The Relevance of the ISO26000 Social Responsibility Issues to the HongKongConstruction Industry.

Corporate Social Responsibility ("CSR"), the responsibility of a corporation for the impacts of its decisions on society and the environment, originated as a term in the 1950's (Carroll 1999). However, ISO 26000 "Guidance on Social Responsibility" published in November 2010, redefines "Social Responsibility" ("SR") broadly, by reference to SR principles, core subjects and issues. The Hong Kong Construction Industry ("HKCI") sector is critical to Hong Kong's economy, accounting for 5.6% of the GDP and 9.2% of employment in 1999 (Tang 2001). In 2011, the gross value of construction work amounted to HK$215.0 billion and contributed HK$65.4 billion (HKSARCSD 2013a) to the total GDP of HK$1,823.2 billion (HKTDC 2013; HKGov 2013). Provisional quarterly data for 2012 indicates an increase in the gross value of construction works for 2012 of 25% to be now in excess of HK$250 billion (HKSARCSD 2013b). The aim of this research is to investigate which ISO 26000 SR principles, core subjects and issues are relevant to HKCI firms. The principle findings are that: the reported level of HKCI CSR activity relative to the seven core subject of ISO 26000 is a function of company size; many SME's consider that many of the ISO 26000 SR issues are irrelevant to them; but for the large construction contractors, with employee numbers greater than 200, the SR issues in ISO 26000, particularly those relating to the health and safety in the workplace and to the environment, are not only relevant but in many cases the corporate SR activities exceed legislated requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]