Global Views on Social Responsibility Have Become Bolder

At the 7^th National Conference on Organizational Culture and the 7^th round of Social Responsibility Award, which was hosted by the university, the president of Khatam University stated: “The discussion of social responsibilities is becoming more prominent every day and more attention is drawn to this concept at the global level.”

According to the reporter of Khatam University’s website, the 7^th National Conference on Organizational Culture with excellence and leadership approaches and the 7^th round of the Management Social Responsibility Award was organized by Iranian Management Association on Tuesday and Wednesday, 4th and 5th of Bahman, with the presence of researchers in the area of Organizational Culture at Khatam University.

In the opening ceremony of this conference, Majid Ghasemi, the president of Khatam University and the head of the conference's Policymaking Council, in a speech on the topic of corporative governance based on social and environmental issues in the social responsibilities of organizations, stated: “The discussion of social responsibilities is becoming more prominent daily and views at the global level on Social Responsibility have become bolder. The importance is to the point that the United Nations has also set frameworks in this field.”

Referring to the evolution of paradigms, he discussed the sustainable social responsibility in organizations and said: “In the 1980s, the concepts of environment, health, and safety were the main paradigms. In the 90s, the discussion of sustainability, in the 2000s and 2010s, the concept of corporative social responsibility was raised, and from 2020 and beyond, the governance of social and environmental issues has been the popular topic.

Environmental Conditions are Included in All MIDCO Company's Investments

The CEO of Pasargad Bank further pointed out the adherence of Pasargad Financial Group's subsidiary organizations and companies to comply with important matters such as environmental issues in the implementation of their developmental plans and added: “Environmental conditions are included in all MIDCO company's investments.”

The head of the Iranian Management Association stated that the discussion of social responsibility is very important in management theories. He addressed the historical process of attracting the attention of different countriesin the world toward ESG and included ESG factors in investment analysis, decision-making processes, policies, and ownership practices as some of the principles of responsible investment.

According to Ghasemi, 17 issues make up the goals of sustainable development, which include eradicating poverty and famine, ensuring a healthy life and excellent education, gender equality, ensuring everybody’s access to clean water and cheap energy. He further added: “One of the most significant effects of paying attention to ESG in organizations is improving the business model of organizations and easier access to investment resources.”

In 2019, the Share of Women in Senior Management Positions Was Only 5%

For the rest of the programs on the first day of the conference, Mahmoud Shahrabi, the consultant and researcher of social responsibility, addressed the new trends in corporative social responsibilityin a speech which increase diversity and inclusiveness in work environments, and said: “Diversity in the work environment means that a workforce with different ages, genders, races, and ethnicities should be present in the workplace. Co-learning also happens thank to this diversity which creates an environment where people are involved in work at different levels.”

“In the area of digital economy, like the areas before that, mental abilities have gained more importance and replaced physical strengths,” he added.

This researcher provided statistics on the status of diversity and inclusion in the workplace in Iran and said: “In Iran, the higher the organizational position of people (for example, transitioning from an expert to a middle manager or from a middle manager to a senior manager), the higher the differences in men’s and women’s salaries. This difference is 10% at the expert level, 13% at the middle manager level, and 15% at the senior manager level. For example, in 2018, the share of women in middle managerial positions and senior managerial positions was roughly 9% and 5% respectively.”

Shahrabi also pointed out the global status in this regard and added: “In the world, for every dollar a man earns, a woman earns 77 cents, and according to Fortune, the share of CEO positions for women among the top 500 companies is only 74 companies.”

Companies Only Want to Display a Good Image in the Field of Social Responsibility

The next speaker on the first day of the 7^th National Conference on Organizational Culture was Hesam Zand Hesami, a faculty member of Islamic Azad University, Science and Research branch, who presented his speech with a new look at the Social Responsibility of companies with an emphasis on innovation and said: “Statistics show that in developing countries, as a manager of a company, if you do not pay attention to the concept of social responsibility, you will actually lose your profit.”

With a brief reference to the history of the discussion of Social Responsibility in companies in the world, he said: “The 90s is the peak of acceptance of the term “Social Responsibility” in the world. In Iran, however, most of the companies that claimed to be socially responsible were private companies with governmental heads, for whom the issue of excellence and promotion was just an award in which they did not believe.”

According to his speech, over time, many companies' attitude toward the environment and social environment changed to only a desire to leave a good image of themselves.

The Process of Environmental Destruction has Exposed Human Survival to Danger

In the rest of the lectures on the first day of the conference, Mohammad Kargar Shoraki, a visiting professor from the University of Tehran, discussed business excellence models based on Social Responsibility and sustainability in the digital age. He also expressed his concerns about the process of environmental destruction and considered human survival to be at the risk of destruction. He considered digital transformation and sustainability to be the two main challenges facing humanity in the 21^st century and raised the question: “Are the disasters that were inflicted on the environment in the industrial age going to occur in the digital age as well?”

According to his speech and based on the report of the World Economic Forum, out of the top 10 risks in the next 10 years, 7 risks are in the field of environment. Therefore, in the field of Social Responsibility of companies and organizations, we should highlight Social Responsibility in all businesses and not just large organizations.

Kargar Shoraki continued: “Digital tools must be able to guarantee sustainability in all economic, social, and environmental fields, and we will not achieve the sustainable results that our business needs until we create attachments inside and outside the organization.”

MIDCO is Building a 400-MW Solar Power Plant in Butia Region

According to this report, in the best Social Responsibility experiences’ section of this conference, a group of officials of the Middle East Mines and Mineral Industries Development Company (MIDCO) presented the company's actions which were in line with Social Responsibility. Ali Asghar Pourmand, CEO of MIDCO, stated that the average age of people working in MIDCO is 33 years old, and the average age among the managers of MIDCO factories is 32 to 34 years old.

“Midco managers are recruited through an employment test and are the ones who have spent a period of their professional lives in the factory. They manage very important industries in the country at present and come from the same regions where the factories are located. I believe that this is the most significant social responsibility that a corporate can create,” he said.

The CEO of Midco also stated: “With Mr. Ghasemi's order, we got a license for a 400-megawatt solar power plant in Butia region and we plan to supply its panels ourselves. Another point is that sustainable developments must be based on the ecosystem of the surrounding communities, and therefore the social responsibility is not to take a series of actions. Accordingly, we have asked our managers to behave in accordance with the desired ecosystem.

In the final part of the report, two studies which had been conducted on the viewpoint and performance of MIDCO in the field of Social Responsibility were presented. One of these studies was about measuring the impact of this company's activities on host communities, and the other was about examining the performance of MIDCO with regard to the implementation of Social Responsibility in the extra-regional level in Kohsorkh city, Khorasan Razavi province.