Do corporate social responsibility clauses work? A contractor perspective

Robert Eadie, Shane Rafferty

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The ‘triple bottom line’ of sustainable development, (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002), amalgamates economic, environmental and social considerations relating to construction. However, literature suggests that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) element has much potential to be improved upon (Eadie et al., 2011). This paper indicates that construction contractors perceive CSR clauses to have only a slightly positive effect tosociety. Specific clauses may be better suited to achieving the needs of the contract area and the current wording of UK clauses can be interpreted as restricting employment from target areas. There is belief that the contract prequalification process via a questionnaire (PQQ) concentrates it social criteria mainly on health and safety requirements. The perceived extent of internal and external benefits of CSR practices are investigated, with workforce and community issues, respectively, ranking the best. However, the perceivedvalue for money (VFM) from a contractor perspective of such practices is poor and, therefore, is a major obstacle to motivation for improving performance beyond requirements. This paper extends current thinking by providing suggestions as to how to measure the impact of CSR through key performance indicators.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19-34
JournalInternational Journal of Procurement Management
Volume7
Issue number1
Early online date8 Nov 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 1 Jan 2014

Bibliographical note

Reference text: Amicus (2007) ‘Amicus corporate social responsibility guide’ [online]http://www.unitetheunion.org/pdf/CSRGuide.pdf (accessed October 2012).
Bartlett, J., Kotrlik, J. and Higgins, C. (2001) ‘Organisational research: determining appropriate sample size in survey research’, Information Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp.43–50.
Brown, J., Parry, T. and Moon, J. (2009) ‘Engineering sustainability’, Proceedings of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, Vol. 162, No. ES4, pp.193–205.
Bruntland, G. (1987) Our Common Future: The World Commission on Environment and
Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
CIOB (2006) ‘Corporate social responsibility and construction’ [online]
http://www.ciob.org.uk/sites/ciob.org.uk/files/WEBINF/
files/documents/corporate_social_responsibility_revised.pdf (accessed October 2012).
CPD (2004) ‘Procurement Guidance Note 03/04: social considerations in public procurement’ [online] http://www.dfpni.gov.uk/index/procurement-2/cpd/cpd-policy-andlegislation/content_-_cpd_-_policy_-_procurement_guidance_notes/content_-
_cpd_procurement_guidance_notes_pgn_03_-_04/df1_10_12902_v2___pgn_03_04_integrating_social_considerations_in_public_
procurement__dec_2010_.pdf (accessed October 2012).
CPDNI (2004) ‘Public procurement: a guide for small and medium sized enterprises’ [online] http://www.dfpni.gov.uk/index/procurement-2/cpd/cpd-suppliers/pgn-02-12.htm (accessed October 2012).
DCAL (2005) ‘Architecture and the built environment for Northern Ireland’ [online]
http://www.dcalni.gov.uk/architecture_and_built_environment.pdf (accessed October 2012).
Dyllick, T. and Hockerts, K. (2002) ‘Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability’,
Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.130–141.
Eadie, R., McKeown, C. and Anderson, K. (2011) ‘The social element of sustainable civil
engineering public procurement in Northern Ireland’, International Journal of Business and
Social Science, July, Vol. 2, No. 12, pp.36–43.
Eadie, R., Rodgers, J., McKeown, C. and Smyth, P. (2012a) ‘An analysis of public sector
prequalification procedures in Northern Ireland’, International Journal of Procurement
Management, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp.273–288.
Eadie, R., Millar, P., Perera, S., Heaney, G. and Barton, G. (2012b) ‘E-readiness of construction contract forms and e-tendering software’, International Journal of Procurement Management, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.1–26.
Erridge, A. (2007) ‘Public procurement, public value and the Northern Ireland unemployment pilot project’, Public Administration, Vol. 85, No. 4, pp.1023–1043.
European Commission (2010) ‘Buying social: a guide to taking account of social considerations in public procurement’ [online]
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/other_aspects/index_en.htm
(accessed October 2012).
Herridge, J. (2003) ‘The potential benefits of corporate social responsibility in the construction industry-CIQ Paper 159’, Construction Information Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp.12–16.
Hughes, C. (2009) ‘Corporate social responsibility: European Union Memo 09/109’ [online]
http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=2067&langId=en (accessed October 2012).
Jones, P., Comfort, D. and Hillier, D. (2006) ‘Corporate social responsibility and the UK
construction industry’, Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp.134–150.
KPMG (2002) ‘International survey of corporate responsibility reporting 2002’ [online]
http://www.gppi.net/fileadmin/gppi/KPMG2002.pdf (accessed October 2012)
Latham, S. and Braun, M. (2010) ‘Jilted? The manager’s little book for keeping customers in a recession’, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp.1–4.
Lou, E., Lee, A. and Mathison, G. (2012) ‘Corporate responsibility: insight from a construction small and medium enterprise (SME) in the UK’, Proceeding of the 2012 International Conference on Economics, Business and Marketing Management IPEDR, Vol. 29, pp.23–29.
McWilliams, A. and Siegel, D. (2011) ‘strategic corporate social responsibility, resource-based theory, and sustainable competitive advantage’, Journal of Management, September, Vol. 37, No. 5, pp.1480–1495.
Meehan, J. and Bryde, D. (2011) ‘Sustainable procurement practice’, Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 20, No. 2, p.94.
Murray, M. and Dainty, A. (2008) Corporate Social Responsibility in the Construction Industry, Taylor and Francis, London/New York.
Naoum, S. (2007) Dissertation Research and Writing for Construction Students, 2nd ed.,
Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Northern Ireland Assembly (2009) ‘Briefing Note 16/09 social clauses and valuing social impacts’ [online]
http://www.gaugeni.co.uk/sites/default/files/DFP_Social%20Clauses_Social%20Impact.pdf
(accessed October 2012).
OGC (2007) ‘Achieving excellence in construction procurement guide 11: Sustainability’ [online]
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110601212617/http:/www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/CP0016AEGuide11.pdf (accessed October 2012).
OGC (2009) Office of Government Commerce: Promoting Skills through Public Procurement, The Stationary Office, London.
Sarkis, J., Ni, N. and Zhu, Q. (2011) ‘Winds of change: corporate social responsibility in China’, Ivey Business Journal, January/February [online] http://www.ccbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/RICHAR3.pdf (accessed October 2012).
Sommer, F., Bootland, J., Hunt, M., Khurana, A., Reid, S. and Wilson, S. (2004) ‘How to deliver socially responsible construction- a clients’ guide’ [online]
http://www.ciria.org/service/Web_Site/AM/ContentManagerNet/ContentDisplay.aspx?Section
=Web_Site&ContentID=8962 (accessed October 2012).
Sucky, E. and Durst, S. (2013) ‘Supplier development: current status of empirical research’,
International Journal of Procurement Management, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.92–127.
Tan, Y., Shen, L. and Yao, H. (2010) ‘Sustainable construction practice and contractors’
competiveness: a preliminary study’, Habitat International, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp.225–230.
The Stationary Office (TSO) (2006) ‘The public contracts regulations 2006’ [online]
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/5/contents/made (accessed October 2012).
White, L. and Lee, G. (2009) ‘Operational research and sustainable development: tackling the social dimension’, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 193, No. 3, pp.683–692.

Keywords

  • corporate social responsibility
  • CSR
  • contract clauses
  • construction contracts
  • construction and society.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Do corporate social responsibility clauses work? A contractor perspective'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this