Socially responsible procurement

Abstract

Purpose Socially responsible procurement (SRP) utilises government expenditure on construction procurement as a means of generating social value from construction activities. The paper proposes that SRP is a type of innovation delivering social value in the form of employment opportunities to local communities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of SRP in Northern Ireland procurement and align the findings with existing literature. Design/methodology/approach A three-stage approach was employed, namely, first, a review of innovation and SRP literature; second, a survey of 50 Northern Ireland construction organisations to extract perceptions of SRP in practice; and third, qualitative analysis of the literature with the empirical insights. Findings Findings show that SRP is being driven by social legislation and being delivered by contractors as part of their contractual obligations. SRP represents a significant shift from standard construction practice which makes it challenging to implement using traditional processes and systems. It is found that SRP is generating social benefits through employment creation and the feedback from employees is largely positive. However, it is proposed that contractors need to adopt a more person-centric approach to the implementation of SRP to sustain the benefits being currently evidenced. Originality/value The study suggests that there is an urgent need for more holistic measurement of impacts and outcomes of SRP to ensure social targets are appropriate for the communities in which projects are being constructed.

Beyond Policies and Social Washing: How Social Procurement Unfolds in Practice

“…These newer legislative acts and policies have spurred both public and private organizations to engage in social procurement [3,7,24,25], and in fact, social criteria relating to employment of vulnerable groups are today the second most used type of social criteria in public procurement in the construction sector [26]. In North Ireland and Scotland, new work roles which exclusively deal with social procurement are increasingly common, and in many ways, the work with social procurement has become business as usual [17,25]. This development, with the creation of new roles, is also seen in Sweden [19].…”

“…Previous studies have investigated common perceptions and experiences of social procurement in the construction sector. Many actors within the sector are in favour of social procurement, and studies have found that it is a useful tool to deepen the collaboration throughout the supply chain, to enable knowledge sharing, to fulfil client demands, to build competences, and to create employment [1,16,17,25]. Furthermore, social procurement is found to have benefits such as improved work environment, less employee turnover, lower absenteeism and improved productivity [27].…”

“…The employment of marginalized people functioned as a service for the municipality, who is often the buyer of modular housing [28]. However, in contrast to these findings, Murphy and Eadie [25] found that contractors in the construction sector in North Ireland rather see social procurement as a contractual obligation driven by legislation than as a social innovation.…”

“…Previous research has found that, in the construction sector, there is a general lack of knowledge about social procurement [2,3,5,30,31], and the perceptions about the effects of social procurement vary. For example, some doubts persist about how social procurement might require more resources than traditional procurement [2,3,5,16,25,27,32], how it might displace "ordinary" workers [14,15,27], or that social value and employment requirements are difficult to evaluate (cf. [1,26,31,[33][34][35]).…”

“…These artefacts must also be complemented by clear arguments as to why these practices should be adopted [1]. Furthermore, Murphy and Eadie [25] suggest that, to ensure that the "right" social value is created, a more person-centric approach should be adopted when implementing social procurement, where practices should be individually tailored and bespoke for each intern or newly employed person and match their needs and skills.…”