Integración de la responsabilidad social con el modelo ISO 9001 en Pymes colombianas certificadas

Abstract

In recent years the pressure of the customers and or- ganized communities to discuss the ethical behavior

of companies, or promote veto to the products of controversial companies for their performances in the social, economic or environmental, as well as the fact that investors and insurers consider and additional risk factor that a company ends questioned by these issues, have created additional reasons for a company to act responsibly. Moreover, both globally and in Colombia,

many SMEs have implemented and certificate a qua- lity management system in response to internal needs

or market conditions; organizational knowledge and experiences in managing a quality system could be

utilized to facilitate the insertion of the practice of So- cial Responsibility in SMEs to improve their competi- tive position. This research explores the possibilities

of integrating to the quality system in certified SMEs, the principles and practices of social responsibility as

raised in the standards: Guidance on Social Respon- sibility ISO 26000 (WD 4.2) and Social Accountabi- lity SA 8000:2001. We used a participant observation

methodology, selecting three SMEs and by means of consulting implement the above standards, to make clear the advantages or difficulties of integrating Social Responsibility with a quality system.