A Hammer Only Sees Nails: Why Construction Contractors Monetise Social Value

Abstract

AbstractCorporate social responsibility (CSR) in the UK construction industry has been growing in awareness and expectation over the previous decades. Whilst at first the focus of CSR was on environmental issues, more recent developments have shifted the focus onto the social value (SV) aspects of CSR. Such a change has been driven by changing stakeholder demands and the introduction of the Public Services (Social Value) Act (2012). Contractors now need to measure their CSR and SV in order to effectively communicate with stakeholders. Such SV measurement needs to be understood by a plethora of stakeholders, be accurate and withstand scrutiny. However, there exists at the heart of SV a conflict between its subjective nature and the objective way SV is often measured. This objectivity manifests itself in the use of quantitative variables such as the monetisation of SV. Monetary figures are easy to communicate and universally understood. However, reducing SV to monetary metrics arguably misses the wider positive impacts, and the accuracy and reliability of such measurement tools can also be questioned. It therefore needs to be asked that if monetary metrics are increasingly used for SV measurement, does this result in the wider SV benefits being missed. There is also a gap in literature around how exactly contractors measure SV and why and what the ramifications of this are. This paper aims to explore this gap and help understand construction contractor SV measurement behaviour, motivations and knock-on effects. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with staff from ten construction contractors. The results reveal monetary methods of SV measurement are widely adopted despite acknowledgements over their limitations, as they are easier to conduct and easier to communicate. This paper contributes to the construction management literature with an understanding of contractor SV measurement motivations and practices.KeywordsConstructionSocial valueCorporate social responsibilityLegislation