Social Responsibility in the Construction of Indicators: The European Steel Industry Experience

Résumé 0

This paper presents methodological aspects and the main empirical results of a research study whose purpose was to define stakes and methods and propose appropriate indicators for defining and developing corporate social responsibility strategies for aluminium industry companies in Europe. Experimental empirical work for the testing of procedures for developing corporate social responsibility indicatorswas carried out at three industrial sites in France. At each of the three pilot sites, “focus groups” were constituted, one or two groups with “internal" stakeholders as employees, other groups with “external” stakeholders. The work of the groups generated indicator proposals, which were then classified in two ways. First, stakeholders’ suggestions were gathered under categories established at international level covering both ‘social’ and ‘environmental’ dimensions of company responsibility. Second, the indicator suggestions were organised into a matrix with reference to (1) the category of stakeholder making the suggestion; (2) the site at which the suggestionwas made; (3) the generic character versus specificity of the indicator. On the basis of this experience, recommendations for general application for the European aluminium industry are outlined.