Socially Responsible Project - developing a definition based on literature regarding social responsibility and project management

Katarzyna Jakubczyk, Przemysław Kitowski

Abstract

Social Responsibility concept applies to business, university and individuals. It is assumed that socially responsible thinking supports sustainable development through operations for the sake of stakeholders, who represent groups of interest from three kinds of environment - social, economic and ecological. Usually, there are some balance problem between integration of objectives from those three fields. They appear during project management process, exactly like during company operation processes. Due to this similarity, an idea of integrating Social Responsibility philosophy with project management appeared. The lack of literature connecting those two concepts, resulted in need of creating definition of a socially responsible project as a basis for discussion about socially responsible project approach. Firstly, authors analyzed twenty Polish and twenty English definitions of a „social responsibility” and a „project” by using Google Scholar source. Secondly, by comparing definitions of discussed issues, some new categories were identified and also, the frequency of their occurrence was measured. The research resulted in identifying common features of both definitions and, eventually, creating a definition of a „socially responsible project” - the main purpose of this publication.