3.2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ‐ the System Perspective & the Systems Engineering Role

Abstract

AbstractDuring the last decade, we have witnessed companies exercising Social Responsibility (SR) in their business. CSR is the responsibility that is incumbent upon a company, its managers and workers in their activities and decisions insofar as it affects the society. CSR includes issues and solutions in different areas such as: Environment, Hygiene, Safety, Sustainability, Working Environment, Labor Relationship, Human Resources, Product Life Cycle, Ethics, Investing in the Community, Corporate Governance and Transparency & Reporting. Leading companies are incorporating CSR requirements and issues into their Corporate Management System. This system includes strategy, policy, practices, processes, procedures, action plans, and success measures. This paper describes how to build and conduct CSR as a System. We do this by presenting CSR as a Management System by describing the principles of this System and through the experiences of my company – RAFAEL. Also, we describe the role of Systems Engineering in introducing and implementing CSR. We propose a role for INCOSE and its Chapters in promoting CSR.