Implementing social responsibility in small businesses: An instructional manual

Most organizations throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe are currently faced with the issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their business practices and into their interaction with their stakeholders. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), defined as companies with fewer than 500 employees, are also operating in this new business environment. They are under the same pressure to operate according to a broader set of business practices and to ensure that the core operations reflect the changing preferences of society. In order to encourage SR engagement, there is a need to develop and disseminate user friendly, tailor made tools for those SMEs that wish to engage in or further develop socially responsible actions on a voluntary basis, including information materials and SME toolkits.; The purpose of this project was to create a manual to assist small business owners and managers with step-by-step instructions on how to assess, plan, and incorporate social responsibility into their business practices. The need for a manual of this type stemmed from the lack of social responsibility implementation resources focused on small businesses in the United States. The manual was created first through an analysis and synthesis of social responsibility and small business literature and the current tools available to small businesses. Then, through an interview and survey, small business owners were asked questions about their current socially responsible practices, barriers to social responsibility engagement, and what resources they would need to implement social responsibility into their business practices.; The information gathered provided insight into small business owners' current SR practices and their interest in this type of manual. Findings from the project suggest that many small business owners currently engage in a variety of socially responsible practices including philanthropy, environmental conservation, and employee rights. Findings also suggest that the small business owners in this project experienced barriers to engaging further in social responsibility in the form of costs, government regulation, and the lack of an adequate infrastructure for recycling. This data from the interviews and surveys was used to finalize the manual.