Auditing for social aspects

This chapter has presented an overview of the social audit movement. Social audit has been shown here to be multi-faceted in nature and scope and, as a result, this chapter has presented three main types of social audit. First, a discussion of external social audits that are prepared by parties external to the organisation being audited was presented. By looking at the early developments in social audit, the chapter highlighted the origins of social audit as an external mechanism designed to increase transparency and accountability regarding the impact of organisational activities on an array of stakeholders. As stakeholders began to demand greater levels of accountability, coupled with several corporate scandals, organisations started to take responsibility for assessing and reporting on their social, ethical and environmental impact. Along these lines, the chapter discussed two further types of social audit: supply chain audits and self-generated audit. The former concerns organisations, mainly from the corporate sector, adopting codes of conduct and external standards to ensure the safety and fair treatments of workers within supply chains. Once adopted, organisations should ensure, through a process of social audit, that these standards are being adhered to by factories and organisations in their supply chains. Finally, the chapter considered the increased adoption of the holistic process of social audit by organisations designed with social, ethical and environmental goals in mind. The chapter detailed the development of several initiatives in this area that have resulted in moves towards professionalisation of the social audit movement across all economic sectors.