The impact of socially responsible management standards on the business success of an organisation

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to outline the results of the study concerned with the importance of the standards on socially responsible management and the examination of their impact on the business performance as well as the sustainable development of organisations and the broader social environment in the selected population of medium and large organisations (above 50 employees) in the field of market services in the Republic of Slovenia. The results of the research have confirmed a direct link of understanding the socially responsible management standards in organisations with a larger number of employees (p = .002) and the achieved higher income from operations (p = .006). Participants in the study are most familiar with the requirements of the Quality Management System Standard ISO 9001 and the Environmental Management System Standard ISO 14001, which is particularly significant for older business executives (p = .009) with many years of work experience in the company they run (p = .002). Also, the hypothesis was confirmed that the implementation of the principles of social responsibility defined in the guidelines of ISO 26000 has a positive impact on the selected financial indicators of the organisation – higher profits, business growth, productivity and cost-effectiveness in operations.