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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Survey of the Italian SA8000 Certified Companies

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Today’s society requires companies to act more and more effectively for the general good, by respecting human rights and the environment. Innovative and enlightened companies try to meet this need through the adoption of several initiatives. Accordingly, the International Standard Organisation is now working on attempts to unify these initiatives and to formulate an internationally recognised standard, providing guidance to companies on social responsibility. Currently the SA8000 international standard is the most often used tool – based on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) philosophy – which guarantees the respect of fundamental workers’ rights. Since 2003, Italy holds the world record for its number of SA8000 certified companies. This paper discusses the findings of a two‐stage survey of the Italian SA8000 certified companies carried out over the last two years. The focus of the survey is on both reasons and effects of the implementation of SA8000 standard. In the first stage the rate of response was very high while in the second stage it was satisfactory. The results provide a clear picture of the companies and their degree of achivement and awareness of the fundamental principles of human resource management. A section of the survey deals with some issues related to the Public Sector.