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Two aspects of great relevance in the modern company, and that at the same time keep a close relationship with each other, are Safety & Security (S&S) and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Since both take into account the assets of the organization, it must be said that a clear manifestation, of a good application of the second, is to do the first well. If a company takes care of its S&S, it is directly complying with a very important part of its CSR.
It should be emphasized that when a company applies appropriate S&S standards, it is not only protecting its employees, but taking care of society as a whole. Especially, it is contributing to the S&S of all those who share their environment. Among other things, a good S&S policy will help minimize risks of industrial catastrophes.
Taking it from Barreto et al. (2016), it will be said, based on Mattson (2015), that both Security and Safety are terms that refer to situations that endanger the organization, as well as the life of its members.
Focusing on the difference between one and the other it can say that Security is associated with wrongful acts, while Safety, is associated with accidents that are not intentionally caused.
Hence, it is important to note that both Security and Safety are focused on protecting the assets of an organization, the most important of which is the human resource; therefore, the S&S covers all areas of the organization.
Obviously, by protecting an organization, its environment is also being protected; hence it is a way of caring for society as a whole.
On the other hand, in the modern business world, the end of the 20th century and in the present century, a greater concern for the social commitment of the different organizations has become evident. A term that, as highlighted by Makka, Nieuwenhuizen & de Bruyn (2015), has more than half a century of use is the CSR, of which they state there are several approaches and definitions. In this work, as in that of Makka, Nieuwenhuizen & de Bruyn (2015), the model presented by Carroll (2016), Pyramid of Carroll, will be followed.
Under the CSR, are framed, all those business activities which, instead of focusing only on the short-term economic benefit, are also focused on the long-term social benefit. That is, they make efforts to give back to society the welfare that it offers them.
In this sense, the CSR approach has been used, from very different points of view, just to mention some of the most recent: highlight its use, by small businesses, through the Web (Atlı, Vidović & Omazić, 2018; Mangani, 2021); improvement of managerial decisions, especially regarding future sources of employment, of university students (Wojtkowiak, 2018); its influence on family business decisions (Sousa, 2020); in the financial performance of banking institutions (Boachie, 2020); emphasizing the importance of the environment and green culture (Smith, 2020; Thimm & Rasmussen, 2020); its relationship with corporate governments (Abdulnaser, Abdel-Aziz & Khitam, 2020); its impact on behavior of the citizens (Ferman, Mehmet & Simbarashe, 2021) and more recently in its relationship with the Covid-19 pandemic (Gigauri, 2021).
Generally, the CSR of organizations can be expected to be directed towards the environment and in general be exercised outside the organization itself. However, in this work, it will be seen that CSR approach can be improved, focusing efforts within the organization and this will be done by increasing efforts in S&S.
Some authors cited by Barreto et al. (2016), make statements such as:
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The S&S is an industrial competition (Hao, He & Zhang, 2015).
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S&S is a very relevant and mandatory function in every productive system (Rashid & Rashid, 2015).
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The main purpose of S&S is to protect the company and its assets from threats (Magnusson, 2010). It should be clarified that these threats can be both internal and external.
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The S&S of a plant is one of the major concerns for industrial activities, since they can involve large economic losses and, most importantly, human lives (Caputo, Pelagagge & Salini, 2013).