Corporate social responsibility can be understood as the behavior of an organization in the face of the social demands that society in general, and especially the social groups with which it is most in contact, make of it, in accordance with the activities it carries out.
Many organizations define themselves as «socially responsible» simply because they carry out certain activities in response to certain social demands from external groups or communities, forgetting that the main group to which they must behave in a socially responsible manner is their own people.
This is even evident in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved by the United Nations General Assembly (2015); each with guidelines on how organizations can contribute to the achievement of these SDGs from within.
These guidelines state that in order for an organization to be considered socially responsible, the first thing it must do is to ensure that its practices classify it as a healthy organization; but what is a healthy organization?
For Salanova (2009), healthy organizations are «those that make systematic, planned and proactive efforts to improve the health of employees through good practices related to the improvement of tasks, the social environment and the organization».
Thus, considering this approach and the UN guidelines on the SDGs, we can affirm that a healthy organization is one that implements organizational practices such as work redesign; programs to ensure work-life balance; opportunities for participation and meaningful job training and development; job security; adequate internal communication practices; and human resource management policies that ensure non-discrimination in hiring, compensation, benefits, and training and promotion opportunities.
Dr. Zuleima Santalla de Banderali
Research Professor at the Psychology Department UEES
