Экономические науки/6. Маркетинг и менеджмент

Candidate of sciences, associate professor Peretyatko A.Y.

Kharkiv National University of Building and Architecture

PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN UKRAINE

In the modern conditions there is a big attention to questions of corporate social responsibility (CSR): it always raises the problems of socially responsible business conduct, its role in socio-economic development, opportunities for interaction with the local community, the companies prepare social reports, have dealing with social investment. Principles of internal standards and socially responsible behavior are gradually involving in business strategies of international and Ukrainian companies. On the other side the international leadership in social responsibility ISO 26000, Global Compact is expanding its network in Ukraine.

Until recently business in Ukraine was not active participant in the process of building and developing social responsibility. It is one of the reasons of narrowed and limited audience of this concept and less possibility of the creation of scientific foundations and principles of social responsibility. Like any other type of activity CSR should be planned, analyzed, adjusted and controlled. CSR have some methodological principles, scientific basis and unfortunately in practice of Ukrainian business sector that all is not observed.

Ukraine's approach to socio-economic development and integration into European and world community requires new practices of interaction between state and business, business and society. That would allow making stronger the mutual responsibility of all participants in public life, to create conditions for further stable development of the state and society.

Nowadays in the most economically developed countries widely spread concept of “corporate social responsibility”, whereby companies integrate social and environmental issues in their business and interact with stakeholders on a voluntary basis.

CSR in Ukraine is only in phase of development and important role in this process should take the education sector.

Formation of the principles of the CSR took place over a fairly long historical period, from various kinds of simple charity activities of individual companies to develop common principles of behavior of large corporations in the global economy.

The key meaning of the CSR is the voluntary adoption by companies of the principles and standards of social responsibility business. Rather it can be attributed to an ethical code of business conduct in contemporary society. Accepted international principles / standards formulated by the CSR in the documents of international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The first step in the UN in this direction was the development in 1980 code of conduct for transnational companies. However, the main initiative of the UN Global Compact has done, around which the volunteer began to unite with the companies, UN agencies, labor organizations and other civil society structures. The purpose of this association - encouraging action and partnerships in support of the principles of human rights, labor relations, environment, conducive to a sustainable and inclusive global economy.

Corporate Social Responsibility recognized as a vital and recognized factor of competition in the economically developed countries. Leaders of the world's leading companies have realized that the prosperity of their business is directly dependent on the welfare of the community. The Global Compact encourages businesses to adopt certain standards of corporate social responsibility that will allow companies to not only improve their economic performance but also contribute to solving pressing social problems in the regions of their activities.

CSR in Ukraine has started to develop intensely in 2005. More companies tried to understand and develop Social Responsibility policies and activities. According to the UN study on CSR in 2005, where a sample group of businesses ranging from the large to the small, 78.1% of respondent companies had heard of CSR. As to CSR issues: 65.5% of companies believed CSR meant taking measures to improve the employees’ working conditions, 63.2% - staff development and training, 56% - charitable contributions to the community, 49.5% - the ethical treatment of customers.

 32,7% of questioned companies believed to a certain extent that businesses should play a part in solving social and environmental problems and only 11,8% strongly agreed.

Concerning the CSR activities: 47,7% of respondents mentioned charity; 32,1% - social programs; 29,6% - the provision of decent working conditions for staff; 18,4% - the sponsorship of major events and TV programs; 12,9%  - caring for the environment.  Above-mentioned facts once more proved that CSR has become an important issue in business environment discussion on which is lead mostly by large Ukrainian and partly foreign companies.

Moreover, till 2009, the year of economic downturn, some Ukrainian companies has entered the phase of systematic approach for CSR and thinking about supply chain and role of it.

The so-called start of developing of BSR in Ukraine could be considered at December 2005 when CSR and Global Compact Forum was conducted with participation of representatives of Ukrainian Government, the business community, the United Nations, international and local NGOs, media and academia. The Forum’s goal was to take further dialogue between these different groups on CSR and to mobilize a core group of companies to sign the Global Compact (GC) which was done during the launch of the Global Compact in Ukraine. Further steps characterized by the raising awareness activities on CSR in Ukraine and first efforts of the companies to think and do strategic things in CSR sphere.

Businessmen are beginning to understand that business can’t exist outside society and must respond to it needs. Increasing interest of the community, business and the public has caused a public organization “Centre for CSR Development”. Centre’s mission is to implement systematic changes for development of corporate social responsibility in Ukraine. BSR also supported by Ukrainian Association for Management Development and Business Education.

As well modern Ukraine has a lot of indicators of social irresponsible business. As an example 19,1% of workers get the average wage below the subsistence level; almost 689 thousand workers receive wages below the line of poverty.

Unfortunately today business saves on investment in human capital, as the process of training the workforce is getting less. Number of employees who improve their skills is about 8% of average number of employees.

Labor costs showed extremely low amounts of financing vocational training of employees: the average monthly costs of training per employee are nearly 0,25 USD (it’s about 0,3% of total labor costs).

However despite some progress in implementing social and environmental reporting of companies, there is a problem of limited information, teaching materials and practical tools for spreading CSR in Ukraine.

In Ukraine there are no distinct and clear criteria for assessing corporate social responsibility, no ideas about ethical principles of modern business and economic benefits of socially responsible behavior. Learning experience, gained by foreign corporations and international institutions in this area, is useful for understanding the essence of social responsibility. But simple copy of western principles and standards, without taking into account Ukrainian features, will not be a right solution. All this requires clarification, the definition of the main principles and criteria of evaluation; will help to form methodological approaches to research and analyze problems.

The urgency in the scientific and business environment issues of corporate social responsibility leads to correlation analysis: what part of responsibility in society (social, economic, purely environmental, legal, etc.) relations bring professionals who are endowed with modern viewpoints, economic thinking.