Formal Business Report (Essay)

The International Standards Organization (ISO), a Geneva-based secretariat for 163 national standards agencies and more than 3,000 technical groups, has been issuing guidelines on products, services, and processes since 1947. Such guidelines are meant to “provide practical tools for tackling many of today’s global challenges” (www.ISO.org), and have directly impacted areas such energy consumption, food safety, automotive efficiency, environmental sustainability, quality and risk management, and even language and currency use. As well, the guidelines serve to enhance communication among various stakeholders within countries and across national boundaries. One recently issued set of guidelines, ISO 26000, outlines codes of conduct for public and private organizations to induce them to operate in a socially responsible way. According to ISO, “an organization’s performance in relation to the society in which it operates and to its impact on its environment has become a critical part of measuring its overall performance and its ability to continue operating effectively” (www.ISO.org). In this session, three panelists will discuss the practical and rhetorical implications of these guidelines for corporate behavior. Questions that will be addressed include: How do these standards reconcile a “clash of civilizations” between bureaucratic technocrats and humanist business interests devoted to free-market principles, cultural diversity, and the ultimate responsibility of business to maximize profits? Are such codes of conduct the natural and necessary extension of the increasing personification of corporations as exemplified in recent US Supreme Court decisions? Do corporate codes of conduct translate easily across national boundaries and do such codes advantage large, multinational corporations over smaller, less competitive ones?