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Stakeholders’ Influence and Contribution to Social Standards Development: The Case of Multiple Stakeholder Approach to ISO 26000 Development

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Abstract

We present an empirical investigation on how multiple stakeholders can influence and contribute to a standard development process. Based on the analysis of comments submitted by stakeholders developing ISO 26000 standard for social responsibility, we found no significant differences between the ratio of accepted and non-accepted comments among various stakeholder groups; however, we conclude that industry is the most influential stakeholder due to the volume of the comments. We also present a set of processes that stakeholders follow to influence and contribute to standards development, namely to (1) eliminate issues that are controversial and undesirable; (2) link and integrate the standard into a network of other documents and ISO standards; (3) seek consensus by highlighting areas for further dialogue or by addressing their exclusion from the standards development, (4) reinforce issues that are important; and (5) improve the content of the new standard. In conclusion, we provide a set of propositions about multi-stakeholder standards development and compare multi-stakeholder involvement in standards developed through a new committee established in existing standards setting organization [i.e., Committees within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)] and through new standards setting organizations established for one specific task (i.e., Forest Stewardship Council). We envisage that our study will be a useful platform to monitor and evaluate future developments of ISO 26000 and other multi-stakeholder standards.

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Notes

  1. ISO 9000 standard for quality management systems is a good example of an established standard. It was introduced in 1987 and over 1 million organizations in 142 economies are certified (ISO/Survey 2009). Accordingly, numerous studies have mapped the development, adoption and impact of ISO 9000.

  2. Fransen and Kolk (2007) define multi-stakeholder standards as standards that insure membership of those concerned; with governance open for all stakeholders and with various parties taking on a ‘watchdog’ function.

  3. Certification is a mechanism by which an independent third party certifies that an organization complies with a standard. For a detailed description of the certification process see Corbett and Kirsch (2001) or visit a website of accreditation bodies, such as International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

  4. However, it should be noted that many of the tools were accepted at the end in the final version of the standard. It took several rounds of commenting to crystallize this section of the standard.

  5. See the discussion in “Development of International Standards—Toward Multi-Stakeholder Standardization section.”

  6. Developmental documents also contains the record of the contest that led to the formulation of the criteria for inclusion of initiatives and tools. This evidence further strengthens our proposition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business Management, Marketing and Law, Lincoln University, PO Box 84, 7647, Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand

    Michaela A. Balzarova

  2. Department of Management, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Pavel Castka

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  1. Michaela A. Balzarova
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  2. Pavel Castka
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Correspondence to Pavel Castka.

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Balzarova, M.A., Castka, P. Stakeholders’ Influence and Contribution to Social Standards Development: The Case of Multiple Stakeholder Approach to ISO 26000 Development. J Bus Ethics 111, 265–279 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1206-9

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