Corporate Ideas in Global Guidance Documents: Globalization and political perspectives in Documents of The Global Compact and ISO 26000

Sammanfattning: Corporate social responsibility has become something of a buzzword over the last decade-and-a-half. Companies apply CSR-documents to their operations in seek of an ethical guide that can lead the way through complex situations and steer away from misconduct. Globalization has lead to especially multinational corporations experiencing difficulties in navigating among different contexts. A large number of documents, referred to as Global guidance documents, try to define general guidelines that can provide common ground for ethical conduct in the global market. This thesis analyzes two of these documents; the United Nations Global Compact and ISO 26000 Guidance on social responsibility. As the literature on global governance expands, theorists increasingly look for private actors to take part in global governance networks. But is this of any interest of business? Are we witnessing a political, globalized understanding of corporations in the twenty-first century? This thesis asks whether global guidance networks regards corporations as political actors, and what their perspective on globalization is. The analysis implies there is a potential political reading of political actors, and that the perspective on globalization correspond to the transformationist perspective.