Social Responsibility Series (I)
Concept of Social Responsibility
Under the Strategic Action Plan (SAP) 2010-2012, Key Project 2.4, the Force Working Group on the Promotion of Social Responsibility (WG) has been established to promote awareness of social responsibility across the Force. To this end, the WG starts running the first part of a series in OffBeat on the findings of an earlier research on social responsibility conducted by the Police College.
According to WG Chairperson, Chief Superintendent (CSP) Gavin Brown, the WG aims at raising awareness of social responsibility across the Force by:
(a) promoting social responsibility and the current efforts of various Police units to act in a socially responsible manner;
(b) sharing experience and supporting social responsibility activities; and
(c) encouraging Force members to contribute to society.
As part of this effort, CSP Brown said, the Police College will publish a series of five short articles in OffBeat to raise officers' awareness of social responsibility. The five articles are:
* introducing social responsibility concepts, albeit there is no commonly agreed definition;
* approaches in determining social responsibility priorities;
* introducing the Four-Pillar Model and related management practices;
* comparing the approaches adopted by the Force with those of leading private sector corporations; and
* reporting the Police College's findings on social responsibility collated from several focus group interviews with Force members.
Concept of Social Responsibility
Social responsibility is an evolving term that does not have a standard definition or a fully recognised set of specific criteria, and the definitions are often biased towards specific interests. Our literature review found that some common features have been embedded into various definitions of social responsibility adopted by a wide range of organisations.
In the business context, social responsibility is commonly regarded as "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)" and defined by H R Bowen in his book "Social Responsibilities of the Businessmen" as:
"The obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society."
Today, in civilised societies like Hong Kong, the concept and application of social responsibility have been extended to the public sector and non-profit-making organisations, with some minor differences in focus from their private sector counterparts.
Before drawing up a working definition of social responsibility for the Force, it is useful to refer to five guiding principles of social responsibility derived from our literature review:
(a) Beyond legal obligations: organisations have obligations towards society beyond and above legal obligations associated with their businesses;
(b) Stakeholder interests: organisations are not only accountable to stakeholders but also should engage in socially responsible activities;
(c) Ethical values and societal expectations: these are the cornerstone of forming social responsibility values within an organisation;
(d) Sustainability: the long-term capability of an organisation to sustain its business goals vis-à-vis the expectations of society and the planet; and
(e) Business integration: organisations should develop business strategies that integrate with social responsibility concepts and applications.
Possible
Working
Definition
on
Force
Social Responsibility
Based on the above discussion, the following appears to provide a possible "working definition" for Force social responsibility (FSR):
"Hong Kong Police Force Social Responsibility is defined as the obligations of the Force and its members to pursue the Force Vision and Statement of Common Purpose and Values, and to make decisions or to follow lines of action desirable in terms of the ethical values and societal expectations of Hong Kong society, through a high standard of personal and professional behaviour, both on and off duty."
Accordingly, a socially responsible member of the Hong Kong Police Force, whether on or off duty, is expectedly to act ethically as well as professionally in maintaining Hong Kong as one of the safest and most stable societies in the world.
Force
members
actively
take part in voluntary services as part of their
commitment to social responsibility