Q-RES Guidelines for Management

University Carlo Cattaneo (LIUC), Centre for Ethics, Law & Economic; The Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility; SIGMA Project; Centre for Business Ethics

1999, revised 2002

Free

Free

English, Italian

 info@qres.it

 http://www.qres.it

General Guidance

Corporate culture, CSR management

The Q-RES project aims to promote a management framework for corporate social and ethical responsibility based on the idea of the social contract between a company and its stakeholders, by developing a type of quality standard that is externally verifiable.

Each of the six presented steps aims to increase the stakeholders' trust towards the company.

The guidelines define criteria for each social and ethical responsibility management tool considering emerging international standards and best practice. Q-RES Guidelines are directed to management of business organisations willing to undertake an improvement process to implement and manage social and ethical responsibility.

The Q-RES Standard encompasses

• the Q-RES model and tools for the management of ethical and social responsibility of organizations
• the management system for ethical and social responsibility

The Q-RES management system comprises six management tools for improving the social and ethical responsibility of corporations:

1. Corporate ethical vision: a concept that the company offers to its stakeholders; It defines and makes explicit the concept of justice of the company, from which arises the criterion to balance stakeholders' claims. The concept of a social contract between the company and its stakeholders is expressed.
2. Code of ethics: principles defining the companies' rights and duties towards their stakeholders; the code of ethics can help to address issues such as discretionary power, corporate governance and reputation.
3. Ethical Training and Communication: to identify and manage CSR issues; directed to the company employees and it aims to enable each organisation member to apply moral reasoning tools to discuss and tackle ethical questions connected with corporate activities as well as to help provide the company and its employees to reach an agreement supporting compliance with principles, values and rules of conduct.
4. Organizational systems of implementation and control:  supporting implementation and internal monitoring; The company needs organisational resources and monitoring systems to support ethics implementation, monitor compliance and improve ethical performance.
5. Social and ethical accountability: for the relation between performance and commitments; to support governance and strategic management as well as to communicate and engage in dialog with stakeholders
6. External verification and certification by independent third parties to ensure credibility

For each tool the guidelines offer:

• a brief description of the tool
• the function of the tool, discussing a rationale for adaption and the key issues addressed by the tool
• the key content elements
• the methodology by describing the process for introducing the tool within the organisations: steps, competencies and management responsibilities
• a framework of observable and empirically verifiable elements for external auditing
• excellence criteria

External verification is recommended as the last measure. It is explained on how to best enable an effective external verification, based on the excellence criteria included in the tool.

Companies, governmental and public organisations

According to LARRGE evaluation also consultants

All sectors

All regions

Small, medium and large

Yes. Each of the six tools is presented with a set of best practice examples and/or reference models.

Yes (paricipatory approach in tool implementation)

No

Yes

• UN Global Compact
• OECD Guidelines for Multinationals

No reference to ILO conventions

No reference to national law

Productive and freely chosen work

Right to work

Prohibition of forced or compulsory labour

Prohibition of child labour

Rights at work including the core labour standards

Right to equal treatment and non-discrimination between women and men, gender issues

Right to equal treatment and non-discrimination concerning all other groups

Diversity Management

Right to education

Right to safe and healthy working conditions

Right to fair wages

Right to equal pay for equal work

Right to decent living

Right to rest, leisure and annual leave

Right to reasonable limitation of working hours

Right to permanent employment relationship

Right to privacy

Right to strike

Right to form and join trade unions

Grievance procedures and remediation

Social protection

Right to social security including social insurance, pensions

Mitigation of adverse employment effects

Social dialogue

Freedom of association and right to collective bargaining

Tripartite consultation

External impact

Right to an adequate standard of living

Security issues, private property protection

Right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

• Collective bargaining
• Corporate- / organisational culture
• Customers / consumers
• Monitoring / auditing
• Stakeholder engagement
• Training, skills and talent
• Transparency / disclosure

No

Yes

No

Yes

The Q-RES management system refers to the UN Global Compact and the OECD Guidelines for Multinationals and therefore implies a sound human rights basis. Moreover, it is combinable with other well-established standards, like AA1000 or SA8000, which can be applied to check the Q-RES tool. Specific criteria of excellence have been developed for this purpose.

A further strength of the tool is to be seen in the comprehensive learning aspect throughout the tool implementation process. Implementation may take considerable time (minimum: six months, as indicated by the tool developer), however, serious CSR engagement of business does not work out with quick fix solutions.

Use the tool for introducing a sound and all-comprehensive ethical and CSR management system by means of a participatory approach and benefit from improved understanding of the underlying concepts of CSR you will gain in the development of a common management model for your firm.

Why tool was used: relations with NGOs/civil society organizations

Tool was relevant for:
Systemizing commitments and activities

How tool was implemented: by company employees with assistance from tool creators

Time for tool implementation: more than 1 year

Most often used with: AA1000 (Accountability), Fairtrade Standards (Fairtrade Labelling Organisations Int.), SA 8000 Standard (Social Accountability International)

Q-RES_Guidelines_January_2002.pdf
Evaluation_francaise_-_Q-RES_Guidelines_for_Management.pdf