The survey on Corporate Social Responsibility and good corporate governance standards according to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
in companies operating in central Europe
The survey was performed by the GARDE program of the Environmental Law Service in cooperation with non-governmental no-profit making organizations (hereinafter “NGOs”) active in central Europe (PIC – Slovenia, Priatelia Zeme–CEPA – Slovakia, EMLA – Hungary, ELF – Estonia) within the scope of the project supported by the European Commission, DG Employment, social affairs and equal opportunities. The project objective is to open extensive debates on the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Central Europe. The objective of the survey was to establish whether multinational enterprises (hereinafter “MNEs”) active in this sphere were familiar with the CSR concept and with the standards anchored in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (hereinafter “OECD Guidelines”). Another objective was to establish the degree of identification with these standards and their practical fulfilment. Consequently the survey set the target of answering the following questions in particular.
1. Do MNEs active in Central Europe know of the CSR concept and the standards contained in the OECD Guidelines?
2. Does the behaviour of MNEs operating in Central Europe correspond to the standards anchored in the OECD Guidelines?
The survey took place during the period from 19/06/2006 to 30/09/2006 in the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Hungary and Estonia. A total of 125 MNEs (the complete list of companies can be found in the supplement to this report) were addressed in these countries in the form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire sent to the companies not only had the function of a tool for establishing the given facts, but also served as a tool for promoting the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The questionnaires were distributed to the MNEs by means of NGOs active in the individual countries, which arranged translation of the questionnaire into the official language of the given country. This step reduced the risk of a low return rate of the questionnaires because of language barriers.
The addressed companies were selected from a group of important MNEs, which publicly present themselves as socially responsible and are members of organizations associating companies that endorse the CSR concept and endeavour to adhere to business ethics in practice, organizations supporting donorship and philanthropy. MNEs that placed in leading positions on scales assessing company popularity were also addressed. With regard to the high degree of interest by the addressed MNEs in the CSR subject, as issues from their membership in the above-mentioned organizations and their public presentation, we expected interest in the survey subject presented by us and a high return rate of the questionnaires. However this expectation was not fulfilled, which can evoke some doubt about the seriousness of the companies’ publicly presented obligations to behave in a socially responsible manner.
28 MNEs actually took part in the survey in (22.4% questionnaire return rate). Of these 11 were from the Czech Republic, 2 from the Slovak Republic, 5 from Hungary, 4 from Slovenia and 6 from Estonia.
Summary:
With regard to the low return rate of the questionnaires the survey results cannot be applied to all multinational MNEs in Central Europe. Another problem is the marked disproportion between the returned questionnaires from individual countries (for example 11 from the Czech Republic but only 2 from the Slovak Republic), because of which it was not possible to compare the individual countries.
From the survey it is clear that the participating MNEs present themselves as highly socially responsible, adhering to most OECD Guidelines standards to a high degree. With regard to the fact that the survey was not focused on establishing the specific activities that the MNEs realize to fulfil their values and standards it is difficult to judge whether the companies participating in the survey behave in a socially responsible manner in actual fact or slightly overrated their answers in the questionnaire. It is clear that most MNEs know of the CSR concept. However the fact that a significant percentage (35.7%) of the companies stated that they have never encountered the OECD Guidelines for multinational MNEs is undoubtedly alarming, this result should be an impulse to organizations associating MNEs that voluntarily endorse the CSR concept and for governmental institutions in particular to increase their activities in the area of informing companies of these Guidelines.
As has been stated above, ignorance of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises may mean some doubt in whether the companies know what the contents of the CSR concept are and whether they truly do behave in a socially responsible manner, or if they simply present themselves as such to the public. There is also some doubt in the seriousness of the CSR obligations by MNEs that were contacted in the survey and did not return the completed questionnaire. This fact certainly does not have to mean that these MNEs behave socially irresponsibly, but signifies their disinterest in the area of communication with the public (subsequently with non-governmental non-profit making organizations).
The survey results have proven that multinational companies active in Central Europe are sufficiently familiar with the CSR concept. It is clear from the results that the MNEs consider this subject important, in some cases however it can be doubted that they truly know what the contents of this concept are. With regard to this fact we consider it important in the future to focus on explanation of the contents of the CSR concept, description of specific procedures and strategies, which the companies should accept and implement so that they can be considered truly socially responsible, and give MNEs specific examples of socially responsible company activities.
The detailed results of the survey, with the list of addressed MNEs and the questionnaire:
