VIEWPOINTS

Corporate Social Responsibility Principles for Project Managers

By Melissa Vincenzi, PMP

Costa Rica

Generally speaking, it can be stated that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was born as a response to a growing gap between developed and developing countries, in terms of economic, social and environmental development. Because of that, CSR has become a very important component of today’s business world, mainly because of its potential to minimize the gap between those countries - thus creating true equality.

It can be easily inferred that, given those conditions, organizations worldwide must incorporate CSR practices into their everyday operations, in order to contribute to achieve the stated goal, and even to increase their market presence, as CSR has become a powerful differentiating factor.

Organizations should rely on their employees to put those principles in practice and - as agents of change - Project Managers play a very important role. CSR is now an integral part of the corporate strategy, and as such, it is directly related to projects and Project Management.

Boza and Pérez (s.f) identify 6 key principles of CSR, as follows:

• Organizations must take care of their employees and investors

• Organizations must satisfy market demands and gain new customers

• Organizations must improve their relationships with providers

• Organizations must listen to community expectations

• Organizations must be concerned about the environment

• Organizations must promote and facilitate intercultural dialogue

In order to incorporate each of those principles into their everyday activities, organizations must include them in every project as well. Let’s see how each of these principles relates to Project Management.

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About the Author Melissa Vincenzi Author Melissa Vincenzi, MPM, PMP works a Project Leader in Servicios Computacionales Novacomp, a software development company in Costa Rica. She is in charge of managing short to mid-term software development projects, especially for the financial and banking sectors. Miss Vincenzi is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP); she has a Masters degree in Project Management from the University of International Cooperation, and a BS degree in Computer Science from the Costa Rica Institute of Technology. Melissa can be reached at melissa.vincenzi@cpic.or.cr.