Reporting problems of corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Motivation: Respecting the principles of sustainable development and their application in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility strategy (CSR) is a real challenge for today’s enterprises. This is not a simple and explicit task. Although, formulated general guidelines defining the framework for voluntary recognition of the rights of its stakeholders, each organization can shape mutual relations in an individual way. In turn, this specific character of implementation of the CSR strategy assumptions implies the difficulty of its transmission in the form of equivalent and comparable descriptions and indicators.

Aim: The aim of the article is primarily to identify the main problems associated with reporting of activities undertaken by enterprises under the implementation of the concept of corporate social responsibility and highlighting the importance of using unified reporting. The article presents both the theoretical approach to the concept of corporate social responsibility and the need for its description, as well as the perspective of practical recognition of individual aspects of CSR in social reports. It also underlines the importance of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is an attempt to introduce common reporting of sustainable development.

Results: In order to implement the objectives of this article, the literature on the subject, desk research in the form of social reports of chosen organizations, as well as GRI data and guidelines and also information of the Polish Ministry of Finance have been analyzed. The analysis has identified the main problems of CSR reporting and justified the appropriateness of applying a clear and unified message.