieve their goals. This paper focuses on the overview of the SR as well as the endpoint of the continuous development of SR, the ISO 26000 standard and its core subjects. The aims are to give Information Technology (IT) professionals a better understanding of how to identify the core subjects of ISO 26000 relevant for their organizations and thus behave more responsible by taking actions towards sustainability. As stakeholders demand information and transparency from companies, it is imperative for companies them to report their environmental, economic, and social impact on the community. This paper examines the social responsibility reports, published from corporate websites of some the top IT companies in order to identify the issues that IT companies deal with, as well as in which issues related to the core subject of ISO 26000, they primary focus. The rest of the paper provides an overview on how IT companies can shift towards social responsibility and how they can integrate practices and technologies that benefit community, environment and stakeholders.